Pelham Institute

Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town estate, "arguably the most famous district in Brighton",[1] was developed as a carefully planned estate of about 100 grand houses for the rich people who were increasingly attracted to the fashionable resort.[2] Kemp Town was isolated from the rest of the town, about 2 miles (3.2 km) away, and an old trackway running west–east along the inland side of the East Cliff developed into an important route—Eastern Road.[3]

In the mid-19th century, the area around Eastern Road developed rapidly as a poor, mixed-use area, with institutional buildings, streets of small terraced houses, light industry and a few larger houses. A Nonconformist chapel had also been built in 1829,[3] and the Anglican All Souls Church (closed in 1967 and demolished the following year) served the area from 1834.[4] The area became known as Kemptown [sic].[2]

John Hannah became Vicar of Brighton in 1870, following the death of Reverend Henry Michell Wagner which ended his 46-year incumbency.[5] Hannah was concerned about the social and physical welfare of Kemptown's large working-class population, whose poverty restricted their opportunities for education and recreation. He also felt that the many pubs in the area encouraged people to spend their money on alcohol.[3][6] He was made archdeacon of Lewes in 1876 and in the same year founded a "slum mission"—similar to a church-sponsored working men's club—on the site of the closed chapel of 1829, near the junction of Upper Bedford Street and Eastern Road.[3][6] He commissioned local architect Thomas Lainson, already responsible for the Middle Street Synagogue,[7] Bristol Road Methodist Church[8] and several housing developments,[9] to design a building with space for all the required facilities. He carried out the work in 1877, and from 1879 the building bore the name Pelham Institute.[6]

The institute attempted to cater for all needs with its extensive amenities. A large hall for religious services, concerts, lectures and other educational activities took up most of the first floor. A reading-room, eating area, kitchen, bar (which did not serve alcohol), a games room and a smoking room. The second (top) floor had single bedrooms on short-term lets: men were charged 1/– (£5 in 2021)[10] per night or 3/6d (£17 in 2021)[10] for a week.[3][6][11] In January 1945, under the name Pelham Mission, the building was issued with a worship licence for "Christians not otherwise designated" under the terms of the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855.[12]

Local slum clearance began in 1926 when the houses around the Pelham Institute were cleared and replaced with lower-density development. Demolition continued through the 1930s and resumed in the 1950s after World War II. By 1959, the working-class population in the Eastern Road area was much lower, and the Pelham Institute closed.[3] Its entry on the worship register was accordingly cancelled in May 1960.[12][13] Ownership transferred to Brighton Borough Council.[6] In the early 1970s, two local judo clubs—one based elsewhere in Brighton and another from Balcombe, West Sussex—merged under the latter's name (the Mid-Sussex Judo Club) and moved into Lainson's building, which they rented from the council.[6][14] The club had to move to another building nearby in July 1994.[14] Soon afterwards, the former institute was taken over by the Sanctuary Housing Association, who converted it internally into a block of flats called Montague Court.[15]

The Pelham Institute was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 23 June 1994.[6] This defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest".[16] In February 2001, it was one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.[17]

The building is not within any of Brighton and Hove's conservation areas,[15] but the council has considered extending the boundary of the East Cliff Conservation Area to include it.[18]

The north (Montague Street) elevation

Thomas Lainson designed and built the Pelham Institute in the High Victorian Gothic style, which was used frequently for slum missions such as this.[11] It is a three-storey building of purple brick laid in the English bond pattern and dressed with terracotta and red bricks.[6][11] There are also small areas of tile-hanging, and the roof is tiled and has dormer windows. Three faces are visible: one south to St George's Terrace with irregularly placed windows, the main (western) façade on Upper Bedford Street (with a regular four-window range), and a three-window range facing north on to Montague Street. Most windows are flat-headed.[6]

The main entrance is to Upper Bedford Street. A doorway, with a 19th-century two-part wooden door with iron hinges, is recessed into an aedicula with a corbelled pointed arch and a gable above. At second-floor level, a chimney-breast projects slightly and steps up to the gable of the roof, which is topped with a short chimneypot. A window is set into the base of this projection.[6] On the floor below, the four windows are arranged as two narrow pairs below a semicircular tympanum of red brick. The northwestern corner forms a gable-topped bay, again with a stepped chimney-stack.[6] A thin string course runs around the building above the windows, forming a continuous hood mould.[6]

The Montague Street (northern) elevation has single or paired windows under segmental arches; a large stone plaque sits in a recess above the centre windows. At ground-floor level there is another pale stone plaque, a broad segment-arched window, an original wooden entrance door and another wooden door leading to a storage bay.[6]

The south façade, on St George's Terrace, has a segment-arched window in a red-brick surround at the southwest corner and a much wider and taller flat-arched window alongside. The string course diverts to go round a taller flat-arched window in the southwest corner at first-floor level. Diagonally above this are three narrow windows below a pointed arch with a red-brick tympanum. A projecting chimney-breast starts immediately to the left and rises beyond the eaves, terminating in a squat chimney-pot. Three small windows and a tall, narrow one light the second floor. The façade is very irregular and lacks symmetry.[6]

• Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove: P–R
• Media related to Pelham Institute, Brighton at Wikimedia Commons