Steine House

Steine House
The building from the southeast
Location	55 Old Steine, Brighton, Brighton and Hove, East Sussex BN1 1NX, United Kingdom
Coordinates	50°49′16″N 0°08′18″W / 50.8212°N 0.1384°W / 50.8212; -0.1384Coordinates: 50°49′16″N 0°08′18″W / 50.8212°N 0.1384°W / 50.8212; -0.1384
Built	1804
Built for	Maria Fitzherbert
Architect	William Porden
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name: Steine House and attached walls, piers and railings, 55 Old Steine
Designated	13 October 1952
Reference no.	1380672
Location within central Brighton

Steine House is the former residence of Maria Fitzherbert, mistress and wife of the Prince Regent, in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Designed in 1804 by William Porden, who was responsible for many buildings on the Prince's Royal Pavilion estate, it was used by Fitzherbert until her death 33 years later. Regular rebuilding has affected the appearance of the house since 1805, when it was damaged by a storm; more changes took place in 1884, when the YMCA bought it, and the building was "cruelly treated" by a refronting and extension in 1927. The YMCA continue to use the building, on Brighton's Old Steine next to Marlborough House, as a 65-person hostel. The extensive alterations have reduced its architectural importance, but the building has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its historical connections.

The Prince Regent (later King George IV) was one of the earliest and most important regular visitors to Brighton in its early years as a resort. It was transformed from a small fishing village after about 1750 when sea-bathing and drinking seawater became fashionable and popular, on the advice of influential local doctor Richard Russell. The Prince's first visit to the town, in 1783 at the age of 21, lasted 11 days and attracted thousands of people eager to see both him and the sights which had attracted him. The following year, he stayed for ten weeks of the summer to take the water cure. He visited again in 1785—the same year as he met and fell in love with Maria Fitzherbert, a widowed Roman Catholic. They married (illegally, against the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act 1772) in December 1785, and she first visited Brighton the following year. At first, she stayed in a house whose site is believed to be near the present North Gate of the Royal Pavilion; a terrace of nine houses, Marlborough Row, existed there until 1820, when all but one were demolished when the Royal Pavilion estate was redeveloped. (The surviving house, number 8, is now called North Gate House and stands alongside the North Gate.) Even when the Royal Pavilion, the Prince's Brighton residence, was completed in 1787, the couple never stayed in the same house together. Under pressure to undertake a legal marriage to produce an heir, they divorced in 1794 and the Prince married Caroline of Brunswick; but they soon separated, and in June 1800 Mrs Fitzherbert and the Prince were reunited.