The Regency Town House: Brunswick Square's Grade I time capsule

Most people come to Brighton for the Royal Pavilion and never think about where everyone else lived while the Prince Regent was busy with his domes. The answer is a short walk west, at 13 Brunswick Square, Hove (BN3 1EH). The Regency Town House is a Grade I listed terraced house from the 1820s, and it is being developed as a museum and heritage centre covering the architecture and social history of Brighton and Hove from the 1780s to the 1840s.

Why Brunswick Square matters

Brunswick Town was a joint project between the architect Charles Busby and the landowner, the Rev. Thomas Scutt. The name comes from the House of Brunswick, a term sometimes used for the House of Hanover. Before any of it went up, the site was brickworks and grazing land, and Thomas Read Kemp had bought the south-west 24 acres of the Wick Estate in 1818.

The Regency Town House describes Busby as the architect who designed more houses in Brighton and Hove than anyone else, and calls Brunswick Town his greatest achievement. It was a planned "new town", with a market building, the Star of Brunswick pub and mews behind the houses. Busby laid it out as a long row of terraces facing the sea. He died in 1834.

What makes No. 13 worth the trip is that it survived. According to Title Sussex, unlike most properties on the square, the house remains relatively unchanged from its Georgian beginnings, and Britain Express says it was rescued from the modern rebuilding that hit many neighbouring historic houses.

What the tour covers

The guided tour lasts about 90 minutes. It opens with an introduction to how Brighton and Hove developed in the 18th and early 19th centuries, then takes in the main reception rooms at No. 13. You also see the "domestic offices", which means the servants' basement, in a basement annexe at No. 10 a few doors along. Volunteers and staff are restoring that annexe too.

The numbers on the house's own tour pages are the best bit. Building a house in Brunswick Square cost £3,000 to £5,000, and a similar sum could go on furnishings. Servants earned £10 to £65 a year. Fashions in interiors and fittings spread through architects' pattern books and magazines such as Ackermann's Repository, so the Regency obsession with keeping up with the neighbours is all there in the fixtures.

The curator is Nick Tyson. Visitor reviews on Tripadvisor (an older page) call the tours a must for anyone curious about how Regency Brighton grew beyond the Royal Pavilion, and warn that tours are limited, so plan ahead.

How and when to visit

Admission is by pre-booked ticket only between April and October each year, according to Visit Brighton. That means the season has just finished, so this is one to plan for next season rather than a weekend wander. The 2025 listing priced tours at £15 a head including booking fee, or £10 for students and job seekers. Check the tours page for current prices and dates before you book.

Public tours this season ran on dates through August and early September, including a 14:30 slot on 8 August. The house also runs specialised tours, and its tours page notes that some are not listed publicly. Professional groups have booked behind-the-scenes visits to what is described as an ongoing restoration project.

Heritage Open Days

The house coordinates the Brighton and Hove Heritage Open Days programme through spring and early summer, and hosts about 20% of the local events itself each September. The most recent run took in a Costume Group Open Day, a Brunswick Town walk, a talk on discovering the paint history in your house, and the house tour. Visit Brighton gave the team a special mention for organising many of the walks, talks and tours across the city. Past events have included a "Dine like a Servant" evening and quiz nights, and the website also lists courses, walks and blue plaque virtual tours.

Getting there

• Bus: ask for the top of Brunswick Square on Western Road, or the east end of Hove Lawns on Kingsway (the A259).
• Train: Hove and Brighton stations are each about 1.3 miles away, with buses and taxis at both.
• From London: coaches take about 2 hours.
• Contact: 01273 206306 or office@rth.org.uk.

The house is funded through The Brunswick Town Charitable Trust, a registered charity set up in 1994 to support the project. Pair the visit with a walk along Hove Lawns, and you get the Regency seafront in one short loop.

More details are on the tours page, the about page and Visit Brighton.