The Regency Square Area Society (RSAS) were instrumental recently in getting an old “Fly Stable” in Stone Street put on the National Heritage List for England. It was listed Grade II on Nov 24th 2012.

 

It had been subject to planning applications in the summer of 2009 and again 2011, both being withdrawn on technicalities. Both the adjoining property 19A Castle Street and 14/ 13A Stone St were to be demolished and replaced by town houses. RSAS marshalled the forces of the Georgian Society, Ancient Monuments Society , the National Carriage Society and the Council’s own Conservation Team to develop the application for listing to English Heritage.

 

The Fly Stables are not very distinguished but the haylofts and projecting coach houses around a symmetrical plan is like a miniature country house stables. The interior has lost most of its old charm. It must have been the historical interest which enabled it to listed.

 

Fly stables were a type developed in Brighton in the early C19. “ Fly” seems to be a reference the lightness of the carriage which enabled the carriage to “ fly” very fast. There also “ hand flies”, the lighter version of a sedan chair. No other purpose-built fly stables appears to be listed in Brighton or elsewhere in the country. The stables served the more modest clients of boarding houses and lodging houses in the immediate vicinity. These buildings provide rare evidence of horse drawn transport for poorer clients.

 

Regency Square was developed between 1817 and 1830; previously, this area was open agricultural land known as The West Laines. The first reference to these buildings is in Kelly's Directory of 1845 where Henry Parker is listed as a Fly Proprietor.  A "fly" was a particular type of horse drawn public transport used by the less prosperous middle classes. According to Henry Mayhew, they were used for visits to the theatre, opera or parties at night and he described the type of people who used Fly Carriages as “shabby genteel” !

 

"Fly  carriages" were thus relatively low cost transport and hired out for short periods. In effect, they were the mini-cab/ tuk-tuk of that era. There are no references in the Encyclopaedia of Brighton (old or new versions.) The RSAS are to applauded for preserving this small slice of social history.