Old Ship Assembly Rooms

OLD SHIP ASSEMBLY ROOMS, 73, SHIP STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1380932
Date first listed:
13-Oct-1952
List Entry Name:
Old Ship Assembly Rooms
Statutory Address:
OLD SHIP ASSEMBLY ROOMS, 73, SHIP STREET
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Date:
2000-11-14
Reference:
IOE01/02919/23
Rights:
© Robert E Priest. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1380932
Date first listed:
13-Oct-1952
List Entry Name:
Old Ship Assembly Rooms
Statutory Address 1:
OLD SHIP ASSEMBLY ROOMS, 73, SHIP STREET

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
OLD SHIP ASSEMBLY ROOMS, 73, SHIP STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
The City of Brighton and Hove (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
TQ 30980 04009

Details

BRIGHTON

TQ3004SE SHIP STREET
577-1/39/848 (East side)
13/10/52 No.73
Old Ship Assembly Rooms

II*

Assembly rooms. 1767, frontage to Ship Street c1895. Stucco,
roof of tiles. 2 storeys, 2-window range. Ground floor has
flat-arched carriage entrance to right, assembly rooms
entrance to left, and one central broad entrance flanked by 2
narrower ones. First floor has 2 oriel windows with original
glazing; gutters; 3 flat-arched dormers in roof.
INTERIOR: former Assembly Room, now the Regency Room, on the
first floor: 1767 by Robert Golden and decorated in the Adam
style. Flat-arched entrance to Ballroom with architrave,
cornice on consoles, guilloche frieze, and double panelled
doors possibly of original design; facing this, a Palladian
window with fluted Corinthian pilasters and guilloche frieze,
and the cornice element not now visible; in one long wall of
the room, a window bay flanked by fluted Composite columns and
facing it in the other wall, a fireplace in the Adam style
with calyx ornament in the side panels, and fluting and
paterae in the frieze. The walls are panelled above and below
the dado, the upper walls framed by bands of fasces and
bead-and-reel which may belong to the C19; frieze of festoons
and drops; dentil cornice. Segmental-arched ceiling decorated
principally with figure panels, paterae and wreaths of bud
ornament; similar bud ornament to tympana at either end. The
windows now glazed with late-C19 leaded lights having some
panes of stained glass decorated with emblems in the style of
the Aesthetic Movement.
The Ballroom was also designed by Golden in 1767 but the
decorations have been much reworked. 2 flat-arched entrances
with architraves surmounted by a decorative roundel of musical
instruments; stage at one narrow end, now much altered,
gallery at the other carried on 2 marbled Doric columns, with
festoons and drops to the gallery; cantilevered balcony to one
long side of the room between entrances, almost a complete
oval in plan with an iron balcony; the upper walls panelled in
plasters; dentil and modillion cornice, perhaps of 1767; coved
ceiling with 3 roses, all with foliage ornament to the centre,
the outer pair surrounded with calyx ornament perhaps of 1767.
Windows with late C19 leaded lights having some panes of
stained glass decorated with emblems in the style of the
Aesthetic Movement.
The Assembly Rooms were connected with the Old Ship Hotel (not
included), the oldest inn in Brighton and the most important
in its C18 and early C19 history.



Listing NGR: TQ3098004009

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
481256
Legacy System:
LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Old Ship Assembly Rooms

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 13:52:58.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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