Regency Brighton

Under the influence of the pleasure-loving Prince Regent, Brighton became a jewel of extravagant architecture

- Lawrence Alexander

Style is no respecter of monarchs. Brighton may be nigh-on synonymous with the Regency period (1811-20) – it was a seaside retreat for the Prince Regent, the future George IV – but many of its most famous features were completed much later.

“We have to broaden time frames,” says Nick Tyson, curator of the Regency Town House, “thanks to the Great Stop.” Brighton enjoyed an explosion of speculative building in the early 1820s, with many developers borrowing heavily to fund construction. By now, however, the once-fashionable prince had become an unpopular king and, in 1826, the bubble burst. “People went bankrupt,” says Nick. “Many projects started in the 1820s were only completed in the late 1850s.”

Of course that is not how we see Brighton today. Thanks to the efforts of architecture lovers from the 1980s onwards, it is one of the most intact ‘Regency’ towns left and if the dating isn’t pure, the architecture is.

We can get a feel of what the town must have been like in its heyday merely by strolling the streets with an enquiring eye. Royal, Hanover, Park and Montpelier crescents remain largely unaltered, and even side streets reveal hints of the loosening of stays Georgians relished when they visited the seaside.

The idea of visiting the sea for one’s health was new, encouraged by the theories of Dr Richard Russell, who advocated bathing in – and drinking – seawater.

When George, Prince of Wales arrived at the sleepy fishing town in 1783, he fell in love. Here, finally, he could indulge his famously hedonistic tastes. By 1787 architect Henry Holland was turning George’s lodgings into Marine Pavilion, a neoclassical villa. It would do for now, but something niggled at the back of the Prince’s mind.