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August 2014 Edition I 01273 551021 I www.queensparkliving.co.uk
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Welcome...
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Welcome to the August edition of Queens Park Living!
Contents
So, in case you have any traces of World Cup or Wimbledon sadness remaining, there are ample reasons to be cheerful contained here in the pages of your local magazine!
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Many thanks again to everyone who contributed to the magazine this month.
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What have we got for you? We have the next in the series of articles detailing local history from the Queen’s Park area… The author tells us that there should be four more of these to come. We also feature a local Queen’s Park based artist and have a really interesting article supplied to us by The Royal Pavilion. It is great to receive articles from you all, so many thanks and keep them coming! Have a great August!!
Page 4 Old Photo Stuart Dodman West Drive Page 8 The injured Queen of England
The Queen’s Park Living Team
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info@queensparkliving.co.uk
Dutch Elm Disease
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Cover photo: Simon Dack
List of Advertisers
Publisher: Sussex Magazines 10 Hollingbury Road, Brighton BN1 7JA info@queensparkliving.co.uk Printer: Gemini printers Distributors: Mandy Distribution
The views expressed by individuals in any letter or article included at the discretion of the publishers are not necessarily the views of the Editor. Whilst every care has been taken in compiling this magazine and the statements contained herein are believed to be correct, the publishers of this publication will not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracies. Inclusion of advertisers in this magazine is not necessarily a recommendation but we do hope they give a good quality service. No part of the publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and contributors We take complaints you make about our advertisers seriously. We have the following policy on this: First complaint about an advertiser is logged here in our offices, if we receive another complaint we write to the advertiser concerned and notify them we have had two complaints and if we receive another complaint we will no longer accept their adverts. If and when a third complaint arrives we will verify that all complaints received were genuine and inform the advertiser that we will no longer be promoting their business and inform them why.
Please send locale-mail articlesinfo@queensparkliving.co.uk to editorial@queensparkliving.co.uk or call 01273 551021 To your advertise or call 01273 551021
Old Photo...
Queen’s Park, 1863 This shows the extent of the Estate on November 28th, 1863, when it went to auction. It was easily the largest occupied estate in Brighton.
Thanks to the Regency Society for this image from their photographic archives, The James Gray Collection. You can see thousands of more historic pictures of Brighton and Hove at www.regencysociety-jamesgray.com
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Local Person...
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Local Artist Stuart Dodman latest exhibition ... “we’ll have today”
Queen’s Park resident and local artist Stuart Dodman has a solo exhibition of new work showing at The Naked Eye Gallery in Hove running from Saturday 2nd August until Saturday 23rd August. Stuart has lived in Queen’s Park for almost a decade, and in his exhibition “we’ll have today” he presents domestic-scale paintings which have been completed over the past year. The works on show are abstract oil paintings, which have various levels of textural density made by carving, drawing and scratching into different levels of layered paint. Often using strong, smeared and blended backgrounds of pigment, his works might at first glance look minimal but on viewing they reveal flashes of colour and structure from the layers beneath. Other pieces have been made by meticulously applying thin lines of paint either in a single colour or where the intended colour has been deconstructed, sometimes integrated into a single plane and at other times as a separate layer. The results have an extraordinary effect as beautiful surfaces and as objects. At the exhibition Stuart also showcases his new ‘wool paintings’, where line over opposing line of wool wrap around painted canvas stretchers, bringing a new dimension to his compositions.
Stuart works with systems, labelling pieces with symbols and numbers rather than words, which are constant themes in his work previously explored in his sitespecific installations and his ambient micro-sound releases of the 00’s. Yet as the exhibition title “we’ll have today” suggests, his work isn’t born from concept, rather something more intimate, perhaps a sentiment between Stuart and his work or between him and the viewer or between the work and viewer. It points to an open-endedness - the paintings are for the viewer to complete and have a unique relationship with. Stuart Dodman was born in Luton in 1973. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University in 1995 and is currently living and working in Brighton. “we’ll have today” is showing at the Naked Eye Gallery, 5 Farm Mews, Farm Road, Hove, BN3 1GH, from Saturday 2nd August to Saturday 23rd August. OPENING TIMES
Monday to Saturday 10am - 6pm, Tuesday closed, Sun-
day 12 noon - 4pm www.nakedeyebrighton.com www.stuartdodman.com
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Local History...
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The second in a series of articles detailing the history of some of the houses and people who have lived around the park...
Houses around the park...West Drive
The Lodge, Queen’s Park
If you look hard at the houses around the park you can see that the details on the front elevations are often very different. Some were designed by architect Thomas Buckwell who had his practice in North Street, Brighton. It is thought he built Numbers 1-4 West Drive and on his retirement moved into Number 6. No 1 “Highfields” was owned for a while by Harry Avery, who for many years had a photographic shop
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in St James’s Street. It was still there in the late 1960s. Avery had a workshop built on the side of his house where he made concrete figures of monkeys and other animals, and these were set out in the front garden with three monkeys sitting round a table, and a dog and a cat on the wall, which the local children looked out for. It was always known locally as ‘the monkey house’. No 3 “Clive Vale” was owned by Thomas William Gasson, a cask timber merchant in c1900, with a business in Chapel Street, off Edward Street. The stained-glass windows, which can be seen in many of the houses around the park, in this house, and at Number 4, are particularly fine. Number 3 figures “Music and Plenty” and Number 4 depicts “Spring and Autumn”. No 4. William James Towner, born 1836 and son of a local baker, from Carlton Street. He moved from Dorset Gardens to 30 Park Street where aged 45 he was employing 55 men and 28 boys. By 1900, he was living at 4 West Drive. He worked his way up from a young printer compositor, to being one of the managers of the Brighton Gazette newspaper and printer of the Brighton Street Directories. His business at that time was in North Street. First published in September 1806, the Brighton Herald was the first newspaper to be established in Brighton; it closed on 30 September 1971. This later became the Southern Publishing Company and later the publisher of The Argus. To the west side of the entrance to West Drive where the small garden is now, once stood The Lodge. It faced onto Queen’s Park Road. An interesting postcard, (above) taken c1890s with a man pushing a pram, an unusual sight in those days. In 1900 Edward Fryer, a Corporation gardener, was living at The Lodge with his wife and three children. The Lodge was one of three at each entrance to the park.
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Royal Pavilion... The first in a series of articles uncovering some of the treasures and stories of the Royal Pavilion...
The injured Queen of England A new acquisition in the Royal Pavilion is causing quite a stir. ‘I do believe that the spirit of George is not too happy with us displaying this in his beloved Royal Pavilion,’ explains David Beevers, Keeper of the Royal Pavilion. The item in question is the unofficial coffin plate of his wife, Queen Caroline of Brunswick, which King George IV refused to allow to be attached to her coffin when she was buried in her native Brunswick. It’s no secret that the marriage of George and Caroline was a complete disaster. Engaged in November 1794, the couple had never met and George only agreed to marry Caroline because he was heavily in debt: if he contracted a marriage with an eligible princess, Parliament would increase his allowance. According to George, ‘one damn German Frau is as good as another.’ George was reputedly drunk on the wedding day and regarded Caroline as both ‘unattractive and unhygienic’. A troubled marriage ensued which ended with Caroline’s exile from Britain. However, she returned following the tragic death of her daughter Princess Charlotte and riots broke out in support of her. Caroline became a figurehead for the growing radical movement that demanded
political reform and opposed the unpopular Prince Regent. Using her new radical affiliations as a convenient excuse, George pressed for divorce. Despite George’s best attempts, Caroline retained a strong popularity amongst the masses and made plans to attend George IV’s coronation service on 19 July 1821 as queen. George had Caroline turned away from the coronation at the doors of Westminster Abbey. That same night Caroline fell ill and over the next three weeks her condition deteriorated. She died at Brandenburg House, Hammersmith, on 7 August 1821. In her will she requested to be buried in her native Brunswick and that her coffin plate should be engraved bearing the inscription: ‘Deposited, Caroline of Brunswick the injured Queen of England.’ A coffin plate thus inscribed was duly made on the instructions of her executors, but the king refused to allow it to be attached to the coffin. At St Peter’s Church, Chelmsford, where the coffin rested overnight on its way to Brunswick Cathedral, an unseemly row broke out when Caroline’s executors succeeded in screwing to the coffin the silver plate requested by the queen. This was removed by order of Clarenceux King of Arms and the official plate with a Latin inscription attached. Displayed in the Royal Pavilion is the ‘unofficial’ coffin plate requested by Caroline. The coffin plate is on loan from the descendants of Stephen Lushington, one of the queen’s executors. It is a remarkable and poignant relic of the hated wife of George IV, the injured Queen of England. The coffin plate is currently on display in the Yellow Ante Room of the Royal Pavilion. See it for FREE as a member: call 01273 295898 to join and receive some great benefits.
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Local News...
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An unfortunate Dutch Elm Disease victim from West Drive All photos by Simon Dack
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