Thomas Lainson,FRIBA (1824 – 18 May 1898) was a British architect. He is best known for his work in theEast Sussex coastal towns ofBrighton andHove (now part of thecity ofBrighton and Hove), where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awardedlisted status byEnglish Heritage. Working alone or (from 1881) in partnership with two sons asLainson & Sons, he designed buildings in a wide range of styles, fromNeo-Byzantine toHigh Victorian Gothic; his work is described as having a "solid style, typical of the time".[1]
Lainson was born in 1824 in the Brighton area,[2] and baptised on 1 September 1824 inLambeth.[3] He married and had at least six children.[1] He died atHove on 18 May 1898, aged 73 years.[4]
His first commission may have been a 13-houseterrace on the west side of Norfolk Terrace, on the Brighton/Hove border, which has been dated to the mid-19th century.[7][8] The road was developed in several stages from the 1850s. Lainson's design was in theItalianate style,[7] popular at the time because of the fashionable influence ofQueen Victoria'sOsborne House on theIsle of Wight.[9] (Lansdowne Mansions, now a hotel, has been attributed to Lainson,[1] but its construction date of 1854 predates his entering into practice.)[10] In about 1870 he built another terrace of Italianate houses nearby on Sillwood Road, adjoiningCharles Busby's Western Cottages of nearly 50 years earlier. The whole street was renamed Sillwood Road when Lainson's 16 houses were finished.[9][11] Adelaide Mansions, a four-storey seafront development in Hove, followed in 1873.[1][12]
By the 1870s, a dense working-class residential area had developed to the east of Brighton on the way to the high-classKemp Town estate; it became known asKemptown [sic].[13]Methodist minister J. Martin wanted to extend that denomination's reach into the area, and on 1 March 1872 Lainson submitted plans for a church on the corner of St George's Terrace and Montague Place.[14][15] HisRomanesque Revival design was accepted, and builder John Fielder constructed the church in 1873.[15]Bristol Road Methodist Church survived in religious use until 1989, when it became a recording studio.[14]
In 1874, Lainson received the commission for another religious building: a new synagogue for Brighton's largeJewish community, whose first place of worship had been founded in 1792.[16] A site on Middle Street inThe Lanes was found, and theSassoon family donated money to fund Lainson's elaborateNeo-Byzantine/ItalianRomanesque Revival design, which was opened (asMiddle Street Synagogue) in 1875.[17][18] Lainson won the commission in competition; it was unusual for a non-Jew to design synagogues, but no Jewish architects submitted any plans.[1][19]
ArchdeaconJohn Hannah, Vicar of Brighton from 1870 until 1888,[20] founded anAnglican "slum mission" (a centre for the physical and spiritual welfare of poor people) in the east end of Brighton in 1876. Lainson designed the three-storey building which housed the institute and its activities; it was finished in 1877, and was known as thePelham Institute by 1879.[21][22] Also in 1876–77, he designed and built a villa,Brooker Hall (now the Hove Museum and Art Gallery), in Hove for local landowner Major John Vallance.[23][24] Lainson became a Fellow of theRoyal Institute of British Architects in 1877.[25]
Two of Lainson's sons, Thomas James (1854–1924) and Arthur Henry (1859–1922), joined his practice in 1881.[26] After this, most commissions were undertaken jointly under the nameLainson & Sons.[2][27] The first of these was the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children, built on Dyke Road in 1880–81. The institution was founded in 1868 and moved to a former school in Dyke Road in 1871.[28] The Lainsons' new building marked a move towards theQueen Anne style, which they used again in later work in Brighton and Hove—[29] such as The Belgrave Hotel (1882; now brandedUmi Hotel Brighton)[30] at the corner of West Street and King's Road on Brighton seafront.[31] A rare commission outside the Brighton area came in the same year: working on his own, Lainson designed a large extension toReading Town Hall in Berkshire.[32]
Brighton was a pioneer in theearly cooperative movement,[33] and in the 1880s the Brighton & Hove Co-operative Supply Association was a major force in local commerce. Lainson & Sons were chosen as the association's architects, and they provided two large buildings in Hove: Palmeira House in 1887, and a lavishrepository and warehouse at75 Holland Road in 1893. The buildings, which both survive, were of significantly different design.[2][34]
Lainson had worked as asurveyor in the 1850s, when he was involved with the laying out of the Wick Estate in Hove.[1][35] With his sons, he did the same for the new Vallance Estate, also in Hove, from 1890 until 1895. Lainson & Sons laid out wide streets with large-scale Domestic Revival/Queen Anne-style brick houses.[36] Lainson died in 1898, but his two sons continued in practice, designing buildings such as the Renaissance Revival-style St Aubyn's Mansions (1899) on Hove seafront.[2]
1–13 Norfolk Terrace, Brighton (1850s–1860s; Grade II-listed):[8] a flat-fronted terrace of 13 houses in three parts. The centrebay, made up of three houses, projects slightly and has recessed doorways set in porches withpilasters andentablatures. The other houses are designed in pairs, and mostly have three windows to each of four storeys. A large arched window withscrollworkspandrels forms a centrepiece.[7][8]
32–47 Sillwood Road, Brighton (c. 1870; Grade II-listed):[11] Lainson built these in an Italianate style with someRegency elements—as such, it looks more like an 1850s development.[9] The three-storey houses havecantedbay windows (a classic Victorian feature)[38] rising through two storeys, with ironwork andverandahs. On the top storey, small round-headed windows sit below a prominentcornice with adentil pattern.[9][11]
Brooker Hall, Hove (1876–77): this has housed Hove Museum and Art Gallery since the 1920s, but was built as a private house.[1] Opinion on theItalianate villa, with a short left-oriented tower,[23] varies from "drab"[24] to "the most magnificent of [the] many mansions in New Church Road".[1]
Pelham Institute, Brighton (1877; Grade II-listed):[22] aHigh Gothic institutional building in purple and red brick with some terracotta dressings. Its three façades have variedfenestration, and there are irregularly placedgables,dormer windows and stepped chimney-breasts which project slightly from the walls.[21][22]
Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children, Brighton (1881): Lainson & Sons' Queen Anne-style building, withDutch gables, elaboratemouldings, terracotta dressings and a pair ofbay windows flanking an oval window, has been added to several times since its construction, and is now disused. The three-storey building is mostly of red brick.[28][43]
Belgrave Hotel, Brighton (1882): a building which "makes best use of the corner site" it occupies, and which marks a change from the seafront theme ofcantedbay windows to the east and west. Broadly in theClassical style and originally with red-brick and terracotta walls (now painted over), the hotel has a turret at the corner, topped with a dome. The balconies are set back into recesses.[31]
Palmeira House, Hove (1887): Lainson & Sons' first building for the Brighton & Hove Co-operative Supply Association was astuccoed office building in the post-Regency "Victorian Italianate" style of the surroundingPalmeira Square development of 1850–1865.[2][45][46]
Williamson Cottages for Ladies, 21-35 Portland Road, Hove: Lainson & Sons' Funded by Jane Hannah MacDonald as homes for Elderly Ladies. Jane's bust is mounted with an inscription dedicating the Cottages.
^London Church of England baptisms: St Mary, Lambeth 1820-1827. National Archive, Kew: Church of England. 1824. p. 184.St Mary, Lambeth. Baptism 1 September 1824, Thomas Lainson. Father William Lainson, mother Elizabeth Lainson
^"Deaths".Mid Sussex Times. British Newspaper Archive. 24 May 1898. p. 4 col.7. Retrieved8 May 2022.
Antram, Nicholas; Morrice, Richard (2008).Brighton and Hove. Pevsner Architectural Guides. London: Yale University Press.ISBN978-0-300-12661-7.
Brighton Polytechnic. School of Architecture and Interior Design (1987).A Guide to the Buildings of Brighton. Macclesfield: McMillan Martin.ISBN1-869865-03-0.
Carder, Timothy (1990).The Encyclopaedia of Brighton. Lewes: East Sussex County Libraries.ISBN0-86147-315-9.
Collis, Rose (2010).The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton. (based on the original by Tim Carder) (1st ed.). Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries.ISBN978-0-9564664-0-2.
Elleray, D. Robert (2004).Sussex Places of Worship. Worthing: Optimus Books.ISBN0-9533132-7-1.
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