Cats Creep - a heritage asset
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The Cats' Creep is a focal location within the Round Hill conservation area. It offers attractive long views. The foot of the Cats Creep is the starting point for our annual Round Hill Christmas carols.
And the whole length of the Cats' Creep is one of the main areas tackled in our community clean-ups where we receive help from Goodgym in managing vegetation and painting over graffiti.
The Cats' Creep is the only place in the city of Brighton and Hove with its own toad patrol which is active during February and March and keen to count and protect the numbers of amphibians.
Is the Cats' Creep at risk?
There have been two planning applications within the past twenty years which could have involved a temporary closure of this much used right of way had they been successful. Click on images below for details of each:-
Application BH2006/01501 to build 5 units of residential housing (Erection of 3 houses, 1 flat and 1 maisonette) on land adjacent to the Cats' Creep, in-filling a large section of this attractive "green ribbon" and felling at least 19 trees, was registered with Brighton and Hove City Council on 19th May 2006.
Application BH2011/03323 for a two storey outbuilding (described as "an earthship") on the same building line as (1879) Fern Villa. 
The Local List
Brighton and Hove City Council's local list of heritage assets has been actively maintained. In March 2023, 22 items were added to the list which was approved by the Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee. The next periodic review of the Local List will take place in 2028. The Local List identifies buildings, parks, gardens and other structures of special local historic, architectural, design or townscape value that are not nationally listed by Historic England. Although local listing does not carry statutory legal protection in the same way as national listing, it informs planning decisions. When planning applications affect a locally listed asset, its special local significance must be taken into account. One of Round Hill's cherished structures which is not on the list is the Cats' Creep, so I have made a nomination which I hope will be supported by Round Hill residents when the time comes. The following text records what I had to say about it. The navy text records the criteria met under each category.
Nomination for addition to the local list
Building: The Cats' Creep
Address: Wakefield Road / Richmond Road (at the northern/upper end, around BN2 3RL-3RN) Roundhill Crescent (at the southern/lower end), BN2 3GP area;
Type: stepped footpath (stairway); historic route / public passage (former planned street)
Date: Lennox Road: Laid out for building in 1862 and under construction in 1869
Lennox Passageway / The Cat's Creep 1900
Description of structure: Stepped footpath (stairway) six flights of stone steps.
[A] Townscape Interest
(i) Within a CA, making a contribution to the character and appearance, but atypical in style and/or design.
(iii) A structure that is a visual focal point and forms a landmark.
The Cats Creep makes a significant contribution to the character of the Round Hill Conservation Area:
- It forms a distinctive vertical route through the steep hillside
- It preserves the alignment of a planned but unrealised street, maintaining legibility of the original estate layout
- It creates a visual and spatial break within dense terraced housing
- It is associated with adjacent strips of open land that reflect earlier land-use patterns.
The loss or alteration of the Cats Creep would diminish the readability of the area’s historic development.
The stairway adds spatial and visual interest to the Round Hill conservation area — interrupting the continuous terraces and creating intimate, pedestrian‑scaled connections that enrich the character of the Round Hill streetscape.
Walled passageway constructed at the beginning of the 20th century. Important and characteristic urban feature of the area’s 19th‑century street pattern and topography — and contributes strongly to the local heritage and townscape value of the Round Hill conservation area. A vantage point for some fine views (e.g. up to Race Hill).
Registered as a ‘Toad Crossing’ site by the amphibian charity www.Froglife.org, the Cats’ Creep traverses the South Downs Way Ahead Site of Nature Improvement Area running from Old Steine via the Level and Richmond Road to Woodvale.
[B] Historic Interest
(i) A structure with a direct association with a notable individual, group.
(iii) A structure whose former use illustrates and/or influenced the physical, social and economic development of Brighton and Hove.
Note the association with Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, KG, PC (né Lennox; 3 August 1791 – 21 October 1860).
Lennox Road appears on the PIke and Ivimy 1867 map.
Lennox Road (now The Cats' Creep) was one of three Round Hill streets (Richmond Road and D'Aubigny Road were the others) which the Conservative Land Society who drew up the 1853 plan of the Round Hill Park Estate named to pay their respects to the Dukes of Richmond. Despite having grand houses at Goodwood and Portland Place in London, the 5th Duke of Richmond, who died in 1860, seems to have spent a considerable amount of time in Brighton.
Originally laid out as a radial street mirroring D’Aubigny Road on the Round Hill Park Estate. See 1853 plan. Lennox Road proved unsuccessful since it was too steep for horse drawn traffic so in 1900 it was converted into the narrower passageway of steps (Lennox Passage) that you see today. Now known as the Cats’ Creep.
The Cats Creep originates from the planned development of the Round Hill estate in the 1860s. Contemporary mapping shows the route laid out as “Lennox Road,” intended to form part of a symmetrical street pattern extending northwards from Roundhill Crescent.
Unlike neighbouring streets, Lennox Road was never built. By the late 19th century it remained undeveloped, and by circa 1900 it had been converted into a stepped pedestrian passage known as “Lennox Passage.”
The site therefore illustrates an unrealised phase of Victorian suburban planning, providing insight into the constraints and contingencies of Brighton’s expansion.
It forms part of the original public right of way from the 19th century and survives today as a historic link through the conservation area, demonstrating early urban planning responses to challenging terrain.
[C] Architectural Significance
(ii) An early good quality example of a particular type of building.
While the Cats’ Creep isn’t an architectural landmark in the traditional sense, it is an architecturally and historically meaningful townscape feature — a surviving piece of Victorian urban design that illustrates how city planners and builders adapted to difficult terrain and contributed to the historic character of Round Hill
A good quality late Victorian stepped and walled twitten with 116 steps.
[D] Age / Integrity
(iii) Late Victorian - Early 20th century: structures that are largely unaltered and retain the majority of their original features, and possess very good architectural and / or historic interest.
As a road laid out for building in 1862, and under construction in 1869. As a stepped passageway from 1900. Mid to late Victorian. What we see today is 126 years old.
Planning proposals in 1898 and 1900 to turn the unsuccessful Lennox Road into the steps which remain today. DB/D/52/1356A and DB/D/52/1423 East Sussex Record Office
Regularly maintained (graffiti removal and cutting back vegetation) by local residents helped by members of the charity goodgym, www.goodgym.org
[E} Cultural Value
(i) Structure perceived as a source of local identity and/or distinctiveness by the community.
Atypical urban form: Unlike standard roads, the Cats’ Creep reflects how Victorian developers adapted street layouts to the steep topography of Round Hill. The hill’s slope made some planned streets impractical, so stair passages like this were created instead.
Beyond its physical form, the Cats’ Creep is part of local memory and identity — referenced in community narratives and still used as a walkway and informal meeting point, embedding it in the social as well as architectural fabric.
See My Brighton & Hove Website
The Cats' Creep harbours many childhood memories.
No 10 Richmond Road opened as an Open House under the name of Cats Creep offering a hidden portal through Cats Creep alleyway. Artists displaying their work in 2026 included Dirk Engels (Turned wood), Martine Jans (Jewellery), Robert Littleford (Painting), Fiona Morley (Sculpture), Joe Ramm (Painting), Mimi Spencer (Ceramics), Ben Young (Blacksmith), Roberta Young (Painting), and Xavier Young (Photography).
This page was last updated by Ted on 29-May-2026