St Peter's Church, Brighton

St Peter's Church, Brighton
The church seen from the liturgical west
50°49′42.11″N 0°8′5.98″W / 50.8283639°N 0.1349944°W / 50.8283639; -0.1349944Coordinates: 50°49′42.11″N 0°8′5.98″W / 50.8283639°N 0.1349944°W / 50.8283639; -0.1349944
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Contemporary
History
Dedication	Saint Peter
Administration
Parish	Brighton, St Peter
Deanery	Brighton
Archdeaconry	Chichester
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Archie Coates (from Sept 2009)
Curate(s)	Jonny Gumbel (from Sept 2009)

St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church in Brighton in the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is near the centre of the town, on an island between two major roads, the A23 London Road and A270 Lewes Road. Built from 1824-28 to a design by Sir Charles Barry, it is arguably the finest example of the pre-Victorian Gothic Revival style. It is a Grade II* listed building.^[1] It has been the parish church of Brighton since 1873,^[2] and is sometimes unofficially referred to as "Brighton's cathedral".^[3]

History of the building

St Peter's Church was founded as a chapel of ease associated with Brighton's oldest church and its existing parish church, St Nicholas'. The contract to design the new church was won in open competition by Charles Barry, then only in his mid-twenties. It was built in an approximation of the 14th- and 15th-century Perpendicular or Late Gothic style, typical of the so-called Commissioners' churches, of which St Peter's was one. It was not a revival of its style in the manner of Barry's pupil Augustus Pugin, but, as Nikolaus Pevsner described it, "[it] remedies this fault by remarkable inventiveness and boldness".^[4]

The foundation stone was laid by the Vicar of Brighton, Rev. R. J. Carr dd, on 8 May 1824,^[5] at a location which was at the time "the entrance to the town"^[6] but which is now in the city centre, following the rapid development of Brighton since that date. The ceremony of consecration was led by the same man on 25 January 1828.

A spire was designed by Barry in 1841, but it was never built. The side aisles originally had galleries (such as those to be seen at churches such as Christ Church, Spitalfields), but these were taken down, as were so many, as a result of the cultural and liturgical changes made in the wake of the Oxford Movement.

Barry's hexagonal apse was demolished in 1898 to make way for a much larger, straight-ended chancel designed by Somers Clarke and J.T. Mickelthwaite, built in Sussex sandstone, its warm hue contrasting with the cold, white appearance of the Portland stone in which the rest of the church was built. The building work continued until 1906.^[7] The new chancel, 53 feet (16 m) long and 35 feet (11 m) wide,^[8] was consecrated in the presence of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Randall Thomas Davidson.

The church has a selection of stained glass windows, most of which are by Charles Eamer Kempe. The liturgical east side (geographical north) has a window commemorating Queen Victoria, presented to the church on behalf of the people of Brighton^[9] using funds raised in the town.^[10]

St Peter's was listed at Grade II* on 24 March 1950.^[1] As of February 2001, it was one of 70 Grade II*-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.^[11]

HTB church plant

In December 2007, after a long period of consultation, the Diocesan Pastoral Committee recommended to the Church Commissioners that St Peter's should be made redundant.^[12][13]

On 8 May 2009, Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London, an influential Church of England parish church which created the Alpha course, agreed to take over its ownership and running. The parish of St Peter, previously merged with that of the Chapel Royal, will be reconstituted as a separate, smaller parish.^[14]

Services restarted on Sunday 1 November 2009. The Vicar is Archie Coates and the Curate is Jonny Gumbel, son of Nicky Gumbel who developed the Alpha Course.

Organ

St Peter's is the proud owner of a large and fine pipe organ^[15] built in 1888 for the Hampstead Conservatoire of Music by Henry Willis^[16] and brought to Brighton in 1910. It is the sole survivor of three almost identical instruments in the town, the others having been at the Dome Pavilion^[17] and in Hove Town Hall.^[18] The latter is now at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree,^[19] while the former was broken up in the 1930s. It is almost identical to the famous organ in Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro.

The organ is a four manual organ with choir, solo, swell and great manuals with a pedal keyboard, the organ was designed to have two 32ft stops, one a contra bombard, and the other a 32ft double open wood, but these pipes were never installed and the console has two spare gapes were the pipes ranked stops should be on the pedal division; however, the dominant pedal division pipes are the 16ft reed which to replace the what would be dominate 32ft reed, was given a higher wind pressure to increase the volume of the rank. The 32ft double diapason was replaced by the 16ft open diapason which is also linked to the great division.

The solo manual is home to a splendid 8ft tuba stop which is under a higher wind pressure than the rest of the solo division to allow a great voice from the rank. The tuba is also the only stop on the solo division that is not housed in the solo box. The front of the organ case was designed in the 1980s and is mostly made up of dummy pipes, however the two tower sections of the organ case house the largest pipes of the 16ft diapason stops, and the middle section of the case houses some of the 8ft diapason stops. Although the case was completed the north aisle organ case was never attempted even though it was planned due to financial difficulties.

The organ also has two doors either side of the console on the casing, one is a cupboard for the organist to house music, and the other is a side door to allow the organist quick access to the organ from the back door which is nearest to the choir room.

The organ is voiced in a Victorian style with dominant diapason or principal ranks to add a wholeness to the sound, but the voicing also allows the quieter stops and ranks to be blended with the diapasons to add colour to the sound made by the organ. The organ would typically play at its best in Victorian compositions such as 'I was glad' by Hubert Parry, and other composers such as Stanford, Howells and Dyson. Although the organ at a quiet registration mostly on the swell, would be ideal for baroque compositions from Handel and Greene.

Choir

The choir of St Peter's was once a mainly boys' and men's choir with a choir of ladies singing on certain occasions. The choir sang a vast array of music from all periods including Victorian composers such as Parry and Dyson, but also sang baroque, classical and romantic styled music. The choir was a well-toured choir, touring English cathedrals to sing in place of the cathedral choir, usually in August for a week or two.

The choir was well known in Brighton to sing regular choral evensong every week, this was one of two local churches (the other being All Saints’ Hove) which sang regular evensong, however All Saints' Hove sang once a month. Now St Peter's and All Saints' no longer sing evensong regularly, but only on occasional feast days.

The choir in July 2008 on St Peter's feast day sang at St Peter's for the last time due to the change at St Peter's as Holy Trinity Brompton prepared to move in and the last choir service was a choral evensong with past and present members joining to sing. The number attending was over 40 members and 3 past organists, one of whom came from his home in South Africa to play just for the service.

The choir's possessions such as robes and music are now housed at the new parish church of Brighton the Chapel Royal which replaced St Peter's when Holy Trinity Brompton moved in and became a parish in its own right (see above, HTB). The choir still sing but only evensong at the Chapel Royal on Sundays.

Photo gallery

• 

  The West end and War Memorial

• 

  The arch in the liturgical west face of the tower

• 

  Three windows on the liturgical south side of the later Chancel

• 

  Two windows, on the liturgical south side, the one on the left in the original Nave, the one on the right in the later Chancel

• 

  A window on the liturgical south side of the original Nave

• 

  Looking across the church from the liturgical south-east - with the contrejours filter

See also

• List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove
• Regency architecture
• Edwardian architecture

References

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Detailed record: Church of St Peter (Brighton Parish Church), St Peter's Place, Brighton". Images of England. English Heritage. 2007. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=481227&mode=quick. Retrieved 14 January 2010. 
2. ^ Dale 1989, p. 22.
3. ^ Brighton's cathedral welcomes hundreds to reopening
4. ^ Nairn & Pevsner 1965, p. 435.
5. ^ Harrison 1934, p. 9.
6. ^ Hamilton Maugham 1922, p. 17.
7. ^ Harrison 1934, p. 18.
8. ^ Harrison 1934, p. 13.
9. ^ Hamilton Maugham 1922, p. 20.
10. ^ Harrison 1934, p. 12.
11. ^ "Images of England — Statistics by County (East Sussex)". Images of England website. English Heritage. 2007. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/StatisticsPage/default.aspx?StatsCounty=EAST%20SUSSEX. Retrieved 31 January 2010. 
12. ^ "Two weeks to save church". The Argus website. Newsquest Media Group. 2007-02-09. http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2007/2/9/227283.html. Retrieved 2008-02-06. 
13. ^ "December 2007 — Proposed Redundancy". St Peter's Church website. St Peter's Church Brighton. 2007. http://www.stpeterschurchbrighton.org.uk/news.html. Retrieved 2008-02-06. 
14. ^ "Brighton's St Peter's Church saved". The Argus website. Newsquest Media Group. 2009-05-08. http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4351210.Brighton_s_St_Peter_s_Church_saved/. Retrieved 2009-05-08. 
15. ^ "NPOR - Brighton, St Peter's: the Willis organ". The National Pipe Organ Register. British Institute of Organ Studies. 2003. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N00951. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
16. ^ "NPOR - Hampstead Academy of Music: the Willis organ". The National Pipe Organ Register. British Institute of Organ Studies. 2003. http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=D03257. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
17. ^ "The National Pipe Organ Register". http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N15482. 
18. ^ "The National Pipe Organ Register". http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N15531. 
19. ^ "The National Pipe Organ Register". http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=C00921. 

Bibliography

• Dale, Antony (1989). Brighton Churches. London EC4: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-00863-8. 
• Hamilton Maugham, H. (1922). Some Brighton Churches. London: Faith Press Ltd. 
• Harrison, Frederick (1934). The Parish Church of Brighton. Hove: The Southern Counties Publishing & Advertising Co. Ltd. 
• Nairn, Ian; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1965). The Buildings of England: Sussex. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071028-0. 

External links

• The official website of St. Peter's, Brighton
• Review of a service on Ship of Fools.