Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 20 August 2025 to update the Name and Address and reformat the text to current standards

TQ3104SW
577-1/40/605

BRIGHTON
NORTH STREET (North side)
Princes House

(Formerly listed as Nos.166-169 (Consecutive) Norwich Union House)

04/11/94

GV
II

Office headquarters. Built 1935-1936. By HS Goodhart-Rendel. Ground floor on North Street and return altered in mid to late C20. Structure fills west half of block, returning down Princes Place and having an elevation to the Pavilion Grounds to the north.

EXTERIOR: five storeys over basement. Five-window range with broad corner range and a return of 11-window range; rear elevation of six-window range. Steel frame sheathed in hand-made, sand-faced bricks arranged in soldier courses vertically and horizontally; at the intersection of joists and studs the sheathing laid in a star pattern; broad joints between sheathing bricks filled with blue mosaic tiles. Window infill spandrels filled with brick in header bond. Top storey is brick in Flemish bond with blue brick diapering. On rear blue-green stone sheathing to ground floor. Some lead flashing around top of tower, otherwise the roof is parapeted. All windows steel casements of original design. The main and return elevations are arranged to express the structure's orthogonal grid, each bay is near forming a cell of identical dimensions and design. The corner range is composed of four windows, narrower than the rest, which slope obliquely turning the corner; the corner casement windows are zig-zag in section; the whole arrangement suggests the pleated fold of a curtain. All the windows are flat arched with sloping sills. The frank expression of the frame is left aside for the top storey, which jetties out over those below by one brick's thickness and has a sheer surface broken only by the shallow projecting bays of broad top-floor windows which alternate with narrower windows flush with the front wall. Parapet to roof treated as bracketed eaves, which are interrupted at the corner by a short cylindrical tower, its zig-zag walls echoing the treatment of the corner windows below. The rear elevation is notable for retaining the original sheathing of the ground floor, a green stone revetment which angles back to header bond brick walls. The arrangement of the orthogonal grid is varied here, having very narrow corner and end bays; the first-floor window nearest the corner with a zig-zag plan, then, to the left, three tripartite windows set in a green stone surround.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

The Brighton and Sussex Permanent Benefit Building Society was founded in 1865; in 1945 the name changed to the Alliance and in 1985, the Alliance and Leicester.

(Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-: 112; Brighton Polytechnic: The Buildings of Brighton: Macclesfield: 1986-: 56).

Listing NGR: TQ3117304185

External Links

• Princes House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q28365431

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House