Historic building, shop, flats. Built for International Stores with a 6-storey block of flats above. Similar in style to mansion flats in the middle-class suburbs of interwar London.
No CA.
LLHA0238.
Mitre House was built in 1935 by J. Stanley Beard & Bennett. Built for International Stores with a 6-storey block of flats above. Similar in style to mansion flats in the middle-class suburbs of interwar London.
The lower 2 storeys are stone-faced and form the foundation of the brick storeys above. Brick is interspersed by 3 vertical stacks of stone balconies, which rise to a further floor. The stacked balconies give an element of verticality to an otherwise bulky, horizontally-emphasised building.
Western Road was initially developed (from c.1809) for housing, but as the area developed the front gardens were built over to provide shops.
From 1906 the Brighton Corporation began acquiring property on the north side and the road was widened between Hampton Place and North Street between 1926 and 1936. This provided the opportunity to consolidate the building plots and develop a number of large department stores. This stretch of road was described in 1953 as ‘Oxford Street-by-the-Sea’ by Harold Clunn.
The concept of the department store emerged in the late 19th century, though the finest examples in England date from the early 20th century. It was not until the 1920s that the department store made an appearance in Brighton & Hove, probably because there were few opportunities before then for retailers to accumulate the necessary consolidated blocks of High Street property, given the tight-knit 19th-century urban grain of Brighton & Hove.
The 1920s and 1930s saw a boom in department store buildings, particularly on London Road and on Western Road.
Source: Antram & Morrice 2008, Carder 1990.
iv. A good example of a work by notable architect J. Stanley Beard, better known for his London cinema buildings, of which at least 2 are listed.
ii. Illustrative of the physical, social and economic development of Brighton & Hove, being one of a number of department stores that transformed the main shopping streets in the inter-war period.
ii, Not within a conservation area, the building contributes positively to the street scene. Its massing and bulk make it prominent in the street scene, marking the beginning of the main Brighton shopping centre on arrival from the west.
ii. The building is representative of the rise of the department store in the city. It forms part of a group of department stores built at a similar date but of strongly contrasting architectural styles.
2015.
