33 Palmeira Mansions – The Home of a Man of Leisure

What hobbies do you enjoy doing while visiting another country?

One of mine is to explore local architecture.

Every building has a story to tell.

The house in which the school I am currently attending here in the UK is based, looks unusual at first glance. It’s located in Hove, Brighton. Whilst many older houses have been divided into flats or have in other ways been modernized, this building carries many original features. Long steep stairways in narrow corridors lead to rooms with heavily ornamented ceilings and fire places. The colours are dark and the design masculine. It gives me the feeling of visiting an old Victorian house in a Hitchcock movie from bygone times.

I learn that this used to be the home of Arthur William Mason, a Londoner whose family through successful business endeavors became very wealthy in a short amount of time. Local historian Jackie Marsh-Hobbs provides me with an overview. She has made extensive research on the history of the house.

It was Mason’s father who had built an empire in ink and varnish. He produced inks for the giant presses of Fleet Street and manufactured varnish for lacquering. The latter very fashionable in Victorian times.

The Mason family had spent Summer holidays in Brighton. The city was a popular, fashionable sea resort, easily accessible from London by train.

When the family business was taken to stock market in 1889 and generated humongous wealth, Arthur William Mason bought the 33 Palmeira Mansions estate and designed it into his personal paradise.

At the time Mason was only 29. His first wife has recently died, having left him alone with daughter Christina. He remarried some time later and lived in 33 Palmeira with his second wife and his daughter. He remarried a third time at a later age, after his second wife had passed.

The stock market success turned him into one of the noveau rich. A man of leisure. He made sure his wealth was showcased in every detail of his home and in his way of living.

This Victorian townhouse overlooking the sea, is a four storey building. A six storey building, if you include the attic and basement. The latter two was where the servants stayed. The basement also carried an extensive kitchen.

Mason wanted everything to be grand. He enlarged the entry hallway of the original house and turned it into a large vestibule. Covered floor and walls with marble stone. A generous marble staircase leads up to the conservatory on the first floor. Here you are met with a grand stained glass window. This is the room where Mason used to have his morning tea.

Downstairs to the right is the old dining room. It still retains the original wooden parquet floor, alabaster walls, marble and onyx door, a voluptuous fireplace. The ceiling has intricate wooden carvings in green and gold.

Where others Victorian rooms of the era often followed an interior designer theme, Mason put in whatever pleased him. He replaced the original white fireplaces of the house with excessively ornamented ones in dark palettes. His home was equipped with the latest commodities. Elegant and generous bathrooms, flushing toilets and telephones.

In an hallway I find a massive safe with an elaborate lock.

Apart from the grand staircase on the ground floor, the stairs truly are narrow and steep. That’s due to the ceilings being very high. Me and my colleagues are having our class room in the room Mason referred to as the billiard room. It’s on the fourth floor. Climbing these four flights of stairs adds extra exercise after our twenty minute walk uphill from our seafront hotel every morning. Brighton and Hove offer many roads going up- and downhill.

Another room me and my colleagues stay in during our classes is the former music room. This is where Masons kept his piano and other instruments and entertained his guests with music.

Looking around you can clearly tell which rooms where his and which ones he designed for his wife and daughter. The rooms for the women where painted in white and had a feminine style in the ornaments of the fireplaces, doors and ceilings.

To show his eminence and display his social ranking Mason designed his own coat of arms. He added the motto Facta non Verba – Deeds not Words, onto it. The coat of arms are showcased in his stained glass windows in several rooms.

The building was surrounded by a luscious garden. Across the street Mason had a stable for his horses and a building carrying his carriages. These were later replaced by a Rolls Royce and a Daimler. The cars were painted with Mason’s coat of arms.

33 Palmeira Mansions remained Arthur Mason’s home for the coming 51 years. He passed here in 1940.

I enjoy spending my days in this house during my current stay. Climbing the grand marble staircase. Studying the details of the colorful glass mosaic windows. Closely contemplating the hand painted flowers displayed in the fire places.

Would I want to live in a house like this? Probably not. I like the house. But not with these dark colours and ornaments.

It’s far too dark and stuffy for me. Too bulkily ornamented.

I like light colors, large windows, airy generous spaces with an inviting feeling.

Do I still enjoy exploring homes like 33 Palmeira Mansions? Yes. Most definitely.

Stories about people who follow their passions and make their dreams a reality inspire me.

Also, even when I’m not into the overall style, I might still find details that appeal to me. Details that I can use in personal future projects. In this mansion I find the clear glass flowers engraved in the window glass to be exquisite. I want windows like that. And I do like the spaciousness of the rooms. The high ceilings.

I find a conservatory to be a beautiful part of a home. The grand stairs in this mansion has an allure. The way they sweep up from the vestibule to the conservatory in a generous curve. The idea of a special music room speaks to me. And yes, that door handle has a great design.

What kind of architecture do you like? What is your idea of a grand place to live?