Constable and Brighton.

Chain Pier Brighton 1826-27

Go visit the current exhibition at the Art Gallery if only to see this much-reproduced image "in the paint" so to speak. It is beautifully hung and lit and seems to make more of an impression here than it did in its normal home at Tate Britain.

The rest of the exhibition has also much of interest. The paintings are grouped according to Constable's three favourite walks from which he drew his inspiration; west to Shoreham, north to the Devil's Dyke and east to the Chain Pier. Everything is well lit and the information boards are succinct and easily read.

See also:
The Curator speaks about the Constable Exhibition
Blue plaque to John Constable unveiled
Rainstorm over the Sea

Remains of the Chain Pier

Remains of the wooden piling just breaking surface at today's low tide.  

They probably align with the second pier out from the shore as shown in the 1890 photo below.

The remains of the first pier will now be buried in the beach due to the substantial build-up of shingle over the last 100 years.

The Chain Pier by J M W Turner

The Chain Pier, Brighton by J M W Turner RA, 1775 -1851

This wonderful watercolour, painted shortly after the Pier was completed in 1823, has only recently surfaced after many years in a private collection. Apart from being a spirited seascape, in the background can be made out many fascinating details of the early 19th century town; the Royal Pavilion and the Royal Albion Hotel both, at that time, only recently completed, and on the hill behind, St. Nicholas Church and Vine's mill. On the seafront to the left can be seen Lamprell's circular baths, later Brill's baths, demolished in 1870 when grander premises were built between East Street and Pool Valley. 

The painting is being auctioned by Christie's, New York on January 26th. Estimated price $300,000 -$500,000.

It really belongs in Brighton Museum . . . 

A view FROM the Chain Pier

Images of the Chain Pier, paintings, drawings, photographs, are plentiful, but it is strange that few Victorian visitors seem to have taken photos from on the pier itself. This makes the above view, before the days of picture postcards, very rare,

Near the centre of the picture is the clock tower of the Aquarium entrance, built 1872, but, conveniently, no sign of the Aquarium Terraces which were completed just two years later. This enables the photo to be confidently dated to about 1873. Construction of the Palace Pier was still two decades away. The Chain Pier was closed to the public in October 1896 and then wrecked in a storm two months later.

Wooden groynes, such as those seen here, were first built in 1723 and added to throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. They seem now to have all been supplanted by concrete groynes, the first being built in 1867 opposite the bottom of East Street.*

*The Encyclopaedia of Brighton. Timothy Carder

Chain Pier remains

A photo taken on 11th August, at one of this year's extra low tides, shows rock-like objects but no wooden stumps. This can be compared with last year's photos which can be seen here. The absence of stumps may mean they have finally succumbed to the sea, or that the level of the mud has shifted, or that the tide is not low enough.

Early photographs of the Chain Pier at low tide show the second cluster of piles out from the shore surrounded by some kind of artificial platform. It seems likely that this was intended to protect the relatively soft piles, or the foundations, from scouring action by the sea and that what we can still see today is the remains of this platform. One can speculate that there may be quite extensive remains of the first set of piles (out of shot in the picture below) deeply buried in, and protected by, the shingle beach which has built up by about 15 feet over the past 100 years.

It is disappointing that the plaque on the Madeira Terraces which once recorded the position of the Chain Pier has now disappeared.  However the plaque to its designer and engineer, Sir Samuel Brown,  can still be seen on Chain Pier House in Marine Parade.

William IV and the Royal York Hotel

Unlike his successor, William IV was a Brighton enthusiast, visiting at least once a year during his reign. He visited the Devil's Dyke, took trips along the cliffs to Rottingdean and liked to walk on the Chain Pier and in the Kemptown enclosures. He worshipped here, had his solicitors in Ship Street and re-developed the Royal Pavilion estate. The original South Gate, now replaced with the Indian Gate, and the North Gate were erected for him.

William succeeded to the crown in June 1830 so it was actually as Duke of Clarence that, in October 1829, he disembarked from Dieppe at the Chain Pier and, greeted by cheering crowds, made his way to the Royal York Hotel. However it seems unnecessary  to quibble at the wording on this plaque which, unveiled in Sept. 2008 on the refurbished hotel, replaced an earlier one with similar wording which had been partly concealed in the portico. What's in a name anyway? For sure, the crowds in 1829 were aware they were greeting their future monarch; and there is precedent in literature for using a title retroactively. There is also the pragmatic consideration that for many people commemorative plaques have only the "one glance chance" to register. "William IV" is succinct and recognisably historic; any extra wording by way of explanation and the whole message might be missed.

When Brighton had three piers . . .

The Chain Pier in the foreground was destroyed by storm in 1896 and the Palace Pier, started in 1891, was a recognizable pier by then even though building progress had been slow. It wasn't opened to the public until 1899. So for a few years Brighton had three piers. On the distant West Pier one can make out the pavilion at the seaward end. This was added in 1893 so this photograph was taken sometime between 1893 and 1896.