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The text of the first Trail follows but in this version the links can give you some extra information about the lives of famous | ||
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Leave Harry Ramsden’s behind you. Walk up the hill, past the Van Alen building to Camelford Street. George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906) lived at Number 36 for the last twenty five years of his life. Described as a Chartist, lecturer, author and journalist, his elegant plaque, with its laurel wreath border, was paid for by the Co-operative Society. Further along the sea front, pause as you reach the bus stop at the New Steine and look out to sea. If the Chain pier was still there, you’d be looking straight along it. Move on to 48, Marine Parade, now called Chain Pier House. Under the verandah Brighton Corporation has put one of its slate roundels to Captain Sir Samuel Brown, RN (1776-1852). Captain Brown ( his knighthood came later ) lived here while supervising the building of the Chain Pier. On the day it opened, Mrs. Brown gave a ball and the outline of the pier was chalked on the dance floor. Continue along Marine Parade. Look for Charlotte Street and The Lanes Hotel. Just beyond the hotel is a narrow turning that’s easily overlooked. This is Marine Gardens. Dame Flora Robson (1911-1984) lived at No. 14 from 1961 to 1976. Her plaque is one of five put up in Brighton and Hove by the British Film Institute in 1996, celebrating The Centenary of Cinema. Like the others, it’s shaped like a piece of film and the digits making up the number 100 form a stylised movie camera. Dame Flora’s other home in Brighton, at Wykeham Terrace, has a Brighton Corporation plaque. Sir Terence Rattigan (1911-1977) is commemorated by the Regency Society at Bedford House, 79, Marine Parade. His plays include ‘French without Tears’, ‘The Winslow Boy’ (based on an actual court case), ‘The Browning Version’, ‘The Deep Blue Sea’ and ‘Separate Tables’ . Several of his plays were turned into successful films and he also wrote for the cinema. Take a moment to walk up Bedford Street. At the top, look to the right. The church on the opposite side of the road is St. John the Baptist RC Church. Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837) , who was secretly married to the Prince Regent, is buried here. Brighton Corporation has placed a plaque on the outer wall of the church, drawing attention to the whereabouts of her tomb. Her house in Old Steine has a plaque on it, designed by Eric Gill, and unveiled in 1925. Continue along the seafront and make for Royal Crescent, with its black mathematical tiles and pretty balconies. Lord Olivier of Brighton(1907-1989) owned both Nos. 4 and 5.This distinguished actor of stage and screen was also first Artistic Director of the Chichester Festival Theatre. On a more frivolous note, he waged a campaign to have kippers restored to the breakfast menu of the ‘ Brighton Belle’ Pullman Car( London to Brighton Train Service ). He is commemorated with a Brighton Corporation slate roundel. Just past Royal Crescent is the former Royal Crescent Hotel (now flats) 101, Marine Parade. Round the corner, on the Burlington Street facade is a plaque to George Canning (1770-1827). Canning has been called one of the best Foreign Secretaries that England ever had. He became Prime Minister in April 1827, but died a few months later. Take a good look at his plaque as it is one of the few designed by Eric Gill in the 1920s which is still in anything like its original state. A little way up Burlington Street and on the same side, is No. 25. Here the British Music Hall Society has honoured Max Miller (1894-1963). With his loud suits and his ‘white’ and ‘blue’ joke books, he was one of the alltime greats of the variety stage. As you return to the seafront, look left. In the doorway of No. 103, Marine Parade, is a plaque put up by the Carden family to commemorate the life and work of Sir Herbert Carden (1867-1941). Often referred to as the Father of Modern Brighton, he preserved Brighton’s greenbelt by buying up parcels of downland at auction and then selling them to Brighton Corporation at cost. However, if some of his ideas about modernising Brighton had been acted upon, much of the Regency and Victorian architecture that we value today would have been destroyed. Our next port-of-call is some distance away, past Bloomsbury Place and Marine Square, Paston Place and Eaton Place, to Percival Terrace. At No.3, a Brighton Corporation slate roundel honours Sir James Knowles (1831-1908). An architect and writer, he founded the Metaphysical Society as well as the influential Nineteenth Century Magazine. He designed buildings in Hove ( Princes’ Hotel, now Council Offices in Grand Avenue, and much of the surrounding housing), as well as the Grosvenor House Hotel and laid out Leicester Square, in London. At 5, Percival Terrace lived Herbert Spencer (1830-1903). A philosopher, he lived here in seclusion from 1898 until he died in December 1903. The present plaque is badly eroded. It replaces one, topped with the Brighton dolphins, which was designed by Eric Gill and was the very first official Brighton Corporation plaque, unveiled on October 10. 1925. It would have been similar to George Canning’s plaque. Pass Clarendon Terrace and walk to the end of Chichester Terrace. Many years ago No. 14 was joined to its neighbour, No. 1, Lewes Crescent, to form an unique fan?shaped house. The Regency Society put up a stone tablet to commemorate two dukes, the 6th. Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858) the Bachelor Duke, and the 1st. Duke of Fife (1849-1912), King Edward VII’s son-in-law. The stone has worn away and, when the house was painted in 2003, the remains were covered with paint. Walk up the western side of Lewes Crescent. At No.13, the Regency Society has commemorated Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855). Kemp Town was the brainchild of Thomas Read Kemp but, as he wasn’t a builder, he employed several, of whom Thomas Cubitt was the most important. He also did a great deal of work in London and built Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The western side of Sussex Square starts after No. 14, Lewes Crescent. Walk up, cross Eastern Road, which cuts through the Square. The house on the corner is No.11. Continue round the Square to No.22, now part of St. Mary’s Hall girls’ school. Thomas Read Kemp (1782-1844) lived here from 1828 until 1837, when pressure from his creditors forced him to seek refuge on the continent. Sometime Member of Parliament, founder too of a religious sect, he is now chiefly remembered as the property speculator behind Kemp Town. Look around and see what he achieved! The house now sports a blue ceramic plaque which replaces an earlier frost-damaged one. This was the first blue plaque to be unveiled by the Regency Society, in 1952. Walk down the eastern side of Sussex Square, re-cross Eastern Road to No. 46. (1912-1989) is remembered here by the Society which he helped to found in 1945. He was the Regency Society’s first Treasurer and then for forty-five years its Honorary Secretary. His contribution to the preservation of the architectural heritage of Brighton and Hove is incalculable. A little further down we are back in Lewes Crescent. Look for Nos.17 and 18. Both have Brighton Corporation plaques on them. Lord Elwyn-Jones (1909-1989) lived at No.17 with his wife Polly Binder (1904-1989). Lord Elwyn-Jones sat as a Labour MP from 1945 to 1974. He then became Lord Chancellor, an office he held until 1979. His wife, usually called ‘Pearl’ rather than ‘Polly’ on her books, was an author and graphic artist of distinction. Next door, at No.18, lived the film producer Herbert Wilcox (1890-1977) and his wife Dame Anna Neagle (1901-1986), one of the most popular screen actresses of her day. At No. 25, Lewes Crescent the foundation by the Lawrence sisters of the school that was to become Roedean is remembered. There’s just one more plaque to find. It’s round the corner at 5, Arundel Terrace. William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) lived here from 1885 to 1867. In 1910 Charles Arnold Bleckley, who then owned the house, decided to commemorate not only the novelist’s residence but also the books that he wrote in his house by the sea. One of these was ‘Ovingdean Grange’, telling the story of Charles II’s escape after the Battle of Worcester. Among Ainsworth’s other works we should mention ‘Rookwood’, inspired by a visit to Cuckfield Park. This novel created the myth of the highwayman as a romantic and glamorous figure. Walk back to the pier on the other side of the road so that you can look at the Regency Terraces you’ve just walked along. The slope down to the beach opposite Chichester Terrace is called Duke’s Mound, in honour of the Duke of Devonshire. Further on, by the Madeira Lift, the wall retaining the cliff was built in the 1830s by William Lambert. Unfortunately, the plaque on the wall commemorating his achievement is so overgrown with ivy as to be unreadable. There is now nothing to mark the site of the Chain Pier, but the two little kiosks at the shore end of the Palace (now Brighton) Pier are survivors of the storm that destroyed it. This is the first in a series of trails planned by the Regency Society. We hope that you enjoyed plaque-spotting with us. If you would like to know more about Kemp Town, the best book on the subject is ‘Fashionable Brighton 1820-1860’ by Antony Dale, now out of print. Other useful books are ‘Life in Brighton’ by Clifford Musgrave, also out of print, and ‘The Encyclopaedia of Brighton’. Published by East Sussex County Council Library Service, it is still available. | ||
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