The building at 11 Dyke Road in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove, was in its most recent guise (2014–2023) the Rialto Theatre and as of January 2024 was being converted into a live music venue, but it originally housed the Swan Downer School for poor girls, for whom it was designed and built in 1867 by prolific architect George Somers Leigh Clarke.

The highly ornate brick structure, in a "freely inventive" European Gothic style, has also served as a chapel and an office since it was vacated by the school, whose pupils were recognisable around Brighton in their blue and white uniform.

Brighton's rapid growth from small fishing village to high-class seaside resort was set in motion in the late 18th century by factors such as royal patronage, the popularity (especially among the upper classes) of local doctor Richard Russell's "seawater cure" and better transport links.

Poor people from across the mostly rural county of Sussex moved to Brighton, by far its largest town, in search of employment; but service jobs were not secure and were mostly seasonal.

[3] Poor urban planning and the lack of piped water and sewage disposal made living conditions dangerous.

[9] Part of this endowment was used to build a Swan Downer school on land at the bottom of the road leading from central Brighton to Devil's Dyke on the South Downs.

player Steve Foster;[17] it later became "The Sanctuary", "The Shrine", "Club New York" and "The Church"[18][19] before being renamed "New Hero"—the name it bore until its closure in 2011.

[20] In January 2012, the owners of a nightclub in Worthing announced that they wanted to convert the building into the "House of the Lost"—a two-storey maze with a horror theme;[20] planning permission for this was granted in April 2012.

[22] A planning application for internal alterations appropriate to its new use, such as the formation of a mezzanine floor and the installation of a stage and box office, was submitted and rejected in November 2014.

[16] Somers Clarke's "freely inventive"[26] interpretation of that design was executed in brown brick with some red brickwork and stone dressings (now painted white).