page_title: Montpelier, Brighton
section_title: Clifton Terrace
hierarchical_section_title: Montpelier, Brighton / Buildings / Residential squares and terraces / Clifton Terrace
caption_attribution_description: 1–23 Clifton Terrace, Brighton, City of Brighton and Hove, England. Listed at Grade II by English Heritage (IoE Code 480524)
context_page_description: Montpelier is an inner suburban area of Brighton, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Developed together with the adjacent Clifton Hill area in the mid-19th century, it forms a high-class, architecturally cohesive residential district with "an exceptionally complete character". Stucco-clad terraced housing and villas predominate, but two of the city's most significant Victorian churches and a landmark hospital building are also in the area, which lies immediately northwest of Brighton city centre and spreads as far as the ancient parish boundary with Hove.
  Development was initially stimulated when one of the main roads out of Brighton was turnpiked in the late 18th century, but the hilly land—condemned as "hideous masses of unfledged earth" by John Constable, who painted it nevertheless—was mostly devoted to agriculture until the 1820s. The ascent of Brighton from provincial fishing town to fashionable resort prompted a building boom in the next quarter-century, and Montpelier and Clifton Hill were transformed into districts of architecturally homogeneous streets with carefully designed, intricately detailed housing.
context_section_description: This runs east–wast across the slope of the hill, and has private gardens on the site of the former windmill which moved to Albion Hill in 1837. Most construction work took place in 1846–47, but the 23-house terrace and its gardens were not finished until 1851. The houses combine the Regency-style "gaiety and exuberance" with the "charm and vigour" of Victorian architecture, and the use of angled bay windows set below tented canopies is a late example of this distinctive local practice. Each house is built as a villa, mostly with a three-window range shared across two neighbouring houses (the middle window is blank).  Numbers 12–14 project slightly and are taller. The houses are raised above the roadway, giving views into the private gardens on the south side and "a commanding view of the sea". Number 25, which stands separately and was also listed, was originally the Clifton Arms pub.
caption: Clifton Terrace sits behind a raised pavement.
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