Main Content
Summary
Author: (Burton)
Title: Views of St.Leonards, near Hastings. First stone laid March 1st, 1828.
Publication: St.Leonards, Thomas Leave nd (plates dated 1829) ("printed at C.Hullmandel’s Lithographic Establishment, 49 Gt Marlborough Street, London").
Price: Sold
Reference: 11375
Full Description
Oblong 4to. Litho title leaf, litho folding plan, litho map, 11 litho plates providing perspective views of buildings and intended buildings in St.Leonards. Original paper wrappers, with printed label pasted to upper cover, spine defective. Title leaf a little soiled and some faint foxing at outer margins, but plates are generally in good, clean condition. Preserved in recent cloth box.
A rare set of attractive lithographic perspective views of the principal buildings, some already erected, others intended, in St.Leonards, the new seaside resort on the Sussex coast then being developed by the London master builder James Burton (1761-1837). The development involved public meeting rooms, a substantial hotel, public baths, terraces, large detached villas and an arched entrance gate, mostly in a Greek Revival manner. Since James Burton himself had no marked ability as an architectural designer, the strong probability is that the principal buildings in St.Leonards were in fact designed by his son, the architect Decimus Burton, an able practitioner in the Greek Revival style, and Howard Colvin quotes a statement from a publication of 1838 that St.Leonards had been built "upon the plans of Decimus Burton, the architect".