January 29 George III dies and the Prince Regent succeeds to the throne as George IV.
August 21 A great storm.
August The Union Church in New Road, designed by Amon Henry Wilds, is opened.
September 22 Post Office opens in East Street (see also 1831 September 23).
• West Blatchington windmill is built.
• The carriage road from West Street to Middle Street opens.
• Mutton’s Hotel and Restaurant on King’s Road is opened by William Sexton Mutton; it survives for 109 years.
February 22 First edition of the Brighton Gazette[, Sussex and General Advertiser or Worthing, Eastbourne and Hastings Fashionable Chronicle] as a weekly.
May 28 The national census is taken. Brighton has been the fastest growing town in England in the past decade. Brighton’s population has more than doubled to 24,429 (12,012 in 1811) and Hove’s is 312 (up 62 per cent from 193).
July 19 Coronation of George IV in Westminster Abbey. Celebrations are held on The Level. Two roast bullocks are served.
August 7 Queen Caroline dies at Brandenburgh House, Hammersmith.
November 21 King George IV arrives to stay at the Pavilion.
December 21 Death of Phoebe Hessel, aged 108.
• John Nash completes the transformation of the Royal Pavilion.
• Construction of the new poorhouse on Church Hill begins.
• Tamplin’s brewery at Southwick is destroyed by fire and the business is re-established in Brighton.
January 1 Consecration of the Royal Chapel in the former ballroom of the Castle Inn, adjacent to the Pavilion.
January 29 The road from East Street to the western boundary of the parish is opened by George IV and named King’s Road.
April 17 George IV departs for London after an almost continuous stay of nearly five months.
April 22 First edition of the Brighton Gleaner.
May 15 Brighton to Shoreham Bridge Road Act receives royal assent. (See also July 15.)
May The Castle Tavern in Castle Square is demolished.
June 15 (or May 25) The first steam packet, The Swift, leaves Brighton for Dieppe. [or 1824?]
June North Street Brewery reduces the price of table ale from 14d to 1s as the prince of malt falls.
July 5 The Brighthelmstone Suspension Pier Act receives royal assent.
July 11 The Prince and Princess of Denmark arrive at the Styne Hotel from Dover.
July 15 The revised Brighton and Shoreham Bridge Road Act receives royal assent.
August Work begins on the Shoreham Road from Hove Street to Kingston.
September 18 Construction of the Chain Pier begins.
September 24 Workhouse opens on Church Hill (Dyke Road), built to hold 460 inmates; 95 are admitted now.
• The old workhouse in Bartholomews closes.
October 10 The Royal George steam packet commences operations.
October Construction of the Chain Pier begins.
October 42 coaches are now running daily between London and Brighton.
October Realignment of the seafront road between East Cliff and Marine Parade is proposed. (See 1827.)
• The seafront road between Middle Street and West Street is constructed under the supervision of Amon Henry Wilds and opened by George IV.
• The Level is laid out by Amon Henry Wilds and Henry Philips.
• The ballroom of the Castle Inn is converted into a royal chapel.
• Brighton magistrates move to The Clarence Hotel from the Castle Inn for their sittings.
• A grandstand is added to the racecourse.
• The remains of a gibbet at Hangleton are burnt by gypsies.
• The Regent Foundry moves to North Road when commissioned to cast the ironwork for the Chain Pier.
May A waterwheel, called locally the treadwheel, is constructed by the Chain Pier company at the southern end of Old Stine to pump water.
May The streets of Brighton are watered for the first time.
May The Castle Tavern, Castle Square is demolished. It is rebuilt in Montpelier Place.
June 3 T Furner is appointed Town Surveyor.
June 17 The Brighthelmston Gas Act receives royal assent, enabling the incorporation of the Brighton Gaslight and Coke Company.
September 8 The Steyne is enclosed.
September 22 Post Office opens in East Street.
• Gas pipes are laid across the Steine.
November 26 The Royal Suspension Chain Pier opens. It was cost £30,000 to construct.
• Brighton Savings Bank opens in Middle Street.
• Russell House on the seafront is demolished to allow for road improvements.
• The interiors of the Royal Pavilion are completed.
• Thomas Read Kemp initiates his speculative development on a 40-acre site to the east of the town, to be known as Kemp Town.
• A national school for boys opens in the Lanes.
• The first infants school in Brighton opens.
• Royal Gardens are laid out and opened by James Ireland.
• The Hanover cricket ground opens at Park Crescent.
• The Colonnade is added in New Road.
• Richard Sickelmore publishes The History of Brighton.
May 1 Ireland’s Gardens opens.
May 3 Gas lighting is installed in the Steyne Gardens.
May 8 The foundation stone is laid for St Peter’s Church by the Vicar, Dr Carr.
May 15 The foundation stone of St Margaret’s Church is laid.
May 28 The Brighthelmstone and Newhaven Road Act receives royal assent, permitting a turnpike road to be created.
August 1 Rev Henry M Wagner becomes Vicar of Brighton.
August Hobden’s Royal Baths opens in Artillery Place.
November 22 A severe storm batters the south coast. Half a dozen fishing boats are wrecked.
November 24 The Chain Pier toll house is destroyed in a storm.
December 26 St Margaret’s Church opens.
• Arundel Terrace is laid out.
• Construction begins in Brunswick Square and Brunswick Terrace, the beginnings of Brunswick Town.
• A synagogue is established at 38-39 Devonshire Place.
• The waterwheel (treadwheel) in Old Steine (see May 1823) is destroyed in a storm.
• The artist John Constable is active in Brighton for the next two years.
• J M W Turner paints stormy weather at Brighthelmston.
• The first meeting about establishing the Sussex County Hospital is held.
• John Nelson Goulty becomes the minister of the Meeting House.
• Brighton has four billiard rooms.
• Queen’s Park opens as a subscription park.
January The first town lifeboat station opens in a cave beside the Chain Pier.
February 7 A meeting at the Old Ship resolves to construct an iron railway between Brighton and Shoreham.
February 17 Brighton Gazette reports that the number of new buildings in the town built in the past three years amounts to a quarter of the current total. Rusell Square, Cannon Place and that neighbourhood will be completed this year.
February 25 Election of three commissioners.
February Brighton General Gas Light and Coke Company is formed with a capital of 1,000 shares ar £20 each.
February The Steyne is widened.
April 13 Ebenezer Baptist Chapel opens in Richmond Street.
April 18 A hearing is held at the Old Ship for a jury to determine the value of the land needed to create a turnpike road from Black Rock to Newhaven.
April Three new groynes are about to be erected: one 300ft long opposite Manchester Street, one 250ft long opposite Ship Street and one of 250ft east of the Crescent groyne.
June 22 The Brighthelmston Improvement and Poor Relief Act (The Brighton Town Act) receives royal assent.
August 30 The Hanover Chapel in North Road opens.
September 27 Amon Wilds is elected Town Surveyor,
December 17 Trinity Church is opened by Rev R Anderson.
December 30 Church of St George the Martyr in St George’s Road is consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester.
• Salem Chapel in Bond Street is enlarged.
• The Old Market is built.
• Thomas Attree buys the land that will become Queen’s Park.
• Dr F A Struve opens the German Spa on the southern side of Brighton Park.
• Trinity Independent Presbyterian (Mr Faithfull’s) Chapel opens in Ship Street.
• Formerly a dwelling house, 9 Brighton Place becomes a public house, the Druid’s Head.
• Cannon Place is completed.
• Brighton & Sussex Bank is formed.
March 16 Foundation stone is laid for the Sussex County Hospital.
April 21 Trinity Church, Brighton, is consecrated.
August 5 The Albion Hotel, built on the site of Russell House, opens.
September 5 Joh Wisden is born on Brighton.
November 3 Lewis Slight becomes the Town Clerk of Brighton.
• The Brighton General Library, Literary and Scientific Institute opens at 9 St James’s Street.
• An anti-slavery petition is circulated through the town, promoted by Quakers Isaac Bass and John Glazier among others.
• The road in front of the York Hotel, the southern part of Old Steine, is formed.
• The Western Esplanade is created opposite Regency Square.
January 18 St Mary’s Church is consecrated.
January 31 First edition of radical weekly Brighton Guardian is published by Levi Emmanuel Cohen.
March 8 George IV leaves Brighton at the end of his last visit, having kept himself isolated during the 15 days he is in the Pavilion.
August A destitute pregnant woman called Ashdown is given an experimental blood transfusion when she loses blood from a burst varicose vein.
August A horse with seven legs, and an eighth just making its appearance, is exhibited at the Brighton races. Among other animals exhibited is a hyena.
October Thomas Kemp vacates The Temple in Denmark Terrace and puts it up for sale.
• At a public meeting, John Vallance proposes a scheme to carry passengers between London and Brighton through a tunnel in which carriages are moved by atmospheric pressure.
• The seafront road is realigned and improved; it later (1829) becomes Grand Junction Road.
• The Church of St Mary the Virgin open at the corner of St James’s Street and Upper Rock Gardens.
• All but the officers’ quarter at the royal barracks are demolished.
January Mr Ranger creates an artificial stone, capable being modelled to any shape, which is much harder than common stone or brick and has the appearance of Portland stone. It can be used for construction without the use of cement.
January 24 or 25 St Peter’s Church is consecrated.
June 11 or 12 Sussex County Hospital opens.
April A fossil rib of a whale, about 12 feet long and 30 inches in circumference, is unearthed in the cliffs near Kemp Town.
August An experiment with a pneumatic or atmospheric railway is held in Devonshire Place.
October 9 or 11 Statue of George IV unveiled in The Steyne.
October 29 A music festival is held in St Peter’s Church.
• Building in Arundel Terrace and Lewes Crescent is completed.
• Brunswick Square and Brunswick Terrace are completed.
• The Temple in Denmark Terrace becomes a boys’ school.
• The 6th Duke of Devonshire takes up residence in Lewes Crescent. Duke’s Mound later acquires its name as a result.
• The Old Market is built to serve Brunswick Town.
• The Church of St Andrew opens in Waterloo Street.
June 27 Bethel Chapel opens in West Street; the site is now that of St Paul’s Church.
October Bedford Hotel opens.
December 10 Grand Junction Parade is officially opened to the public, giving direct access from Marine Parade to King’s Road. The level of the road is raised several feet as protection against the sea.
• The turnpike road from Brighton to New Shoreham produced a return of £1,310 6d net of collection charge.
• Central National School in Church Street opens.
• The Duke and Duchess of Clarence (the future William IV and Queen Adelaide) visit the Royal York Hotel in The Steyne.
• The Zion Chapel in Upper Bedford Street is opened.
Page created 9 September 2026