The building Don Franklin refers to (Letters, July 23) is one of a pair remaining from a group of four, built about 1790 and known at one time as "The Blues and Buffs", having been painted in the colours of the Whig party.

This was a compliment to the Prince of Wales (the future George IV), who favoured the Whigs of that time, although he later abandoned them.

The houses are visible in early pictures of the Steine, such as Rowlandson's (reproduced in the exhibition catalogue Brighton Revisited, page 52) and Spornberg's (reproduced in The Royal Pavilion Brighton by John Dikkel, page 20).

Two of the houses were demolished for road widening in 1928. The remaining two are now listed buildings. The one to which Mr Franklin draws attention needs a rescuer.

I am indebted to Timothy Carden's Encyclopaedia Of Brighton for some of the above details.

-Reverend F J Orna-Ornstein Norfolk Buildings, Brighton