Described as "one of the most famous surviving early buildings" in Brighton and "a charming relic",[1] the exterior is clad in distinctive black glazed mathematical tiles.

[1] The intermittent flow of the stream created a boggy, marshy area of land around which the old village of Brighthelmstone developed.

As demand for land grew in the late 18th century during a period of rapid growth, the Wellesbourne was diverted into a culvert and built over: the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Marlborough paid for this.

[3][7] Around the middle of the 20th century, the building passed out of the Cowley family's ownership, and the ground-floor shop unit was converted to other commercial uses such as a restaurant.

[3] It is a three-storey building with a modern shopfront on the lowest floor, two storeys in residential use above, and a large hipped roof with dormer windows.

[3][8] The top two floors are laid with black glazed mathematical tiles—often used in the 18th and 19th centuries on buildings in Brighton, and a characteristic feature of the local architecture.