Round Hill (sometimes spelt Roundhill) is an inner suburban area of Brighton, part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove in England. The area contains a mix of privately owned and privately rented terraced housing, much of which has been converted for multiple occupancies, and small-scale commercial development. It was developed mostly in the late 19th century on an area of high land overlooking central Brighton and with good views in all directions, the area became a desirable middle-class suburb—particularly the large terraced houses of Roundhill Crescent and Richmond Road, and the exclusive Park Crescent—and within a few decades the whole of the hill had been built up with smaller terraces and some large villas.
Non-residential buildings include the landmark St Martin's Church, Brighton's largest place of worship, with its dramatically extravagant interior; the Brighton Forum, a Gothic Revival former college now in commercial use; Brighton's main fire station; and the oldest working cinema in Britain. The first hospital in England catering for mental illness was established in a house in Roundhill Crescent in 1905. Brighton's first Jewish cemetery, although a short distance outside Round Hill according to Brighton & Hove City Council's definition, has been associated with the suburb throughout its nearly 200-year history. The London Road viaduct, a distinctive, sweeping piece of railway architecture, forms the northern boundary of the area and "a literal gateway" between outer and inner suburbia. All of these buildings have been listed by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance, and the core of Round Hill, around Roundhill Crescent, is one of 34 conservation areas in the city. Round Hill's steep slopes and road layout encouraged the introduction of another feature which gives the area its character: the "cat's-creep" staircase. The area has good tree cover and increasingly heavy traffic along the three main roads which run through the area.
Past features of Round Hill include a windmill, which took advantage of the windy conditions on the hilltop until 1913; 19th-century laundries, which sought the same advantage; early 19th-century pleasure gardens, now occupied by the houses of Park Crescent; the landmark Cox's Pill Factory, demolished in the 1980s; glasshouses and smallholdings, some of which survived until after the Second World War despite being surrounded by houses; and the Kemp Town branch line, a passenger and freight railway which cut through the area and had a short-lived station serving Round Hill. The former St Saviour's Church survived until 1983, and a Congregational church elsewhere in the suburb closed but retained its façade after its conversion into housing.
Location
Round Hill is an approximately triangular area directly north of Brighton city centre. The name is now applied to a wider area than the hill at its centre; its boundaries are now defined as Union Road and The Level (a large area of open ground) to the south, the main London Road to the west, the East Coastway railway line to the north—including the London Road viaduct and London Road railway station—and the Lewes Road to the east. Ditchling Road, a third main road, runs through the centre of the suburb. The large, round-topped hill which gave the suburb its name stands between the two main valleys along which the original routes into and out of Brighton developed (the present London and Lewes Roads). Ditchling Road, the middle route, climbs the hill. London and Lewes Roads became turnpikes (toll roads) in 1770, and The Level—originally common land between Ditchling Road and Lewes Road—was enclosed and reserved for public recreation in 1822.
Round Hill's elevated, fairly central position gives excellent inward and outward views. To the northeast, the South Downs can be seen; long views of the English Channel are possible to the south, beyond the city centre and St Peter's Church; to the southeast, Elm Grove, Race Hill and Brighton General Hospital can be seen on high ground beyond the Lewes Road valley; and to the west, Preston Park (the city's oldest and largest public park) can be seen. Crescent and Wakefield Roads have long southward views towards the city centre, as do the small blocks of flats which replaced some large villas in the middle of the suburb. The tall viaduct is the main landmark to the west and north. There are clear views into Round Hill from many parts of Brighton, especially areas to the east and southeast such as Race Hill.
When the railway line was built between Brighton and Lewes in 1846, the northern slope of Round Hill was effectively severed from the rest of the area. It developed separately as an industrial area and the site of many Brighton Corporation utilities: the Brighton Dust Destructor, an incinerator for rubbish, was built in 1866, followed by another incinerator in 1898; the Municipal Abattoir was established in 1894; and in the early 20th century a meat market and a municipal cleansing station for the fumigation and delousing of people and property were built nearby. Although they occupy land that was part of the hill, these buildings were considered to be part of neighbouring Hollingdean. Residents of Round Hill, especially those who owned laundries, often complained about the smell and soot from the incinerators.
History
Early history In 1800, Round Hill was a steep-sided, round-topped hill rising to and ploughed up for use by farmers. Some poorly defined tracks crossed it, linking Preston village to the road to Lewes. Two of the largest landowners in the Brighton and Hove area, Thomas Read Kemp and William Stanford (an ancestor of Charles Thomas-Stanford of the Thomas-Stanford Baronetcy of Preston Manor), owned most of the land between them. In the late 19th century, the Stanford family sold some of their land—which almost completely encircled Brighton, Preston and Hove to the north—for housing development, and retained much of it to develop themselves.
The earliest development in the Round Hill area was Ireland's Pleasure Gardens on the southern slope in 1823. Also known as the Royal Pleasure Gardens, this venture by James Ireland was intended to be a profitable speculation, attracting the increasing number of visitors and short-term residents who had doubled Brighton's population in the previous decade. Ireland, a rich businessman with interests in drapery and undertaking, bought a site from Thomas Read Kemp in 1822 and opened the gardens on 1 May 1823. The vast range of attractions included an aviary, maze, formal gardens with a canal, Gothic-style tower, bowling greens, billiard rooms, assembly rooms with a roof promenade, a grotto and a lake. A cricket ground (the Royal New Ground) was also provided and was said to be "the best in the country" at the time. Despite the range of activities, and occasional high-profile stunts by associates of Ireland (such as a flying demonstration), the gardens never thrived, and soon fell into decline. Ireland sold them in 1826, and later owners presided over further decline until the facility was eventually closed in the 1840s. Only its south boundary wall and gate piers, decorated with copies of their original stone lions, survive.
Another development of the 1820s, on Thomas Read Kemp's landholding, was the Jewish cemetery and its chapel. Its location on Florence Place, off Ditchling Road just north of the railway line, places it marginally outside Brighton and Hove City Council's definition of the Round Hill area, but the site has always been associated with Round Hill. In 1826, Kemp, who at the time was a member of parliament, donated a parcel of land on the north slope of the hill to the congregation of Brighton's synagogue. The town had a large Jewish population—about 150 by 1840. An octagonal brick cemetery chapel (the Ohel), designed by the firm of Thomas Lainson and Son, was built in the burial ground in 1893. In accordance with Jewish custom, it had facilities for mourners to wash their hands upon leaving the "presence of death". Money to build the chapel and a fence round the cemetery was raised in the 1890s by charging members of the Middle Street Synagogue two shillings per week for a year; some prominent members of Brighton's Jewish community provided interest-free loans as well. Burials include Henry Solomon, Brighton Borough's chief constable (murdered in 1844); Hyam Lewis, a Brighton Town Commissioner and the first Jew in England to hold such a high-ranking municipal position; Levi Emanuel Cohen, a radical journalist who helped Brighton achieve borough status; and Sir John Howard, an engineer. The cemetery has been full for many years and is now closed except for family burials where a tomb already exists. It is locked and in poor condition; many graves are overgrown. The foundation stone commemorating Kemp's gift of the land survives, though. The cemetery chapel and its surrounding walls and gates are Grade II listed buildings.
In 1838, a windmill was built at the top of the hill, where the northern end of the present-day Belton Road stands. Although it was demolished in the early 20th century, it has been called "probably the most well-known feature of the Round Hill area". Its names included Rose Hill Mill, Round Hill Mill and Cutress's Mill, but its most common name—alluding to the type of windmill it was—was Tower Mill. Ownership changed regularly, and the mill was rarely profitable—even after Charles Cutress converted it to steam power in 1880. Storm damage soon afterwards caused further problems. The mill was demolished in 1913, and its bricks were recovered and used in the construction of some houses in Belton Road.
In 1854, the Diocese of Chichester selected an area of open land on the west side of Ditchling Road as the site of their Training College for Anglican Schoolmistresses, which had outgrown its premises in Black Lion Street in the old town. Viaduct Road was built in front of the Gothic Revival building's south façade around the same time and was built up with terraced houses by the early 1860s. In the early 20th century, the Diocese bought three of the four villas nearby and converted them into accommodation for trainee schoolteachers. Before that, the trainee teachers slept in large rooms in the Training College.
Residential development in the 19th century
Between 1838 and 1840, the local Colbatch family built four large detached villas in the former Rose Hill Park on a southwest-facing part of the hill. They were described as the "grandest and most ostentatious part of Round Hill", and the first (Rose Hill Villa, finished in 1838) was a "classic Victorian building". All four were large family homes in the Regency style popular in Brighton over the previous 30 years. Iron gates, protected by gatekeepers who lived in three cottages in the grounds, gave the villas privacy.
The site of the failed Pleasure Gardens then became one of Brighton's most exclusive residential developments in the 1850s, when prominent and influential local architect Amon Henry Wilds conceived and built the three-part Park Crescent development. The horseshoe-shaped terrace of 48 houses faced inwards towards a private garden formed from the old cricket ground. The "most ambitious scheme" of his long career was also one of his last: construction lasted from 1849 until 1854, and he died in 1857.