Although it has been in commercial use for more than a century, it retains some of its original appearance as "one of the most fascinating houses"[1] built by the prolific partnership of Amon Henry Wilds and Charles Busby.

[7] An early photograph shows the house with blank and pointed-arched windows at ground-floor level, set behind a low wall and with a tree next to it.

Strevens, an auctioneer, redesigned the façade in a simpler interpretation of the Gothic Revival style and extended it westwards, taking in five adjacent houses.

[6][11] The department store Plummer Roddis then bought the building in 1920 and extended the shopfront further west and to the south along Western Terrace.

[13] The house "[was] now the nucleus of their premises" and had been greatly altered: the whole ground floor had been removed and the plain Gothic-style addition of 1880 gave the appearance of being "grafted on".

[19] On 29 March 2014, the eastern section of the building (on the corner of Western Terrace) reopened as the Verano Lounge restaurant and bar.

[11][12] The only other Regency Gothic buildings in Brighton, the National Schools at Church Street in the North Laine,[12] were demolished in 1971 for a road widening scheme which never happened.

[13] The building's placement opposite the Western Pavilion "nicely illustrates the stylistic variation of the Regency period"[11] and provided a clear contrast to its elaborate Oriental style, especially before it was converted for commercial use.

The shopfront added in 1920 by Henry Ward has two storeys and rounds the corner into Western Terrace, partly hiding the original structure.