The History of 28 Sussex Square
1 Edward Cornford
2 Henry Kendall
3 Sales Particulars
1 Edward Cornford
Edward Cornford appears in the street directories for this house between 1848 and 1856. He was the Secretary to the Brighton Pier Company in the 1820s. The Chain Pier opened in 1823 to provide a landing stage for cross-Channel passengers and cargo. Edward Cornford was a local solicitor who also played a key role in the founding of Brighton College in the 1840s.
2 Henry Kendall
Henry Kendall spent many years in South America as the representative of a firm of London merchants and held the office of Consul of Peru and Chile. The family returned to the UK shortly after his son was born in Lima in 1840. Henry John Broughton Kendal became a director of the Union Bank of London and of the London Assurance Corporation Ltd. For many years he represented the Republic of Bolivia as its consul in London.
Henry Kendall is recorded in the Street Directories as having lived in No 28 from 1869 to 1870, it is recorded that Mrs Kendall lived in No 28 in 1871 - Editor (The Editor lives in the ground floor flat currently and was delighted to find this little piece of our House History!)
·• I thought you might like to know that 28 Sussex Square was owned and occupied by Henry Kendall, Consul for Peru and London banker. I do not know when he began to live there but it was given as his address when he wrote his will in 1870. He lived an adventurous life, travelling to and through South America as wool factor and part of the family business located at Basinghall Street in London. We have his notebook describing his travels through France and Spain on his way to Peru in 1823.
• (I must make it clear that our Henry Kendall appears to have no connection Henry Edward Kendall, just in case there was a query.)
• Does anyone happen to have a picture of Number 28 and if so, may I use it on my pages of family history, acknowledging the photographer? Thank you and best wishes.
By Shirley Kendall (in Australia) (20/07/2008)
• After my father died, my mother decided to go back to England in 1961. We lived in the lovely ground floor flat of 28 Sussex Square.
3 Sales Particulars
KEMP TOWN. BY MR CREASY At his Public Sale Room, North Street, Brighton, on Saturday, 7th January, 1843, One o’clock, direction of Mortgagees, under Power of Sale, in lots, FREEHOLD MANSION of the first class, designed for the accommodation of a Family of Distinction, most eligibly situate and being No. 28, Sussex Square, Kemp Town, commanding a magnificent view of the Ocean, which is directly en face, over the beautiful Shrubberies, Plantations, and Lawns, communicating with the celebrated Marine Terrace and Walks on the Sea Beach. The Mansion has a capital range of Offices, well-proportioned Dining Room, Gentleman’s Room, Two Elegant Drawing Rooms, Nine Sleeping Chambers, and Dressing Room; behind, and enclosed with the premises, is Scife of Ground, which may appropriated for a Mews, or maybe laid out a Garden.
Brighton Gazette and Lewes Observer 8 December 1842