This steel engraving was published in the Rev Horsfield’s The History, Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex 1835. ​Thomas Walker Horsfield was topographer and for some years minister of a dissenting congregation of the Westgate Chapel at Lewes, Sussex. His major undertaking was the publication of The History and Antiquities and Topography of the County of Sussex in two volumes published in 1835. This print is from Volume 1. Some years earlier he had published The History and Antiquities of Lewes for John Baxter (1781–1858) which had an Appendix containing an Essay on the Natural History of the District by Gideon Mantell. 
 
Thomas Read Kemp (1782-1844) commissioned the leading Regency architects and builders, Charles Busby and Amon Wilds, to develop the magnificent estate now known as Kemp Town and Grade 1 listed. Busby’s original plan of 1825 laid out two more squares and terraces totalling 205 houses and cottages; however, the final plan included only 105 houses. Construction work started in 1823, but lack of capital meant progress was slow.
By 1828, all the facades had been completed, except those in Chichester Terrace. The plots sold slowly, mainly owing to their isolated position, relatively far away from the town centre. The purchasers were free to design and build their own houses behind the identical facades. It was a bold venture which cost Kemp dearly. The print here shows Kemp Town at a point when the buildings were largely complete and the gardens, enclosed by iron railings had been laid out and planted up. by the landscape gardener Henry Phillips.