About the house
Two sisters, one townhouse, forty tins of paint
Maren House is run by sisters Iris and Nell Maren, who spent a decade working in hotels in Marrakech and came home to Brighton with a suitcase of tile samples and an unshakeable belief that English seaside hotels are too beige.
The house itself is an 1824 Regency townhouse on Ledbury Square, five minutes above the beach in Kemptown. It spent earlier lives as a boarding house, a print studio and a slightly mysterious private club before we got the keys in 2021 and started painting.
The renovation kept every cornice and crooked landing and added the things a riad taught us to want: an inward-looking courtyard, water somewhere near the middle, deep colour on every wall, and rooms arranged for privacy rather than corridors.
It is a small hotel and it means to stay one. Nine rooms when the last three open, one long breakfast, and a staff of people who will remember how you take your coffee by the second morning.
A Regency townhouse, kept since 1824.
The house in five dates
- 1824The townhouse is built on Ledbury Square, one of a terrace of nine.
- 1962A print studio takes the ground floor; the courtyard fig is already old.
- 2021Iris and Nell get the keys and start with the stairwell, in viridian.
- 2023Maren House opens with six rooms, the courtyard pool and the rooftop.
- 2025The Bath House opens below stairs. Three more rooms begin their repaint.
How we run the house
Three rules we painted over the door
01
Colour is the architecture
Every floor of the house is painted a single deep colour, so you always know where you are by the wall beside you.
02
Inward, then upward
The best views here are the courtyard from your window and the sea from the roof. We built the day around both.
03
Slow by default
Breakfast runs until midday, checkout is unhurried, and nothing in the house beeps.
Book direct
The best of the house, kept for those who book direct
- Lowest rate anywhere, guaranteed
- Late checkout on Sundays
- A drink on the roof, on us, on arrival
- First choice of room moves and upgrades
Direct bookings always take the best rate and a late Sunday checkout