St Mark's Church, Brighton
Encyclopedia
St Mark's Church is a former Anglican
church in the Kemptown
area of Brighton
, part of the English
city of Brighton and Hove. Originally intended as the private chapel of the adjacent St Mary's Hall school, it was partly built in 1838 at the request of Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol
; but arguments over whether or not it should also be open to the public delayed its completion for more than 10 years. It became the parish church
of Kemptown
in 1873, but declining attendances resulted in a declaration of redundancy in 1986. At that time it was taken over by the school and became its chapel, nearly 150 years after this was first proposed. The Early English-style stone and concrete structure has been criticised by architectural historians, but has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage
for its architectural and historical importance.
's high-class Kemp Town
estate and the longer-established area around the Royal Pavilion
and Old Steine, the centre of high society
activity in the late 18th century. Roads such as Eastern Road and Bristol Road ran from west to east towards Kemp Town, and high-density housing branched off on roads to the north and south. This area became known as Kemptown
. Kemp owned much of the land in the area, but in the 1820s he sold about 150 acres (60.7 ha) to Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol
. He had succeeded to the Earldom of Bristol
when his father, the 4th Earl of Bristol (known as the Earl-Bishop)
, died in 1803. The Marquess, who assumed that title in 1826, was interested in church-building and works of charity. Soon after buying the land, he gave a portion to Reverend Henry Venn Elliott to allow him to build St Mary's Hall School. In 1837, Reverend Elliott began to plan for an Anglican church to serve the area, and the Marquess gave more land next to the school to allow one to be built there. Construction started in 1838, and the Marquess spent about £2,000 (£ as of ) to ensure a rapid completion. However, disagreements soon arose over these plans: the Diocese of Chichester
had not approved the proposal to open the church to the public, and had only given permission for the building to be a private chapel for the school; and the Vicar of Brighton, Reverend Henry Michell Wagner, disapproved of its location—it was considered to be too close to St George's Church
. Correspondence and debate carried on for several years between the men involved, and an independent party—the Commissioners for Building New Churches—eventually had to take charge of the project.
Construction was allowed to continue in 1848, after agreement was reached that the church could be used for public worship, and the Bishop of Chichester
Ashurst Turner Gilbert
conducted a consecration ceremony on 21 September 1849. The identity of the architect was not recorded, but sources suggest either George Cheesman junior—whose Christ Church in Montpelier Road, Brighton was very similar—or Thomas Cooper. Thomas Shelbourne was the builder; he may have had some influence in the design as well. The final cost was £4,800 (£ as of ), most of which was contributed by the Marquess and Reverend Elliott.
The church had a capacity of more than 1,000, and about half of the pew
s were free (not subject to pew rents). The others provided income to offset church expenditure until the pew rent system was abolished in 1930. Reverend Henry Venn Elliott's brother, Reverend Edward Bishop Elliott
, became the vicar in 1853 and remained in charge until his death in 1875. Although he was buried at St Andrew's Church in Hove
, a memorial stone was installed in the chancel. It is next to a tablet commemorating the Marquess of Bristol, who had died in 1859. The congregation and others also donated money to fund a new window in the east end as a memorial to him.
In 1848, three bells were installed by Mears & Stainbank (now the Whitechapel Bell Foundry)
of London, and three more were added in 1867 when the tower was given the clock which it was intended to have had from the beginning. A vicarage was added in 1888 after the 3rd Marquess of Bristol
donated land from his estate, and larger-scale alterations took place between 1891 and 1892, when the new vicar commissioned architect W. Gilbee Scott to add a chancel
, vestry
, south transept
and organ chamber
and to alter the galleries. A north transept was never built, although it was planned. The new chancel was altered further by the addition of multicoloured paintwork and a marble reredos
in 1913, during the short incumbency of Reverend Henry Venn Elliott's grandson, also called Henry Venn Elliott. The 3rd Marquess of Bristol paid for this work.
In 1873, St Mark's became the parish church
of Kemptown; St George's Church had originally held this status. By the 1980s, however, attendances were falling, and the Diocese of Chichester declared the church redundant as from 1 May 1986. Its parish was merged into that of St George's Church, which also gained the area covered by the parish of St Anne's Church, closed and demolished in 1986. The official name of this parish is now "St George with St Anne and St Mark". The building was then given to St Mary's Hall School for use as their private chapel, arts centre and concert hall. This meant that after nearly 150 years, it was being used for the purpose for which it was originally built.
wrote of its "terrible stone facing", while Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
considered both St Mark's and the very similar Christ Church (now demolished) to have "deplorable architecture [...] combining the smugness of the chapel [with] the peculiarity of the Gothic
". The building does not reflect ecclesiastical architectural norms of the mid-19th century, partly because its construction started several years earlier and also because Reverend Elliott and the Marquess of Bristol held traditionalist, old-fashioned views.
The church was built in the Early English Gothic Revival style using a combination of concrete, stone and ashlar
. The concrete was used to imitate Kentish Ragstone
; the north side is stucco
ed to resemble ashlar; and genuine ashlar was used for the late 19th-century extensions. The concrete section has stone quoin
s at the corners. The south façade, facing Eastern Road, has lancet window
s and small buttress
es, and the north face is identical. The tower, topped with a spire, stands at the west end and also has lancets and corner buttresses; it is flanked by porches. All roofs are of slate
.
As originally designed, the nave and its adjacent aisles consisted of one open-plan area demarcated by narrow cast iron
columns and piers. A stone chancel arch led to W. Gilbee Scott's chancel, with one bay
and a window with tracery
work. The vestry was on the north side of the chancel, opposite the organ chamber. The galleries, altered and mostly removed during the 1891–1892 work, originally ran round three sides of the interior and were held up by fluted
columns.
on 26 August 1999. It is one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.
St Mary's Hall School now owns the church. Reverend Henry Venn Elliott founded the school, which opened on 1 August 1836, and commissioned George Basevi
to design it. He used the Early Tudor style
, and the building cost £4,250 (£ as of ), over half of which was paid by Reverend Elliott. Many extensions have been built subsequently. The school made some internal alterations to the church to allow part of it to be used as an arts centre and concert hall, but its main function is still religious. More extensive alterations are planned, for which planning permission
has been granted; the arts centre area is to be extended and opened to groups from outside the school.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
church in the Kemptown
Kemptown
Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.-History:The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the one-word name now refers to an area larger than the...
area of Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, part of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
city of Brighton and Hove. Originally intended as the private chapel of the adjacent St Mary's Hall school, it was partly built in 1838 at the request of Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol
Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol
Frederick William Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol , styled Lord Hervey between 1796 and 1803 and known as The Earl of Bristol between 1803 and 1826, was a British peer....
; but arguments over whether or not it should also be open to the public delayed its completion for more than 10 years. It became the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of Kemptown
Kemptown
Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.-History:The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the one-word name now refers to an area larger than the...
in 1873, but declining attendances resulted in a declaration of redundancy in 1986. At that time it was taken over by the school and became its chapel, nearly 150 years after this was first proposed. The Early English-style stone and concrete structure has been criticised by architectural historians, but has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
for its architectural and historical importance.
History
Brighton's rapid growth in the early decades of the 19th century resulted in residential development filling in the gap on the cliffs between Thomas Read KempThomas Read Kemp
Thomas Read Kemp was an English property developer and politician. He was the son of Sussex landowner Thomas Kemp, whose farmhouse in Brighton was rented by the Prince of Wales in 1786.-Biography:...
's high-class Kemp Town
Kemp Town
Kemp Town is a 19th Century residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. Kemp Town was conceived and financed by Thomas Read Kemp. It has given its name to the larger Kemptown region of Brighton....
estate and the longer-established area around the Royal Pavilion
Royal Pavilion
The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence located in Brighton, England. It was built in three campaigns, beginning in 1787, as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales, from 1811 Prince Regent. It is often referred to as the Brighton Pavilion...
and Old Steine, the centre of high society
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
activity in the late 18th century. Roads such as Eastern Road and Bristol Road ran from west to east towards Kemp Town, and high-density housing branched off on roads to the north and south. This area became known as Kemptown
Kemptown
Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.-History:The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the one-word name now refers to an area larger than the...
. Kemp owned much of the land in the area, but in the 1820s he sold about 150 acres (60.7 ha) to Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol
Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol
Frederick William Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol , styled Lord Hervey between 1796 and 1803 and known as The Earl of Bristol between 1803 and 1826, was a British peer....
. He had succeeded to the Earldom of Bristol
Earl of Bristol
Earl of Bristol is a title that has been created twice in British history. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1622 in favour of the politician and diplomat John Digby who served for many years as Ambassador to Spain, and had already been created Baron Digby of Sherborne, in the...
when his father, the 4th Earl of Bristol (known as the Earl-Bishop)
Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol
Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, PC , known as The Earl-Bishop, was Bishop of Cloyne from 1767 to 1768 and Bishop of Derry from 1768 to 1803.- Life :...
, died in 1803. The Marquess, who assumed that title in 1826, was interested in church-building and works of charity. Soon after buying the land, he gave a portion to Reverend Henry Venn Elliott to allow him to build St Mary's Hall School. In 1837, Reverend Elliott began to plan for an Anglican church to serve the area, and the Marquess gave more land next to the school to allow one to be built there. Construction started in 1838, and the Marquess spent about £2,000 (£ as of ) to ensure a rapid completion. However, disagreements soon arose over these plans: the Diocese of Chichester
Diocese of Chichester
The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was created in 1075 to replace the old Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey from 681. The cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Chichester...
had not approved the proposal to open the church to the public, and had only given permission for the building to be a private chapel for the school; and the Vicar of Brighton, Reverend Henry Michell Wagner, disapproved of its location—it was considered to be too close to St George's Church
St George's Church, Brighton
St George's Church is an Anglican church in the Kemptown area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It was built at the request of Thomas Read Kemp, who had created and financed the Kemp Town estate on the cliffs east of Brighton in the early 19th century, and is now regarded as...
. Correspondence and debate carried on for several years between the men involved, and an independent party—the Commissioners for Building New Churches—eventually had to take charge of the project.
Construction was allowed to continue in 1848, after agreement was reached that the church could be used for public worship, and the Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
Ashurst Turner Gilbert
Ashurst Turner Gilbert
Ashurst Turner Gilbert was an English churchman and academic, Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford from 1822 and bishop of Chichester.-Life:...
conducted a consecration ceremony on 21 September 1849. The identity of the architect was not recorded, but sources suggest either George Cheesman junior—whose Christ Church in Montpelier Road, Brighton was very similar—or Thomas Cooper. Thomas Shelbourne was the builder; he may have had some influence in the design as well. The final cost was £4,800 (£ as of ), most of which was contributed by the Marquess and Reverend Elliott.
The church had a capacity of more than 1,000, and about half of the pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s were free (not subject to pew rents). The others provided income to offset church expenditure until the pew rent system was abolished in 1930. Reverend Henry Venn Elliott's brother, Reverend Edward Bishop Elliott
Edward Bishop Elliott
Edward Bishop Elliott was an English clergyman and premillennarian writer.Edward Bishop Elliott graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1816. He was given the vicarage of Tuxford, Nottinghamshire in 1824 and later was made prebendary of Heytesbury, Wiltshire. In 1849 he became incumbent of St...
, became the vicar in 1853 and remained in charge until his death in 1875. Although he was buried at St Andrew's Church in Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
, a memorial stone was installed in the chancel. It is next to a tablet commemorating the Marquess of Bristol, who had died in 1859. The congregation and others also donated money to fund a new window in the east end as a memorial to him.
In 1848, three bells were installed by Mears & Stainbank (now the Whitechapel Bell Foundry)
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain...
of London, and three more were added in 1867 when the tower was given the clock which it was intended to have had from the beginning. A vicarage was added in 1888 after the 3rd Marquess of Bristol
Frederick Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol
Frederick William John Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol was a British peer and Member of Parliament ....
donated land from his estate, and larger-scale alterations took place between 1891 and 1892, when the new vicar commissioned architect W. Gilbee Scott to add a chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
, vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
, south transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
and organ chamber
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
and to alter the galleries. A north transept was never built, although it was planned. The new chancel was altered further by the addition of multicoloured paintwork and a marble reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
in 1913, during the short incumbency of Reverend Henry Venn Elliott's grandson, also called Henry Venn Elliott. The 3rd Marquess of Bristol paid for this work.
In 1873, St Mark's became the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of Kemptown; St George's Church had originally held this status. By the 1980s, however, attendances were falling, and the Diocese of Chichester declared the church redundant as from 1 May 1986. Its parish was merged into that of St George's Church, which also gained the area covered by the parish of St Anne's Church, closed and demolished in 1986. The official name of this parish is now "St George with St Anne and St Mark". The building was then given to St Mary's Hall School for use as their private chapel, arts centre and concert hall. This meant that after nearly 150 years, it was being used for the purpose for which it was originally built.
Architecture
Prominent architectural historians have criticised St Mark's Church. Nikolaus PevsnerNikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
wrote of its "terrible stone facing", while Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel was an English architect and writer, also a musician.-Life:He was educated at Eton College, and read music at Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked shortly for Sir Charles Nicholson, and then set up his own architectural practice...
considered both St Mark's and the very similar Christ Church (now demolished) to have "deplorable architecture [...] combining the smugness of the chapel [with] the peculiarity of the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
". The building does not reflect ecclesiastical architectural norms of the mid-19th century, partly because its construction started several years earlier and also because Reverend Elliott and the Marquess of Bristol held traditionalist, old-fashioned views.
The church was built in the Early English Gothic Revival style using a combination of concrete, stone and ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
. The concrete was used to imitate Kentish Ragstone
Rag-stone
Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones which are quarried in thin pieces, such as the Horsham sandstone, Yorkshire stone, the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. By rag-stone, near London, is meant an excellent material from the...
; the north side is stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed to resemble ashlar; and genuine ashlar was used for the late 19th-century extensions. The concrete section has stone quoin
Quoin (architecture)
Quoins are the cornerstones of brick or stone walls. Quoins may be either structural or decorative. Architects and builders use quoins to give the impression of strength and firmness to the outline of a building...
s at the corners. The south façade, facing Eastern Road, has lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s and small buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es, and the north face is identical. The tower, topped with a spire, stands at the west end and also has lancets and corner buttresses; it is flanked by porches. All roofs are of slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
.
As originally designed, the nave and its adjacent aisles consisted of one open-plan area demarcated by narrow cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
columns and piers. A stone chancel arch led to W. Gilbee Scott's chancel, with one bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
and a window with tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
work. The vestry was on the north side of the chancel, opposite the organ chamber. The galleries, altered and mostly removed during the 1891–1892 work, originally ran round three sides of the interior and were held up by fluted
Fluting (architecture)
Fluting in architecture refers to the shallow grooves running vertically along a surface.It typically refers to the grooves running on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications...
columns.
The church today
St Mark's Church was listed at Grade II by English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
on 26 August 1999. It is one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.
St Mary's Hall School now owns the church. Reverend Henry Venn Elliott founded the school, which opened on 1 August 1836, and commissioned George Basevi
George Basevi
Elias George Basevi FRS was an English architect. He was the favourite pupil of Sir John Soane.-Life:Basevi was the youngest son of a City of London merchant, also named George Basevi...
to design it. He used the Early Tudor style
Tudor style architecture
The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...
, and the building cost £4,250 (£ as of ), over half of which was paid by Reverend Elliott. Many extensions have been built subsequently. The school made some internal alterations to the church to allow part of it to be used as an arts centre and concert hall, but its main function is still religious. More extensive alterations are planned, for which planning permission
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
has been granted; the arts centre area is to be extended and opened to groups from outside the school.