As of 2020[update], there are 34 conservation areas in the city of Brighton and Hove,[1] a seaside resort on the English Channel coast in southeast England.
Hove Borough Council designated the first two, in 1969: Charles Busby's expansive self-contained Brunswick Town estate,[7] with a twin-terrace centrepiece "as grand as anything in St Petersburg",[8] and the rapidly developed mid-19th-century suburb of Cliftonville, characterised by Italianate villas and large Tudorbethan houses.
[15] Carlton Hill, an inner-city area in the east of Brighton which descended into poverty-stricken slum conditions in the early 20th century,[16][17] is the most recent addition to the list; about 4 acres (1.6 ha) of its historic centre was designated on 4 July 2008.
[13] In contrast, areas such as Sackville Gardens and Cliftonville are small-scale, piecemeal suburban developments with varied architectural styles and few or no listed buildings.
[22][23] Woodland Drive and Tongdean have large 20th-century houses,[24][25] while the Engineerium conservation area consists of formerly industrial buildings.
[26] The government encourages but does not require local authorities to produce studies appraising the character of conservation areas.
[119] The East Cliff conservation area's northern boundary is Eastern Road, but in 2010 consideration was given to extending it north of this at Upper Bedford Street to incorporate Thomas Lainson's Grade II-listed Pelham Institute, a High Victorian Gothic building of the 1870s, and the neighbouring Fitzherbert Centre—a disused early-20th-century school.