relevant issues. As of February 2001, there were 24 listed buildings with Grade I status, 70 Grade II*-listed and 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings in Brighton and Hove. Grade I-listed buildings are defined as being of "exceptional interest" and greater than national importance; Grade II*, the next highest status, is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and the lowest grade, Grade II, is used for "nationally important buildings of special interest". Many of Montpelier's buildings are listed: in 1981, 320 individual buildings were covered by an English Heritage listing, and the figure in 2010 was 351. In the United Kingdom, a conservation area is a principally urban area "of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance". Such areas are identified by local authorities according to criteria defined by Sections 69 and 70 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The Montpelier & Clifton Hill conservation area, one of 34 in the city of Brighton and Hove, was created in 1973. Its boundaries were extended in 1977, and it now covers . Notable residents Many famous people have lived in Montpelier. Sara Forbes Bonetta, an African princess who became a favourite of Queen Victoria, lived at 17 Clifton Hill prior to her marriage at St Nicholas Church in 1862 to a merchant who lived at Victoria Road; she was unhappy in Brighton, describing the house as a "desolate little pigsty". Frederick William Robertson, a preacher, theologian and divine whose ministry at Brighton's Holy Trinity Church was nationally famous, lived at 9 Montpelier Terrace from 1847 until 1850, then at 60 Montpelier Road until his death in 1853. Another resident of Montpelier Road was Dr William King, an important figure in the British cooperative movement, who owned number 23. Eleanor Marx lived at 6 Vernon Terrace for a time in the late 19th century. Screenwriter Edward Knoblock's home was at 20 Clifton Terrace, and another resident of that street was playwright and author Alan Melville: he lived at number 17 from 1951 until 1973 and then at 28 Victoria Street until his death in 1983. Author Francis King lived at 17 Montpelier Villas, close to the 5 Powis Grove home of former MP Thomas Skeffington-Lodge. He look legal action after noticing an "unflattering" resemblance to himself in King's 1970 novel A Domestic Animal; King had