R-EX data Charles Busby

Content page to be ingested by the Regency Expert

• headings, images, lists, tables, etc are ignored

• only plain paragraphs are imported

• page title must be unique  

Charles Augustin Busby, Architect, born 1786, died 1834.

The Regency Town House was designed by architect Charles Busby (full name, Charles Augustin Busby) who became known as the 'The Regency Architect of Brighton & Hove'.

Charles Busby was born in 1786 to the composer, musician Dr Thomas Busby and Priscilla (née Angier). Residents of London, the family were socially and politically radical. They moved in the social circle of people such as William Blake, Byron, Merlin the Ingenius Mechanic, and Lord and Lady Holland.

Charles Busby showed an aptitude for architecture at an early age, and was articled to the office of Daniel Asher Alexander, one of the Regency's great architect engineers. In addition to his pupillage with Alexander, Busby benefited from attendance at the Royal Academy Schools, graduating in 1807 with a gold medal.

Charles Busby lived and studied in North America In 1817 to 1819, resulting in a reverse of the then current trend of East to West influence.

Charles Busby returned to the UK in 1822, when he established contact with Thomas Read Kemp, one time Brighton MP and one of the richest men in Sussex. In 1823 Busby undertook design of the Kemp Town scheme on Kemp’s behalf, and through 1823 to 1834 was approached by many other Brightonians to undertake designs.

In late 1824 Charles Busby signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Reverend Thomas Scutt, who owned more than 300 acres of land to the west of Brighton, much within the Parish of Hove. The agreement was for Busby to develop some 35 acres of this land as a Regency 'new town' to be called 'Brunswick Town'.

Brunswick Town represents Busby’s greatest architectural achievement, and was developed between 1824 and his death in 1834.

The period through which Charles Busby developed Brunswick Town saw a time of economic growth decline into a severe economic depression. Busby, along with many of the speculators funding the Brunswick development, suffered bankruptcy.

Perhaps it was the damage to Busby's reputation brought on by his banckruptcy that caused Victorians to rapidly forget Busby's contribution to the development of Brighton and Hove.

The name of this important architect was largely forgotten until the middle of the 20th century, when Anthony Dale brought his name to public attention in his book 'Fashionable Brighton'.

Since that time, a blue plaque has been erected on the house in Lansdowne Place where Busby spent the final years of his life, recognition of the creative talent that designed the glorious Regency Brighton we see around us today.