October 2020
Brighton Workhouses
This lecture is no longer available You can read more about the Regency Society's use of Youtube here. This talk seeks to discover what life was like for the thousands of people who passed through—and in many cases died in—the town’s workhouses: Church Hill and Elm Grove, and the children’s industrial school in Woodingdean. Who were these people? How did they end up in a workhouse? And how do Brighton’s workhouses compare to those portrayed by Charles Dickens? Wherever possible…
Find out more »November 2020
The Lost Streets of Brighton in the James Gray Collection
This online lecture is also available on the Regency Society's Youtube channel for as long as the lecturer is happy for it to be available. https://youtu.be/iQmyexhLRdw You can read more about the Regency Society's use of Youtube here. James Gray was particularly fascinated by sights which were about to become demolition sites. In the mid twentieth century in particular several entire streets in Brighton disappeared to be replaced by new development. These streets feature strongly in his collection. Where were…
Find out more »December 2020
The Making of a Modern City: Brighton & Hove 1875-1914
David Fisher presents this deferred John Small lecture. It is available on this page and on the Regency Society's Youtube channel for as long as the lecturer is happy for it to be available. It has two parts: Part 1: https://youtu.be/gFfj-pUKk2k Part 2: https://youtu.be/KxxxsdaKiek At the end of the 19th century the Regency core of Brighton was surrounded by a much larger town of terraced housing, churches, schools, shops, parks, railways, trams, theatres and other amusements. Since the…
Find out more »January 2021
Hippodrome History
David Fisher presents this lecture which is available to view here: https://youtu.be/f3JdWu6bzx4 It is also available on the Regency Society's Youtube channel for as long as the lecturer is happy for it to be available. Brighton Hippodrome may be on the verge of a new life. New owners have been carrying out urgent repairs and are considering the way forward for the magnificent but derelict Grade II* building. David Fisher, who has worked on the project for a…
Find out more »February 2021
An illustrated walk around Old Steyning Town
A recording of this talk by Dr Janet Pennington was previously available to view here but has now been removed. This is a chance to browse the streets, lanes and twittens of a small country town in West Sussex with a history that goes back well over a thousand years. This virtual walk leads you through much of Steyning’s history – the beautiful Norman church, the town’s foundation legend of St Cuthman and his wheelbarrow, as well as the Grammar School…
Find out more »March 2021
Brighton c1830-1855 – from successful Regency resort to troubled early Victorian one (part 1 of a 2 part talk)
by Dr Sue Berry. In the mid 1820s, Brighton was a large and prosperous resort with a long, famous frontage and some very striking leisure buildings where visitors could meet. The Pavilion, revamped in an Indian style, and the Chain Pier became popular subjects for prints and paintings. A secure future beckoned. Yet, by the late 1820s, all was not well. Building slowed down, some projects stopped. A national recession, and the need for the resort to improve its public…
Find out more »Brighton and Hove c1855 – 1870 – a successful Victorian seaside resort with controversial health issues (Part 2 of a 2 part talk)
By Dr Sue Berry. Between the later 1850s and 1870, Brighton’s expansion greatly affected the surrounding parishes, particularly Hove. This took place in spite of the controversies which appeared in the national press such as the poor sanitation and its links with infections in all social classes, and the unsuccessful attempts to quash Anglo-Catholicism in Brighton, which became a major centre of it. In spite of controversies, Brighton flourished and development spread into the parishes to the north and west. …
Find out more »April 2021
A Denman Century – The work of Samuel, John-Leopold and John-Bluett Denman, 1876 to 1982 (part 1 of a 2 part talk)
Duke of Wellington Pub, Shoreham. image: David Robson An Illustrated talk by David Robson. Three generations of Denmans ran an architectural practice in Brighton over a period of a hundred years. During that time, they completed hundreds of buildings across Sussex including such landmarks as Lewes Town Hall, the Hove Club, The Brighton Masonic Centre, the Sussex Eye Hospital and what would be one of Britain’s last great country houses at Eridge. And beyond the Sussex boundaries they built the…
Find out more »A Denman Century – The work of Samuel, John-Leopold and John-Bluett Denman, 1876 to 1982 (part 2 of a 2 part talk)
Citizen's Building Society, Brighton, portrait of JL Denman by Joseph Cribb_web. Image: David Robson An Illustrated talk by David Robson. Three generations of Denmans ran an architectural practice in Brighton over a period of a hundred years. During that time, they completed hundreds of buildings across Sussex including such landmarks as Lewes Town Hall, the Hove Club, The Brighton Masonic Centre, the Sussex Eye Hospital and what would be one of Britain’s last great country houses at Eridge. And beyond…
Find out more »August 2021
Summer Garden Party 2021
The Society’s annual garden party will be held between 2.30pm and 5.30pm on Saturday 14 August 2021 at the Secret Garden in Bristol Gardens, Kemp Town. Tickets cost £12.50 per person. This includes a glass of wine or a soft drink and canapés. Members are welcome to buy additional tickets in order to bring guests. We will need to know numbers for catering purposes: if you would like to come, please purchase your tickets as soon as possible. Click here…
Find out more »November 2021
Making it new: gender, identity and modernism in English architecture
an illustrated talk by Elizabeth Darling, reader in architectural history at Oxford Brookes University. This lecture will consider how new forms of self-consciously modern identities created new forms of architecture in 1920s and 1930s England. It will trace how gay men and women, determinedly single professionals and pioneering social reformers worked with architects to produce transformed and transforming spaces both private and public. Elizabeth Darling is Reader in Architectural History in the School of History, Philosophy & Culture, Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her work focuses…
Find out more »January 2022
Eugenius Birch: The King of Piers
During the 1860s and 70s there was a mania for pier building around the British coast. The Engineer Eugenius Birch not only built more of these than anyone else, he also built the first pier made of iron and the first pier to have an integral entertainment pavilion. Among his commissions were the West Pier at Brighton, Blackpool North Pier, Birckbeck at Weston-super-Mare, Eastbourne, Hastings and Bournemouth piers. Birch started out as a railway engineer before specialising in marine engineering,…
Find out more »February 2022
Beautifying the City
Panel presentation and discussion with Helmut Lusser -Hove Civic Society Diane Smith - 20 Minute Neighbourhoods These speakers have exciting and innovative ideas about making our city beautiful,. They have some visionary suggestions they will share and will invite discussion and feedback. Diane Smith is a promoter of the 20 minute neighbourhood, made famous in Paris by mayor Anne Hidalgo, but also of interest to town planners everywhere. The 20 minute neighbourhood is the idea that facilities in cities should…
Find out more »March 2022
Brighton Aquarium
The idea of an Aquarium was started in 1866 by Eugenius Birch, architect and engineer who wanted to use his skills to design an extraordinary building on the seafront in Brighton. So that the seawater could be pumped into the tanks by a steam engine, where visitors would be able to see sea creatures face to face through the glass, in some of the largest tanks that had ever been engineered. It was to be a splendid decorative building, a…
Find out more »May 2022
John Small lecture : Drink in Brighton (and Regency Society Annual General Meeting)
Pubs are a prominent feature of any streetscape. David Fisher's profusely illustrated talk will look at the architecture and historical development of these iconic public buildings in Brighton and Hove, the breweries that supplied and usually owned them, and consider the context of the social conditions in which they operated. All are invited. Admission free. The lecture will immediately follow the Regency Society's AGM. Image: The Stag Tavern (Malcolm Drummond) 1929
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