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Roundhill Crescent (sometimes spelt Round Hill Crescent) is a late-19th-century housing development in Round Hill, an inner suburb of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Partly developed in the 1860s with large terraced houses on a steeply sloping open hillside, the crescent—which "curves and changes height dramatically along its length"—was finished two decades later and now forms the centrepiece of the Round Hill conservation area. Smaller houses completed the composition in the 1880s, and England's first hospital for the treatment of mental illness was founded in the crescent in 1905. The five original sets of houses from the 1860s have been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance, and the crescent occupies a prominent place on Brighton's skyline. ==History== Brighton was originally a fishing village on the English Channel coast, with the chalk hills of the South Downs rising immediately behind. Its growth into a fashionable seaside resort and residential town began in the mid-19th century and continued, with some interruptions, for more than a century afterwards. The construction of railway lines to London and Lewes in the 1840s stimulated development on the higher ground behind the core of the old town. Round Hill was a high, mostly undeveloped hill between the two valleys along which the main road and railway routes ran. Topped with a windmill since 1838, the only other development until the 1860s consisted of a few middle-class villas and the horseshoe-shaped Park Crescent at the bottom of the southern slope. This prestigious scheme was one of the last executed by prolific local architect Amon Henry Wilds. The opening of the railway led to the rapid construction of lower-class housing in the surrounding area, but the example set by Park Crescent encouraged developers to continue to introduce higher-quality, larger-scale residential schemes. The crescent form had been popular in Brighton and nearby Hove throughout the 19th century; Wilds's work represented the most recent example of the style already established at Adelaide, Hanover, Lewes, Montpelier and the pioneering Royal Crescents. The arable land of the higher parts of the hill, mostly owned by Thomas Read Kemp and the Stanford family, was released for development in the 1860s. Kemp sold his land, but the Stanfords sought to develop their parts according to their own taste. They took inspiration from the high-class housing of Hanover Crescent (built between 1814 and 1823) and the mid-1850s terraced villas of Powis Square. In 1865, a crescent-shaped road was laid out on high ground on the northwest side of Upper Lewes Road, and several groups of large three- and four-storey terraced houses were built.〔 They were "post-Regency" in character, showing the evolution away from Regency-style features popular throughout 19th-century Brighton and the adoption of some Italianate detailing. The gaps were filled in between 1880 and 1885 when smaller terraced houses, mostly of two storeys and featuring the canted bay windows and decorative mouldings characteristic of Brighton's Victorian residential architecture,〔 were built.〔 Although building plots were mostly developed individually by small-scale builders, the Stanford family stipulated the general layout and appearance of the houses; builders could work to their own designs, but only within these limitations. The later houses were mostly built of cheap brick or bungaroosh—a low-quality composite material—which was then faced with protective render. For six years in the early 20th century, one of the original 1860s houses was the site of a pioneering centre for the provision of mental healthcare. In 1905, number 101 was rented by Dr Helen Boyle, who had founded a dispensary in the nearby suburb of Hanover in 1899. She moved the dispensary to Roundhill Crescent and opened a 12-bed hospital alongside it, for the treatment of women and children with mental health problems. Named the Lewes Road Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children, the facility was England's first hospital for the treatment of mental illness.〔 The conventional practice at the time was to send sufferers of mental health problems to lunatic asylums rather than offer medical care. The facility moved to nearby Ditchling Road in 1911, then moved elsewhere in Brighton as it expanded further. The five parts of Roundhill Crescent that were built in the 1860s were separately listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 2 March 1981. This status is given to "nationally important buildings of special interest". As of February 2001, they represented five of the 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove. The crescent also forms a central part (and "the most important architecturally")〔 of the Round Hill conservation area, one of 34 such areas in the city of Brighton and Hove. The area was designated on 6 January 1977.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roundhill Crescent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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