Near Regency Square Brighton - Framed Print - 11"H x 14"W

Near Regency Square Brighton - Framed Print - 11"H x 14"W

Regency Square is a large early 19th-century residential development on the seafront in Brighton. Conceived by speculative developer Joshua Hanson as Brighton underwent its rapid transformation from fishing village to fashionable resort, the three-sided "set piece" of around 70 houses and associated structures was designed and built over a ten-year period by Brighton's most important Regency-era architects: Charles Busby, Amon Wilds and his son Amon Henry Wilds. The site was originally Belle Vue Field—used at various times as a military camp, a showground and the location of a windmill.

The square was a prestigious, high-class development, attracting the social elite. The square gradually lost its prestige status after the First World War as hotels started to move in.

Regency Square was built on one of the fields surrounding the fishing village of Brighthelmstone, the predecessor of modern-day Brighton. The field was named Belle Vue Field—probably in connection with the long vanished Belle Vue House.

By the late 18th century, Brighton had begun to develop into a popular and fashionable seaside resort. Belle Vue Field became more important to the growing town in 1793, when in response to the increased military threat from France, a 10,000-man military encampment (Brighton's first) was established there.

The camp quickly gained a reputation as a place for women to find partners, and Jane Austen used it as a setting in her novel Pride and Prejudice