On-going work at All Saints, Patcham.

Masonry repairs to the tower buttresses, one on each side of the corner. 

The exposed flintwork glows in the afternoon sunshine.

Progress at All Saints, Patcham.

 

Through the scaffolding it is already possible to get some idea of how All Saints will look stripped of its modern drab rendering. The rough flint walling is being flush pointed, and the brick quoins repaired. 

Old Patcham, which was a prosperous farming village when Brighthelmstone was still a poor fishing hamlet will soon be able to view its parish church in something like the state its medieval builders left it. 

Previous post: All Saints Patcham to get a face-lift.

All Saints, Patcham, to get a facelift.

12th.C All Saints is idyllically situated at the top of Church Hill, near to what was once Patcham Court Farm, its ancient barn,  dovecote and the site of what was once the village pond.  The turret spire can be seen from diverse points around Patcham. Its interior is beautiful but the external appearance is marred by cement render applied by the Victorians. This was probably well-meant but modern evidence suggests that in the long term cement render only serves to trap moisture which eventually migrates to the interior surfaces. 

A project to entirely remove the render, and make good using traditional methods, is expected to start on September 10th. The total cost is estimated to be £300,000 of which £100K has been match-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

To aid the original survey for this work various 'windows' were cut in the render to reveal the surface beneath. They give some hint of the wide variety of materials used and the historical interest that has been hidden for so long.

Postscript. 

Some months ago the churchyard wall was found in danger of collapse due partly to the roots of a nearby sycamore. The tree has now been removed and the wall sensitively repaired by BHCC which owns the churchyard.

A Visit to St. Wilfred's

St. Wilfred's, Elm Grove, grade II listed, was designed 1932-4 by modernist architect Goodhart-Rendell, a local resident, who also designed Prince's House in North Street. The style is said to be Rational Eclectic but showing influences of Norman Shaw and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. In other words it is pretty unique and Brighton is lucky it has survived albeit in the form of residential apartments. The conversion has, however, been sensitively handled.

Inside the tower.
The white walls are those of the inserted apartments. 

An original upper walkway

An added walkway

Narrow aisles allowed for a wide nave giving all worshippers a clear view of the altar.

St.Wilfred's has an added claim to fame in the murals that were added to the plain walls of the Sanctuary in 1940. These were by the Modernist artist Hans Feibusch.

LH wall, the Three Kings

Behind the altar, 'the Nativity'

RH wall, 'The Shepherds'

The murals deteriorated seriously after the church closed in 1980, due partly to a leak above the LH wall. They have now been restored thanks to a fund-raising campaign led by the Hyde Group who manage this property and contributions from American Express and Axis.

The area in which the murals are situated is self-contained within the building and above one end of the ground floor car-park. The possibility thus exists for the murals to be made accessible to the public by inserting a small staircase or lift. Phase 2 of this Hyde Group project is to raise the funds for this through a crowdfunding campaign.

Interest in the works of Hans Feibusch has soared in recent years with growing appreciaton of the Modernist Movement in the first part of the 20th Century. One of his murals in St.Mark's, Coventry, which is 40ft. high, is also undergoing restoration.

St. Wilfred's mural restored

A historically-significant mural in a converted Brighton church has been restored, thanks to a fundraising campaign initiated by the Hyde Group. The mural is the oldest surviving one in the UK but had suffered in recent years from a leak in the roof of the building. This has since been repaired, but left the mural damaged. The restoration to stabilise the plasterwork and bring it back to its former glory has been carried out by a specialist company.

The Nativity was painted on the walls of St Wilfrid’s church by renowned 20th Century artist Hans Feibusch. The artist is one of note in the art world, with paintings held at the National Gallery, and his personal collection is held at the Pallant Museum in Chichester.

Feibusch was a prominent artist in Germany between the World Wars. When the Nazis rose to power in 1933 he emigrated to England and undertook a number of commissions for the Chichester Diocese. His work has been exhibited at the Tate in London.

Hyde Group are now aiming to crowdfund further work to make the mural accessible for public viewing. 

St. Peter's pinnacles emerge

The Rev. Archie Coates outlines the renovations so far.



See also: Musings on St. Peter's

Queen Square development

No.11 Queen Square

The old ice-rink in Queen Square (no.11b) has already been demolished and, if application BH2016/01497 is approved, no.11 in the corner will also go. The square dates from around 1850.

The Proposal

In place of 11 and 11b is proposed a five storey building providing 26 residential units with offices at lower ground floor level. This application supersedes an earlier application for a boutique hotel with a public restaurant on the ground floor. The latter facility would have at least had the benefit of boosting the vibrancy of the square but the applicant now feels that housing demands should take precedence.

Rear of ice-rink site - St.Nicholas Churchyard wall

At the time of the original application in 2011 many people felt that the development  provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide new access to the St. Nicholas Open Space. By cutting an opening in the wall and installing a permissive footpath alongside the new building, or under its first floor, an underused section of the Open Space would have been made considerably more accessible, and footfall in the square would have been increased. However, notwithstanding that the idea once found favour in the Council planning department the idea was eventually defeated by the forces of conservatism.  

See earlier posts:-

A new footpath for St. Nicholas?
New Queen Square hotel - planning application

Old St. Paul's

An evocative etching by G.H.Bly reproduced on a postcard in the collection of the Royal Pavilion & Museums. It is reminiscent of the London etchings of Gustave Doré.

The viewpoint appears to be looking east along Lower Russell Street towards West Street.

St. Paul's was built for fishermen and their families and opened in 1848.

1958 street map

Ann Street, then & now

Late1960s

2015.

The 19thC cottages in Ann Street were replaced in the 1970s by a new building for the St. Bartholomew's C of E Primary School. The school is set further back from the pavement that the housing it replaced. The choice of bricks is unfortunate. A rendered finish would have looked better against the side of the church.

The original school building, in Providence Place behind the church, was built in 1874 and demolished in 1975. 

Musings on St. Peter's

 

One doesn't need to be a subscriber to the Invisible Sky Wizard's fan club to be relieved to see that something is at last going to be done about the long-crumbling tower. The church has dominated the main gateway into Brighton for 187 years and it is disturbing to contemplate the effect its loss would have on the city's skyline.

Phase1 of the work is estimated to cost £365K which doesn't seem a lot. It will presumably only cover emergency repairs. Just enough maybe to stop lumps of masonry falling on the faithful's heads. A full restoration, including reinstating the north east pinnacle that was removed in 1990, will cost another £635K.

Archie Coates, the Vicar, has appealed for public donations.

Brighton's godless hoards might view this more sympathetically if there was something in it for them, apart from merely aesthetic considerations.  St. Peter's is often described as Brighton's "cathedral" and one of the visitor attractions offered by many of the UK's other cathedrals is access to their towers from which unrivalled birds-eye views can be enjoyed. Why not provide a similar facility for St. Peter's restored tower? The consequent positive publicity would surely help to boost the restoration fund. And, when restoration is completed, the extra flow of visitors in search of a special experience could provide an on-going source of income for the church.

Previous post: St.Peter's - then & now.

City spelling - no.1

St. Peter's church.

Restaurant for the Chapel Royal?

Following its restoration earlier this year, the Chapel Royal, on the corner of North Street and Princes Place, may get an 80 covers restaurant in a "unique cavern venue", i.e.  the undercroft or vaults of the church. These have no internal connection to the church and have been under separate freehold title from the chapel since 1896. Planning application BH2012/03647 details alterations to the entrance shown above to provide access to the vaults and necessary internal works.

The plans require excavating a basement area from the public highway in front of the door and providing a flight of steps and a disabled lift. This area will be surrounded by cast iron railings and its walls faced with bricks matching those of the Chapel Royal. 

Brighton Society supports St. Nicholas footpath

A new planning application BH2011/00654 has recently been submitted for the hotel at the end of Queen Square backing on to the St. Nicholas churchyard (which is owned by the City Council). 

An article on the Brighton Society website says:-

"The previous application, which attracted a great deal of opposition from the residents of nearby Wykeham Terrace, has been withdrawn. The balconies which would have overlooked the the backs of Wykham Terrace have now been omitted from the new plan.

The Brighton Society is particularly disappointed by another aspect of this application, in that it failed to provide for a pedestrian link between Queen Square and St. Nicholas churchyard. This was previously suggested by Council officers in the notes they drew up to facilitate sale of the site, but it was never presented as an option in the later public consultations.

The footpath has many advantages:

• It would increases footfall in Queen Square altering its character from the present unattractive ‘no-go’ area.
• It would be an advantage to any cafe/restaurant business established in the hotel.
• It would provide a pleasant traffic-free pedestrian link to the City Centre as an alternative to Dyke Road.
• By increasing public access to the south-east corner of the churchyard it would lessen the chances of anti-social behaviour in this isolated area.
• It would open up easy access to one of the best views of St Nicholas church."

It appears that the proposals for a footpath were excluded very early on, mainly due to opposition from representatives of the St. Nicholas Green Spaces Association. It is difficult to believe that proper and thorough analysis of the advantages of such a path were carried out, or even that the opinions of nearby residents were  canvassed.

Theatre in the Lanes

Brighton's unique Treason Show left the Komedia in 2009, after 9 years, following a disagreement with management over the number of shows it was allowed. It has been at the Pavilion Theatre ever since, apart from a New Year show at the Old Ship and a 10 year celebration performance at the Theatre Royal.

As it is essentially suited to a cabaret-style venue the Pavilion Theatre was not ideal and it is therefore excellent news that Mark Brailsford, founder, director, performer (and streaker), has been granted a license to operate from the basement of 25 North Street as "The Theatre in the Lanes".

25 North Street, adjacent to Meeting House Lane and directly opposite the end of New Road, is appropriately situated close to The Theatre Royal and the Pavilion Theatre. The site  is now occupied by Chandos House, a 1960's development which replaced part of Vokins, the drapers, and the Countess of Huntingdon's Church

The Countess of Huntingdon's Church, North Street

Further details: Council grants new theatre application

A grisly tale . . .

On the churchyard wall, St.Peter's, Preston Manor
(Click on photo to read)

. . . often told but, as the events it relates occurred 180 years ago this month, here is a reminder:-

John Holloway, a painter employed on the Chain Pier, was living with his mistress who he had bigamously married, in Margaret Street, Kemp Town. When his legal wife Celia, who was destitute, applied to the Poor Law authorities for relief, they ordered John Holloway to pay her 2 shillings a week.

This he was unwilling or unable to do. To solve his problem he strangled Celia and with the help of his mistress dismembered the body. They hid the head and limbs in the privy at Margaret Street and put the torso in a wheelbarrow which John trundled along the London/Preston Roads to Lovers Walk where he concealed the remains.

Engraving by J Parez, 1831. Shows John Holloway and his lover, Anne Kennett, outside of the Hare and Hounds pub at Preston Circus. They are on the way to Lover's Walk to dispose of Holloway's wife, Celia. The crime is popularly known as Brighton's first trunk murder.

Only a small stub of Lovers Walk at Preston Park remains today but before the coming of the railway it will have been a country track through fields and woods linking Preston with the Seven Dials area. The Seven Dials end has now become Prestonville Road.

Celia's remains came to light a few days later, after a shower of rain, and John Holloway was hanged at Lewes in 1832, but not before he had written and published his memoirs. An original copy is currently on offer for £175. An Authentic and Faithful History of the Atrocious Murder of Celia Holloway . . .

Holy Trinity Hove for new Health Centre?

 

See Brighton & Hove News report:-

Health chiefs prescribe derelict church to host Hove medical services

Belvedere

"Belvedere" on the west side of Montpelier Road (no.66) was a lavish Jacobean style mansion erected in 1840 for the unmarried sister, Mary Ann, of the Rev. Henry Mitchell Wagner, the famous Vicar of Brighton. It was well set back from the road and surrounded by lush mature trees and shrubbery that brought a hint of the country into the heart of Brighton. After the death of Henry's wife, Mary raised his son Arthur Douglas Wagner . Arthur eventually inherited Mary's considerable wealth and carried on his father's work of church building in the poorer areas of Brighton. Arthur became Vicar of St. Paul's in West Street and continued living in Belvedere until his death in 1902.

After Arthur's death it became the "66" hotel, then the Park Royal Hotel until demolition in 1965. A private block of flats, now Council-owned, was erected on the site.

Only the wall and gate-posts (both listed) now remain.

New Hotel for Queen Square

A recent City Council press release informs that the former ice rink in Queen Square has been sold and the site will be redeveloped as an apartment-style hotel by the Light Boutique Apart Hotel chain. It is to be designed by Conran & Partners to provide 60 apartments and a cafe subject to planning permission which is expected in within 6 months.

It seems a good spot for a hotel. At the end of a cul-de-sac and backing on to the St Nicholas Churchyard it will be a uniquely quiet spot only 150 yards from Brighton's main shopping centre. However the number of apartments planned suggest it will be a substantial building and will be clearly visible from the churchyard.  In the photo below I judge it will be just out of the photo to the left of the tree so probably not too dominant as long as its not too high.

It is surely inevitable that it will cast a near permanent shadow, particularly in winter, over the south- eastern  part of the churchyard.  A period of community consultation is expected to begin shortly. No doubt the height of the hotel and number of parking places to be provided will be high in the list of topics discussed.

St. Nicholas Churchyard 100 years ago

According to the Brighton Mortiquarian public health legislation enacted to curtail cholera and other epidemic diseases forbad burial in St Nicholas from around 1854, and this was followed in the 1870's by a clearance of monuments. This clearance must presumably have been rather selective, since in the early 1900's, as this postcard (postmarked 1906) shows, the churchyard was still well crammed. 

The low stature of the trees in this picture also remind one that Brighton was originally a very treeless town (Trees in Brighton - an earlier opinion) and it was not until the later half of the 19th. century that tree-planting began in earnest. By the 1940's the tree-cover in the churchyard and along its boundary was quite extensive. Some trees and shrubs were removed during the second clearance in the 1950's leaving the churchyard more like it is today.

See also: "St Nicholas Churchyard".

New England House

In this photo New England House (NEH) is the shabby, industrial tower complex, to the right of St. Bartholomew's and obscuring the view of the Victorian viaduct. (Click on the photo for an enlarged view). Prior to the 1960's when NEH was built, these two listed monuments to Victorian genius could be seen in splendid juxtaposition from this viewpoint on Albion Hill.

It is gratifying that the newly-developed station site to the left of the church, although criticised, seems at this distance to be quite sympathetic, and does not degrade the view to anywhere near the same extent.   One might have hoped that NEH, nearing the end of its economic life would soon be demolished, thus allowing a search for a better architectural solution for the site.

However it now seems the City Council has other ideas for NEH and is proposing renovation that will extend its life for another 40 years. Worse news is that it is also considering developing above the London Road Car Park, indentifiable in this photo by the low-rise, red-brick block of flats between St. Bartholomew's and NEH.

Another tall block even nearer to St. Bartholomew's would further diminish its unique scenic impact.