Dealing Briefly With Brighton

 

In 1910, the town began at the easternmost end of Brunswick Terrace, and the sea-wall, flanked by the broad King's Road, follows the margin of the sea to the Old Steyne, whence, as Marine Parade, it continues to the furthest end of Kemp Town. From Aldrington to this point there is thus (excepting Medina, Hove), an unbroken sea-wall and promenade of nearly five miles; behind it a succession of terraces of magnificent houses. It is truly one of the sights of England. But the Brighton end differs in marked fashion from the Hove end; Hove was made deliberately, Brighton grew.

When you were tired of looking at the sea, and the lawns do not invite you, there were the shops in the King's Road, a morning's pleasure in themselves.

 

The Piers

 

Also there are the two piers. The West Pier, nearest to the Hove end, is the older, having been built in 1866. When the wind was off shore, and the warm summer sun beat down upon the front, it was the airiest place in Brighton. Much the same may be said of the Palace Pier , opened in 1901, from which the line of chalk cliffs to Newhaven and those beyond, known as the Seven Sisters, may best be seen.

 

Both piers had the usual advantages of piers, and some special ones of their own; both had facilities for sea-bathing, landing-stages for the pleasure steamers, and a pavilion for concerts, and the like. The old chain pier, which had such interesting associations of the early part of last century, stood between the two; it was totally wrecked in the great storm of December 4, 1896, after it had already been condemned as unsafe.

 

The Aquarium

 

To the left of the entrance to the Palace Pier (facing seaward) is the Aquarium. It was purchased by the Brighton Corporation in 1907 for a mere fraction of the money it cost to build. In the past it was hardly a success, in spite of the fact that it possesses the best collection of living marine specimens in England.

 

But the Corporation added to its attractions, and the advance of knowledge in the keeping of an aquarium during the years of its existence marvellously increased its usefulness. Not the least of its attractions is the exquisite sea garden of anemones, containing many hundred specimens of brilliant colouring and fantasy of shape.

 

Royalty and Brighton

The Royal Pavilion is the building of chief historical interest in Brighton. It can be reached by the North Gate from Church Street, or by the South Gate from Castle Square. In some sense it owed its beginning to Mr. Nathaniel Kemp, who was presented to the Prince Regent (afterwards King George the Fourth) in the hunting field near Brighton; and the result of the meeting was that Mr. Kemp leased to the Prince his house in Old Steyne.

 

The original lease is still preserved by the Kempe family at Old Place, Lindfield. From this humble beginning (for Samuel Rogers, the poet, says it was no more than a respectable farmhouse) the pavilion grew to its fantastic and almost grotesque completion. It provided material for the lampoon-writers and caricaturists of the day, for the decorations were carried out in a style extravagant in both senses of the word.

 

Of the wild life led there by the Regent and his associates there is ample evidence in the diarists and memoir writers of the day. A volume might be filled with anecdotes, more or less discreditable, whereof the Pavilion formed a fitting background.

 

William the Fourth frequently visited Brighton, and so did Queen Victoria till 1847, when the Pavilion was abandoned as a royal residence. Three years later the Brighton Commissioners (as the municipal authority was then known) acquired, the ground and buildings for the sum of £53,000, and the Pavilion then entered on a career of usefulness.

 

The State Apartments

 

The State apartments are well worth visiting, and convey a good idea of the crazy notions that obtained in the Regent's circle. The Chinese banqueting-room gives one a much better idea of what the Pavilion was like when the hard-drinking princes played their dastardly pranks, so caustically described Thackeray in The Four Georges, on the aged Duke of Norfolk.

 

The two drawing-rooms and the saloon were redecorated, but the music room, the pleasantest and most restrained of the whole suite, is much as the Regency left it, except for the addition of the organ, which was presented by Queen Victoria to the town, on its acquisition of the Pavilion. There is a warren of little rooms on the upper floor, which would not be worth visiting but that they house several splendid collections of rare old Brighton prints, illustrating the growth and history of the town.

The Dome

 

The Dome, which was the royal stables and tan yard, is now a concert-hall, of which any town might be proud; the remaining Pavilion buildings house the public library, art galleries, and museum of the Brighton Council. The gardens are open to the public.

Amusements

There were several handsome and well-appointed theatres, music-halls, etc., in Brighton around 1910, notably the Theatre Royal, New Road; Hippodrome Theatre of Varieties, Middle Street; " Alhambra ," King's Road; two fine theatres on the West Pier and Palace Pier respectively; and the Brighton Aquarium - then being converted into a Winter Garden and Aquarium.

 

High-class orchestral and vocal concerts were given at the Dome and Royal Pavilion by some of the most noted artistes of the day, and promenade concerts were held two or three times a week in the Royal Pavilion grounds during the summer. These and many other attractions and amusements were easily accessible from Hove by train or bus.

 

A chain of public gardens, suggestive of the "Anlagen" surrounding a German town, runs north from the Pavilion along the Lewes Road. In one of them stands the newer parish church of St. Peter, which will interest students of modern architecture as the first public building of importance executed by Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament. It is a beautiful compromise between the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, subsequent additions having served only to improve it.

 

The old parish church of St. Nicholas, which appears in old print's to be perched on the top of a bare hill above the town, is in Church Street, near Brighton terminus, but it can hardly now be seen for the houses around it. It was then restored, and retains little of its ancient appearance; it is said to have been built in the fourteenth century, of materials from an old Norman church which previously stood on the site. The font and screen are of interest to the antiquary; the former is Norman; the latter late Perpendicular.

Captain Tettersell, who conveyed King Charles II. out of England in his ship, the Enterprise, after the flight from Worcester, is buried here. Kemp Town, laid out by the late Thomas Reed Kemp, lies east of Brighton. It may be visited by those who wish to see the monument to Mrs. Fitzherbert in the Roman Catholic chapel of St. John the Baptist, or by those who care to take the breezy walk over the Downs to the Racecourse, Ovingdean and Rottingdean.

 

 

 

 

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