The Tudor-Gothic building, attributed to prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds, is built into the hillside below the churchyard of Brighton's ancient parish church.

[2][3] Decline set in until the mid-18th century, when the good climate, patronage by wealthy, fashionable visitors, better transport and the growth of the sea-bathing and "water cure" fad transformed Brighthelmston into the popular resort of Brighton.

[6] The site, east of the road from central Brighton to Devil's Dyke on the South Downs, was dug into the hillside on which St Nicholas' churchyard stands.

Arthur Wagner (curate and later vicar of St Paul's Church),[9] established a house on the town's Lewes Road to which prostitutes could be sent by police and doctors to be helped and rehabilitated.

[8][9][10] Only 12 women could be accommodated in this building, so in 1855 Wagner bought houses in Wykeham Terrace and the adjacent Queen Square and expanded the institution.

Although conditions for the former prostitutes were strict, with regular surveillance, hard work and punishments for misbehaviour,[11] the institution was able to offer about 40 women proper healthcare, education, training for domestic service, and charitable help of various kinds.

(The building provided for it there is now residential, but the community of nuns survives in Rottingdean, an outlying village which is now part of the city of Brighton and Hove.

[12] Notable residents have included actress Dame Flora Robson, who lived at number 7 in the last years of her life;[12] art historian Sir Roy Strong; singer-songwriter David Courtney; and singer Adam Faith.

[6][7][12] The central, five-sided bay is of three storeys, with a large pointed-arched lancet window at the top; a gable cuts into the decorative parapet above it, and buttresses on each side terminate in flat-topped projections.