Tower House, Brighton

Tower House is a former private house in the Withdean area of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1902 for a former jeweller to King Edward VII, it remained in private ownership until it was converted into flats and a daycare centre in 1988. It is one of the few large houses and villas to survive in the high-class Withdean area—many were demolished in favour of blocks of flats after World War II—and it has been described as "Brighton's finest example of a grand Edwardian house". English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.HistoryWithdean was originally an outlying hamlet in the large Sussex parish of Patcham, adjacent to Preston parish which was itself immediately north of Brighton. The area was merely "a scattering of farms" until the 19th century, when its position on the main road to London and extensive tree planting carried out from the 1790s made it an attractive place for wealthy people to build large houses and villas. The road was originally a turnpike and had a tollgate at Preston; after it was moved north of Withdean in 1854, people living to the south no longer had to pay tolls to travel into Brighton, further improving the desirability of the largely undeveloped land. Around the same time, the Withdean Strawberry Gardens were developed as an attraction for visitors (especially from Brighton, by now a rapidly growing resort) and residents. They were renamed the Tivoli Gardens in about 1852, and remained a popular attraction throughout the 19th century. By the end of the century, though, they were surrounded by large houses, and in 1888 they were sold off for development.