Old Steine through prehistory

RPM video:

Brighton's War Memorial

 

On 30 November at 12 noon, the museum's curator of local history & archeology, Dan Robertson, will give a 45 minute talk about the Old Steine war memorial. It was built in 1922 to the design of Sir John William Simpson KBE FRIBA, the eldest son of Brighton architect Thomas Simpson. Sir John is better known locally as the designer of Roedean School, 1898, which imposingly adorns our cliff tops.

Meet in Museum Lab (first floor)

Roedean School

A traffic-free St. James's Street?

St. James's Street is a narrow, old-fashioned shopping street and the proposal to close it to traffic for a trial period is surely to be welcomed. 70% of traders in the street are said to be in favour. The improvements in air quality and the general shopping environment would be considerable. It might result in some incovenience to bus passengers who use stops in the street but all parts are within easy walking distance of stops in the Old Steine, Edward Street, Rock Place or Marine Parade.

A concomitant benefit is that, if this measure were to be adopted permanently, it would allow closing of the crossover road between Castle Square and St. James's Street so allowing  the two green spaces of the Old Steine gardens to be reunited into one more accessible space.

See also:- Valley Gardens Consultation.

Old Steine café extension

Planning application BH2012/03095 details proposals for an extension on the garden side of the café to provide all-weather shelter for customers. 

This is an ex-tram shelter/public toilet, grade II listed in 1993. It was designed in 1926 in the 'International Style' by the Borough Engineer, David Edwards. The walls are of reinforced concrete and the glazing bars of steel. The original toilets were accommodated in a deep  basement. Near the centre, two sections of the wall project to form a recess with a pair of entrances which now accommodate toilets adapted for disabled people. The deep overhanging roof steps out over this centre section. 

The proposed extension will be detailed and finished in sympathetic style but will fundamentally alter the building's form. Although there is no shortage of indoor café accomodation in the area the extension  may be necessary to ensure the ongoing maintenance and preservation of the building.

Serlian windows

Grade I listed Marlborough House, remodelled by Robert Adam c.1786 provides (probably) the only example in Brighton of "serlian" windows. These consist of a half-round arched section flanked by two rectangular sections and separated by columns or pilasters. They are named after Sebastio Serlio, an architectural author c.1500. 

Pevsner, in his Sussex volume, declares Marlborough House to have  the finest facade in Brighton.

Chiswick House (below), also remodelled from an earlier house, also includes serlian windows but here as part of a full-on 1720s Palladian design much favoured by its owner Robert Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington; he of the Arcade & Royal Academy but no connection to the physicist.

Valley Gardens consultation.

Over the years Councils of various shades have promised to "do something" about the Valley Gardens. A commitment to action also featured in the Green Party's manifesto before the last elections. Now a relevant consultation document has been posted on the Council's website. This invites you to record your opinions on the present state of the Gardens and your ideas for their improvement.
To take part go to:- Consultation Portal - Valley Gardens.

Here are a few ideas for improvement you might think worth mentioning:-

Old Steine:-

•  Dig up the roadway on the south east corner and return it to garden. This was nibbled from the gardens over 100 years ago for the trams, it is now very underused. 
• Close the St. James St./Castle Sq. traffic crossover (see below) and join the two sections of the Steine up. This will mean that all traffic has to go round the south, or north end of the Steine. So what?
• Dig up the unused roadway along the west side of the north section and return it to plantings. This area was pinched from the Steine comparatively recently for the bus lanes but has now become redundant.
• Provide a pedestrian crossing point from the north end of the Steine gardens to the pavement in front of the Royal Pavilion.

Note. All the locations mentioned are pin-pointed in the above aerial view of the Steine. Click on the picture to see full-size image. 

St. James's St./Castle Sq. crossover

Western side of Old Steine north

Victoria Gardens:-

Victoria Gardesn southern section

• In the large southern section put in diagonal paths, where people walk, (see above) and compensate for the loss of grass by reducing the width of the pavements around the edges. These pavements seem to be very rarely used.
• In the northern narrow section (see below) increase its width by removing much of the perimeter paving, particularly on the west side. It is shabby, unnecessarily wide and seldom used. Provide a path down the centre of the garden so that pedestrians can enjoy their walk at maximum remove from the traffic.

West side of Victoria gardens north.

Victoria Gardens north

The Victoria Fountain - now & then

The Victoria Fountain is pure 'Brighton'. It was financed partly by Sir John Cordy Burrows, Brighton's first Mayor and partly by local public subscription; it was designed by Brighton's regency architect Amon Henry Wilds, modelled by Brighton sculptor William Pepper, cast in the Eagle Foundry in Gloucester Road, and the Brighton dolphins forming its base were mounted on a collection of sarsen stones dug up in the Old Steine in 1823. It has rightfully been grade II listed along with the grade I Royal Pavilion, since the listing scheme was first introduced in 1952.


It was inaugurated in 1846, to mark Queen Victoria's 27th. birthday, with a ceremony at which a band played the "The Fountain Quadrilles", specially composed by local musician Charles Coote. In 1990 the top part was removed for restoration and, on completion in 1995, was inaugurated by Prince Charles. The whole fountain was given a further makeover for the Millenium celebrations and it seems to have been getting regular maintenance ever since.

The circular cascades between the basins, which form such an attractive feature, especially viewed against the light, appear to have been a recent innovation. Early photos show individual jets arcing down from the rims of the upper basins and others arcing up from the bottom one.





Some more about the fountain & comments about William Pepper here:- My Brighton & Hove: the Victoria Fountain

Old Steine cannon (3)

According to the  note to the above photo in the James Gray collection,
" . . . . Russian guns, relics of the Siege of Sebastopol (ended 1855), were placed in the gardens in 1859 and were removed during the 1930s." The photograph itself is a rather distant shot but it is just possible to make out one of the guns at the north end of the southern garden. It seems probable that there were a pair of cannon one each side of the north entrance and the 1930's photo is of the other one.

Interestingly, 1859 is also the year in which Brighton's West Battery, near the bottom of Cannon Place was demolished and the guns used there were 36-pounders*. I'm not an expert but I believe those in the Old Steine could be 36-pounders too. It all seems too much of a coincidence. Perhaps the Sebastopol relics were simply stored at the battery for the few years before it was demolished. . . ?

* "The Encyclopaedia of Brighton" by Timothy Carder

The Old Steine cannon (2)

This view looking north from the Victoria Fountain in about 1935 shows, on the right, the old cannon that was referred to in an earlier post.

Does anyone know what happened to it?

It may have come from the old seafront battery for which Cannon Place, and Artillery Street (now under Churchill Square), were named.

Had it survived to the present day it would surely be a prized relic of the City's past.

Old Steine Cannon

During the 1940's, possibly earlier, an old iron cannon was parked on the grass at the north side of the south garden of Old Steine adjacent the crossover from Castle Square to St. James's Street. Probably from the Napoleonic era and designed to fire over a low parapet, it was raised high on an iron carriage with two smallish iron wheels at the front and skids at the rear.

I wonder if it was a relic of the seafront battery and what happened to it? Perhaps it went to the war effort and was melted down for armaments.