Brighton College Chapel

Details

BRIGHTON

TQ3204SW EASTERN ROAD
577-1/42/238 (North side)
20/08/71 Brighton College Chapel
(Formerly Listed as:
EASTERN ROAD
Brighton College)

II

Private school chapel with music room and hall to north. 1859.
George Gilbert Scott. East end enlarged as a war memorial in
1922-23 by Thomas Graham Jackson, an alumnus of the College
who was articled to Scott. Flint with Caen stone dressings,
Clipsham stone dressings used in 1922-23; roofs of tile.
Chancel of 3 bays with a north aisle and south chapel; nave of
3 bays. Gothic Revival style; all the tracery in the
Geometrical style.
EXTERIOR: this description will proceed chronologically.
Scott's original chapel consisted of an aisleless nave, which
survives, and a 2 bay chancel, which does not. The north
elevation is occluded by the music room and hall, also by
Scott and which are included in this listing for group value.
The south elevation of Scott's 3 pointed-arch windows with
hood mouldings, each window with 3 lancets, 2 topped by cusped
trefoils. Heavy buttresses of 2 set backs between the windows
and at the corners; a sill band across all the features
continues across the west elevation. In the centre of the
latter a simple, pointed-arch entrance; above a pair of
pointed-arch windows, each with 2 lights topped by a
quatrefoil roundel. In the centre of the gable a roundel with
very deep splays filled with 3 cusped quatrefoils. Gable
kneeler and coping; floriate gable cross intact. Corner
buttresses similar to those already described.
INTERIOR: inside the walls throughout are plastered with only
stone dressings left exposed. Scott's chapel originally had a
parochial seating arrangement. The present collegiate
arrangement with finely carved return stalls by Messrs TB
Colman and Sons date from 1911. An organ in the north wall. Of
especial note are the very fine collection of memorial tablets
dating from 1882 to 1898, designed by Jackson and carved, many
in alabaster, by the firm of Farmer and Brindley, who also
executed carving in range of the college designed by Jackson
along Eastern Road (qv); these are in a variety of
post-Reformation, classical styles, in order to reproduce the
accretive quality of real church interiors. The nave roof,
which has been extended over the chancel, dates from Scott's
time and has 3 bays, each consisting of an arched truss
supported by a pair of simply chamfered corbels; intermediate
bays of simply strutted principals. The common rafters are
exposed and towards the ridge form scissor braces. The
original east window of the chapel was reused by Jackson as
the east window of the extended.
Jackson's chancel is the same width as Scott's nave; the
younger architect reproduced the overall impression of the
original but introduced subtleties which distinguish his work;
these include: shallow set back buttresses and stepped
springing bands along the south elevation. The chancel
projects well beyond the aisle and south chapel and has corner
buttresses, similar to those found on the south chapel. The
5-light chancel window, Scott's design, is in the Geometrical
style. 4-light Geometrical windows to east walls of south
chapel and 3-light to the north aisle, which is lit by 3
flat-arched windows, 2 with simply carved stone columns in
deep splays.
The main entrance to the chapel is set in the west corner of
the north aisle; there is, in addition, a pointed-arch
entrance in the west wall of this aisle. The 3 windows in the
south chapel are similar in design to Scott's original, but
have sharper and more acute cusping. At the most obvious join
between the old and new, the west face of the south chapel,
Jackson has taken care that his work will not be confused with
the original. This part of the church has an ad hoc
appearance, with the west door of the chapel set
inauspiciously in the corner and the spoliated window above,
reused from the 1859 chapel, set off line with the gable peak.
Inside the join is marked no less self-consciously. The
original pair of wall shafts were abruptly cut down by
Jackson, and left to sit awkwardly against the haunches of the
first bay of Jackson's 3-bay chancel arcade. The latter is
supported by pairs of round columns and shallow corbels, the
subordered arches of very shallow projection. The north and
south aisles are also varied, the latter being broader than
the former and having an open-framed roof. This roof is
composed of 6 tie-and-collar-beam trusses: from the arched tie
springs a king stud and a pair of queen posts to support the
collar which is itself arched and strutted. The trusses are
not evenly spaced, but paired behind each of the arcade
columns, with a single truss at the east and west walls. The
ceiling is 5 part, with a flat centre and angled sides, all
boarded and panelled. The north aisle has a lean-to roof with
common rafters and principals exposed and 2 heavy through
purlins; a corbel from the north face of each column supports
an arched-braced joist to north wall.
Seating in Jackson's chancel by Farmer and Brindley who also
executed the wrought-iron altar rails. There is stained glass
by Clayton and Bell, 1875-1911, Dudley Forsyth of 1919
(exhibited at the Royal Academy) and Morris and Co. of
1923-27. There is a panelled wood reredos and a sacrarium
paved with black and white marble squares. The floor of the
rest is wood block set in herringbone pattern.
The Chapel forms an important group with the Classroom and
Head Master's House (qv), the Dormitory and Administration
range along Eastern Road (qv), and the Burston Gallery and
Hall (qv).
(Journal of the Church Monuments Society: Jones M: Gothic
Enriched; the Memorial Tablets of TG Jackson in Brighton:
1991-).




Listing NGR: TQ3237404073

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

480665

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Jones, M, Journal of the Church Monuments Society in Gothic Enriched The Memorial Tablets of TG Jackson in Brighton, (1991)

End of official list entry

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