Pelham Institute

Details

BRIGHTON

TQ3203NW UPPER BEDFORD STREET
577-1/48/919 (East side)
23/06/94 Pelham Institute

II

Working men's club, now store. Plans by the Brighton
architect, Thomas Lainson, dated 25 August, 1876; built in
1877 for Archdeacon Hannah. Purplish brick in English bond
with red brick and terracotta dressings; tile hanging to peaks
of gables and one dormer; roofs of tile, all gable facing
except for the half dormer to Upper Bedford Street, which is
hipped.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and dormers over basement. Rectangular in
plan with 3 elevations: the principal to Upper Bedford Street
has a 4-window range; a 3-window range to Montague Street;
scattered fenestration to St George's Terrace. High Victorian
Gothic style.
Upper Bedford Street elevation: segmental, pointed arch
entrance set in gabled, segmental, pointed-arch aedicule
supported by plain brick corbels; original plank doors with
that to the left with original wrought-iron hinges. Doors to
left return and all glazing bars of original design. All
openings flat arched unless stated otherwise. 2, right-hand
window ranges treated as gabled bay, with stepped
chimneybreast projecting from second floor and stack to peak
of gable; a pair of narrow lights to either side of entrance;
above a pair of windows under pointed-arch tympanum; to second
floor under gable 3 pairs of 2-light windows, that in the
centre set in a pointed-arch recess in the centre of the
chimneybreast.
In left-hand section at the corner what appears to have been a
shop front of original design; a broad, 4-light window to the
right. Ground-floor windows connected by springing band-hood
moulding; storey band of ornamental brickwork between ground
and first floors; springing band to first-floor windows; sill
band to all second-floor windows. These mouldings continuous
to both returns. The left-hand section terminates in a dormer
with truncated gable, under which are 6 second-floor lights
about a white stone plaque set in a pointed-arched aedicule.
Another white-stone plaque above the entrance.
The left return has a segmental-arched, ground-floor window
near the corner and a pointed-arched entrance; to the rear a
loading bay with wood door; first-floor windows identical to
those already described; second-floor windows in first- and
third-ranges are set in a pointed-arch recess; between is a
pair of narrow lancets topped by a plaque set in a pointed
aedicule; stack in outer wall emerges from halfway up the
gable; another stack to left party wall.
The right return is very asymmetrical: segmental-arched,
ground-floor window near corner, to right a 7-light window;
window at corner lighting stair well interrupts storey band
between ground and first floors; to the right on first floor a
window composed of 3 narrow lights under one pointed-arch
tympanum; to the left a chimneybreast projects from the wall,
supported by a blind pointed arch; small window in the middle
of the chimneybreast between the first and second floors; tall
window near the corner on the second floor, with pointed-arch
tympanum, ending in gable which projects above eaves; to the
right of the chimneybreast, which also projects above the
eaves, are 3 narrow lights in a barely articulated dormer.
Plinth of one brick's thickness at foot of all walls. The
sills to all ground- and first-floor windows are splayed and
faced in terracotta.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORICAL NOTE: built on the site of the Zion Chapel of 1829,
contemporary sources report that the Pelham Institute was
"erected for the benefit of the working people of East
Brighton... in where [sic] working men may find refreshments,
recreation, social intercourse and the opportunity of carrying
on without being exposed to the manifold temptations of the
public house". The style as much as the fact that its
President was Archdeacon Hannah identify the building as an
Anglican slum mission. The ground floor contained
general-purpose rooms: reading room, kitchen and non-alcoholic
bar, games and smoking rooms; there was a lecture and mission
room on the first floor. The second floor contained bedrooms
which were let to single men for 1/- per night or 3/6d per
week. The plans identify the structure as a "Workmen's Club";
after 1879 street directories refer to it as the Pelham
Institute. Among the plans preserved in the Registry Office at
Lewes (Ref. No.DB/D7/1377) is an alternative design of the
same date by the same architect; this plan called for a
building in the French Second Empire Style. The building is
owned by the Borough Council and let to the Mid-Sussex Judo
Club, which uses it as a storage facility.




Listing NGR: TQ3208803942

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

481395

Legacy System:

LBS

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