Freemasonry

In the large meeting chamber of the Sussex Masonic Centre in Queens Road the ceiling is domed with a central light-fitting. This serves as a sun motif radiating out to signs of the zodiac around the circumference. Men of any religion or none are accepted into Freemasonry so long as they are prepared to affirm their belief in a Supreme Being.

Thomas Paine in his 1818 essay, "The Origins of Freemasonry" says that  "the christian religion and Masonry have one and the same common origin: both are derived from the worship of the Sun. The difference between their origin is, that the christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun."

Apparently there is no bar on a Muslim becoming a Freemason but I am not sure how they would cope with the big "G" suspended from the ceiling of one of the smaller rooms. . . .

ASDA Marina car park

Financial considerations aside, proposals to provide Brighton with a yacht harbour on an otherwise unsheltered part of the south coast always had appeal. But whereas boats must have sheltered water, it seems somewhat perverse to have dedicated expensively reclaimed land to car-parking.

This car park for about 250 cars occupies about a 30th of the 127 acres enclosed by the Marina's breakwaters. These 127 acres were provided in 1980 at a cost said to be in the order then of £50M. This equates to £170M today. Each car park space therefore cost about £23,000 at today's prices. 

To make the Marina a viable economic proposition it was always planned to introduce revenue-producing activities additional to yachting, but something less mundane than a superstore and car park might have been hoped for.

Editor's note: Since the date of this post there has been a proposal to build apartment blocks over the car park, even including a roof-top link to the cliffs, but this hasn't so  far come to fruition.

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.

Arnold House Hotel

Arnold House in Montpelier Terrace was built in 1861 on the site of a former farm house and was occupied, until his death in 1903, by Henry Willett the founder of Brighton Museum and friend of the Victorian aesthete John Ruskin. It became a hotel in 1939, and had roof dormers added; but it retained much timeless charm and attractiveness both inside and out until its wanton demolition in 1971. At the rear was a large well-stocked garden the south end of which now forms the east end of Waitrose car park. 

It was replaced with a block of flats of hideous mediocrity the only point in its favour being that the roof line was kept to that of the adjoining buildings:-

It seems as if the wrought-iron lettering on the front couldn't decide if it wanted to be upright or italic so was installed on a slant in the hope no one would notice!

Winter sunshine

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