Adelaide Mansions

Adelaide Mansions
The building from the south
Location	1–4 Kingsway, Hove, Brighton and Hove BN3 2FD, United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°49′28″N 0°09′57″W / 50.8244°N 0.1658°W / 50.8244; -0.1658Coordinates: 50°49′28″N 0°09′57″W / 50.8244°N 0.1658°W / 50.8244; -0.1658
Built	1873
Architect	Thomas Lainson
Architectural style(s)	Classical/Italianate
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Adelaide Mansions, 1–4 Kingsway
Designated	2 November 1992
Reference no.	1205849
Location within Brighton and Hove

Adelaide Mansions is a residential building on the seafront in Hove, part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England. The "handsome block", decorated with ornate details, was erected in 1873 to the design of local architect Thomas Lainson. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

Adelaide Mansions is located at the junction of St John's Road and Kingsway in Hove. Kingsway is the seafront road in this part of Hove; renamed several times, it took its present name in February 1910 to commemorate King Edward VII (1841-1910). St John's Road leads northwards from the seafront to Palmeira Square and St John the Baptist's Church, from which it took its name in 1907 (previously it was called Palmeira Mews Road).Adelaide Crescent, an architectural set-piece dating from the mid-19th century, lies to the east; both the crescent and the mansions were named after Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1792–1849); landowner and developer Isaac Lyon Goldsmid (1778–1859) asked King William IV (1765–1837) for permission to use his queen's name.

Prolific Brighton-based architect Thomas Lainson (1825–1898) designed the block in 1873 on land that was part of the Wick estate—a large area of agricultural land between the growing town of Brighton and the village of Hove. This land was owned by Isaac Lyon Goldsmid by the 1830s, and he set about developing it with high-class housing. His Adelaide Crescent scheme, intended to be a rival to Brighton's Kemp Town development, was built between the 1830s and 1860s. Financial problems and the spectacular destruction of the crescent's principal feature, the Anthaeum indoor garden and conservatory, delayed the scheme's progress. By 1873, there was still open land to the west fronting Kingsway, and it was on this site adjoining the southwest corner of the crescent that the mansions were built. The builder was Jabez Reynolds senior who built about 1,000 houses in Brighton and Hove including other landmark and listed buildings such as Palmeira Mansions, Medina Terrace and the workhouse on Elm Grove, now Brighton General Hospital.