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Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry 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