Montpelier Road

Two grand houses

By Steve Myall

Fifteen years after Kemp moved into his Temple home in Montpelier Road, The Rev Henry Wagner, the vicar of Brighton, had a new vicarage built for himself.  It was constructed in the Tudor Gothic style by the company of George Cheesman and Son in 1834/35. It stood in two acres of land just south of The Temple, the other side of the turning that is now Temple Gardens, but was then called Furse Hill Road. In a town guide of 1836 the house is described as ‘a splendid mansion – the garden in front is very tastefully laid out’.  Top right is the only known engraving of the vicarage, of c1840, and below right shows the house today as part of the Brighton & Hove High School.

Moving on down the hill, the next home of C19th Montpelier Road also belonged to the Wagner family.  The house was called Belvedere and was built in about 1837 for the Rev. Wagner’s sister, Mary Ann Wagner.  Mary Ann never lived there, and when she died in 1868 she left the house to her brother’s eldest son, the Rev. Arthur Douglas Wagner.  Mary Ann owned several acres of Montpelier land and was behind the development of houses in Belvedere Terrace, Montpelier Place and the north west corner of Montpelier Terrace, between Montpelier Road and Villas.  Arthur Douglas is described as living a very simple life in Belvedere, his only luxuries being his books and manuscripts. At his death in 1902 his library of some 12,000 volumes took three days to auction. In the C20th the house became the Park Royal Hotel, but was demolished in 1965 and two  blocks of  flats, also called Park Royal, were built on the site. Above is an aquatint engraving after George Earp jnr of Belvedere, c1850, as seen from the back gardens. The spire far right (just in the picture) is that of Christ Church, lower Montpelier Road.