Embassy Court

At the junction of Western Street and Kings Road on Brighton seafront, just on the Brighton side of the ancient parish boundary between Brighton and Hove, and in 1934 enlisted Wells Coates, a Modernist architect responsible for the striking Isokon building in London earlier that year, to design a block of luxury flats as a speculative development. Embassy Court was completed in 1935. Its reinforced concrete structure and steel-framed doors and windows were distinctive features, and other facilities included a ground-floor bank, partly enclosed balconies to every one of the 72 flats, and England's first penthouse suites. These occupied the top (11th) floor; the other ten storeys had seven flats each. Each flat was "all-electric", including the space heating in the form of ceiling panels. A constant hot water supply was achieved by generating and storing it in a thermal energy storage system in the basement. contrasted with the Regency-style terraces to the east, west and north—in particular the 110-year-old "palace-fronted terraces" of Brunswick Terrace, "as grand as anything in St Petersburg", and the monumental Brunswick Square behind it. It received much praise at first: a 1936 edition of the ''Architects' Journal'' claimed that the building "thrill[ed] one to the marrow", and Alderman Sir Herbert Carden, "the maker of modern Brighton" who was responsible for many interwar improvements in the Borough of Brighton, was so taken with its Modernist style that he campaigned for every other building along the seafront to be demolished and replaced with Embassy Court-style housing, all the way from Hove to Kemp Town. This "pre-war indifference to the historic fabric of the town" resulted in the first of many local conservation societies, the Regency Society, being formed, and prompted a greater appreciation of Brighton's 19th-century architectural heritage. All 72 flats were initially rented out rather than sold to owner-occupiers. Rents varied between £150 and £500 per year—expensive for that time, and similar to the cost of a house in Brighton. The ground-floor bank branch lasted until February 1948, when it was converted into a restaurant; this was only in use for five years. Major renovations were then carried out in the 1960s: new doors, windows and lifts were installed. The first plans for refurbishing the building were announced in April 1998. The leaseholders' association commissioned local architects Alan Phillips and Matthew Lloyd to undertake design work and Ove Arup and Partners for their structural engineering expertise. Work was expected to cost £3 million to £4 million, of which a grant from the Government's Single Regeneration Budget would have covered £1.4 million. The project depended on the Sanctuary Housing Association acquiring the leases to 26 flats and the Crown Estate Commissioners transferring ownership of the freehold to the leaseholders' association. The proposed work was described as a "complete refurbishment" and would have lasted until 2000. No action was taken, though, and the building continued to deteriorate. Architect Alan Phillips, who had continued his association with the building during the "impasse in negotiations" which had characterised the previous three years, described Embassy Court as being "on the cusp between demolition and renovation" at a debate in November 2001, at which he announced a new plan to convert the lower storeys into a hotel. Money generated by this could then be used to improve the upper storeys, which would remain residential. The nearby Bedford Hotel provided a model of a mixed-use tower block with hotel accommodation below residential flats. Another court case began in November 2002. Bluestorm and Portvale Holdings made claims against each other in relation to paying for the building's restoration. By this stage Bluestorm estimated the cost of a full refurbishment would be £4.5 million. Portvale Holdings stated it intended to sell the flats it owned, and was decided in March 2003 in favour of Bluestorm. The chairman of Brighton and Hove City Council said he "welcomed the decision". Portvale Holdings appealed against the decision in February 2004, but a judge at the Royal Courts of Justice upheld the original verdict. This brought to a conclusion a long and complex period of legal action; the judge observed that the ongoing battles between leaseholders, landlords and freeholders had been "more suited to a nursery school playground". and various sources of funding were proposed: money received from Portvale Holdings and from the leaseholders was to be used alongside National Lottery and European Union regeneration grants for which Bluestorm would apply. No grants or Lottery funding were ever received. Also commissioned alongside Conran Group were structural engineering firm F.J. Samuely, whose founder Felix Samuely had worked on the building originally, and some other specialist companies. By September 2003, Conran had assembled a working group of engineers, designers and other professionals, and the plans included provision of a swimming pool and public facilities such as a restaurant, museum and art gallery by making use of underused areas of the building. Work began in December 2003. First, the communal areas and lobby were deep-cleaned and exterior hoardings were put up; other early priorities included new electrical and heating systems. The overall timescale of the project was stated to be three years. At that time, the leaseholders were told they would have to fund the entire £5 million estimated cost themselves: some would have to pay around £100,000+ each. Also, the project leader indicated that the planned swimming pool, art gallery and other new features would be "put on hold until 2007". By February 2004, the bulk of the work was expected to start in summer 2004. The first part of the refurbishment project was completed on time and on budget. After a delay caused by poor weather, the exterior hoardings and scaffolding were removed in early April 2005 to reveal new windows and a "smart cream concrete façade". The second phase involved repairs at the rear, the promised replacement plumbing and heating systems, new lifts and new front doors, and was due to finish in September 2005. The longer-term proposal for a basement swimming pool remained, and other ideas suggested at this time included a gymnasium, reinstatement of the original 1930s foyer decor including a mural by Edward McKnight Kauffer, and the conversion of one flat into a 1930s-style showpiece. Bluestorm organised a party on the Brunswick Lawns outside Embassy Court in September 2006 to celebrate the completion of the work. Local record label Skint Records led a separate private party on the top floor of the building. Public tours were also conducted later in the month. The earlier problems of poor security had been overcome, and Embassy Court was no longer "a haven for drunks, drug addicts and homeless people". ==Architecture and facilities==

Embassy Court represented a transition from the pure Art Deco style which had been popular in the early 1930s, towards a "simplistic and plain" interpretation of Modernism. In this respect it is similar to the Grand Ocean Hotel at nearby Saltdean; The Pevsner Architectural Guides describe Embassy Court as "Brighton's most prominent example of early Modernism at its most polished". Embassy Court was the first building in England to feature penthouse suites. Other pioneering features included open-fronted balconies, lock-up garages and what the original managing agents Dudley Samuel and Harrison described as "sun-admitting Vista-Glass sun parlours". Many of the "sun rooms" have been integrated into the flats to create extra living space. Another unique feature was a mural by Edward McKnight Kauffer in the foyer. It was created by a new method in which a series of black-and-white photographs were printed on a light-sensitive cellulose surface. The flats had built-in steel-framed tubular furniture (manufactured by Pel Ltd) and woodwork by D. Burkle & Son. ==Reception and legacy==

Embassy Court has been a controversial building and "has divided opinion across the city" since it was built. it was "the first challenge to the Georgian[-era] architecture of Brighton". Architectural historians Antony Dale and Nikolaus Pevsner both observed that Embassy Court is "a good building in the wrong place", Pevsner called Embassy Court "a good and historically interesting" building", "well designed in itself"—but criticised it as acting as a "bad neighbour" to the "serious Neoclassical [architecture]" of Brunswick Town. Likewise, Brighton historian Clifford Musgrave contrasted Embassy Court with its near-contemporary, Marine Gate, to the east beyond Kemp Town; although it was "another white concrete block of flats", he considered it more elegant and better because it did not intrude directly on any 19th-century architectural set-pieces. By the start of the 21st century, public perception of Embassy Court was particularly poor: it was considered to be an "embarrassing eyesore", Meanwhile, the views articulated by Pevsner continued to find support. Writing in 2002, Anthony Seldon condemned both Embassy Court for "dwarf[ing] and insult[ing] its neighbours" and Herbert Carden for considering it "the ideal seafront building". Although Seldon placed it in his list of "the city's ten best 20th-century buildings"—describing it as "elegant", "vibrant and visually exciting"—and compared it favourably to the contemporary Marine Gate flats further along the seafront, he observed that it was "utterly out of place on the seafront" and should have been lower by three storeys. Furthermore, in a section consisting of ideas for the future of Brighton and Hove, he suggested "knock[ing] down Embassy Court, Hilton West Pier and other excrescences along the seafront [and] hold[ing] a series of parties to celebrate"—recalling the demolition campaigns seen in some Majorcan seaside resorts. Artist and musician Chris Dooks released a concept album inspired by Embassy Court in 2005. After discovering the building by chance when browsing the internet, he became interested in its history and contacted Bluestorm Ltd. He became Embassy Court's artist-in-residence and produced a four-track EP called Sycamore Tubs. Its name and all four tracks are anagrams of Embassy Court, as is ''As Ruby's Comet—an artwork he produced at the same time. The 2005 fantasy film MirrorMask'' was filmed partly at Embassy Court. Embassy Court was listed at Grade II* on 19 July 1984. As of February 2001, it was one of 70 Grade II*-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove. ==Notable residents==

Keith Waterhouse moved into the building in 1983 and occupied a ninth-floor flat, ==See also==