- | –1700
- | 1830s
- | 1840s
- | 1850s
- | 1860s
- | 1870s
- | 1880s
- | 1890s
- | 1900s
- | 1910s
- | 1920s
- | 1930s
- | 1940s
- | 1950s
January 9 A vestry meeting is held to decide whether to make a church rate to pay for a new burial ground. After three days of polling, a rate of 3d in the £ is agreed by 737 to 62.
January 13 Grand Conservative Festival dinner is attended by nearly 500 people.
January 26 During a gale for several days Grand Junction Road is overflowed.
January 28 The Church of St John the Evangelist in Carlton Hill is consecrated by the Bishop of Worcester.
February 5 The Brighton commissioners consider the inadequate accommodation on the steamer Belfast for the route from Brighton to France.
February 11 A town meeting in the town hall is held to discuss a motion proposed by Laurence Peel congratulating Queen Victoria on her wedding. The Chartists ‘are completely outnumbered by the respectable inhabitants’, which the Brighton Gazette considers a death-blow to Chartism. A grand ball in the town hall is attended by 1,600 people.
February 19 The Brighton commissioners order the construction of a western main sewer.
February 20 The Brighton commissioners give a grand ball to celebrate the royal wedding.
February 20 The Brighton theatre closes for the season.
February 21 The Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews meets in Brighton.
February 29 ‘Fashionable amateurs’ stage Charles II at the Brighton theatre.
March 16 The Lord Assizes begin for five days with 62 prisoners for trial and 13 nisi prius cases.
March 19 A man named Berry is killed when the rope he is using the ascend a shaft at Clayton tunnel breaks and he falls; the rope appears have been cut almost through deliberately.
April 1 George Cheesman & Son are contracted to build the western sewer.
April 20 The Brighton and Shoreham branch railway opens experimentally.
April 17 The temperature in the shade is 78°F (25.5°C).
May 1 First exhibition of the Brighton Floral and Horticultural Society.
May 11 The London & Brighton Railway Company’s branch line from Brighton to Shoreham is completed and opened.
May 17 Trains on the Brighton-Shoreham line carry 2,224 passengers. A young man named Atheraell falls from a luggage wagon temporarily fitted for passengers and is killed.
May 20 Mr Hills’ steam coach, intended to run on common roads, arrives in Brighton.
May 23 The Dart steamer makes her first trip to Dieppe with 20 passengers.
May 25 A town meeting declines to petition against the window tax.
June 1 A town meeting resolves to continue the Brighton races.
July 9 The town Commissioners petition against the County Constabulary Bill.
July 13 A boy is gored to death by an antelope at the Swiss Gardens, Shoreham.
July 19 Brighton petitions against the County Constabulary Bill.
July 23 Brighton market tolls are let to Mr Levy for £1,730.
July 25 The Brighton theatre opens.
July 28 A boy is killed on the railway at Patcham.
July 30 The Summer Assizes open with 29 prisoners for trial—20 of them illiterate—and 26 nisi prius cases.
August 6 Brighton Races begin.
August 13 The cornerstone of the Adelaide wing of the Sussex County Hospital is laid by Brother Cordy, worshipful master of the Royal Clarence Lodge of freemasons.
August 20 A skeleton is discovered at the foot of Cannon Place during excavation for the western sewer.
September 7 Actor Charles Kean begins an engagement at the Brighton theatre.
September 12 A boy named Cropper is killed on the railway when his foot slips while unhitching his horses from a train of earth-wagons.
November 5 Last sailing of the Dart steamer for the season.
November 13 Three boats are driven ashore between Kemp Town and Bear’s Hide in a most terrific storm.
November 16 A circus is opened in Mighell Street by actor H Batty.
November 22 The western drain is completed about now.
December 3 The last keystone is added to the Ouse viaduct.
December 9 A new burial ground at Falmer is consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester.
December 11 The new burial ground at Brighton is consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester.
December 15 Snow falls and the temperature falls to -12°F (-24°C). Skating begins on Falmer pond.
December 18 Mr Barnes, the high constable, refuses a Chartist requisition of a town meeting to petition the Queen to pardon John Frost and his companions in the Newport rising. They had been transported to Tasmania in June 1840.
December 24 Distribution of soup to the poor commences.
December 29 Five constables are sworn in at Lewes to serve the parishes of Stanmer and Falmer.
December 30 A rapid thaw sets in after three weeks of frost.
• The London & Brighton Railway Company’s engineering works opens at Brighton.
• There are 433 members of the Methodist church in Brighton (see also 1843).
January 4 Mr Batty is convicted by Brighton magistrates of performing a pantomime at his circus in Mighell Street.
January 7 John Badcock vaccinates with a new virus from a cow.
February 11 A town meeting to petition against giving power to the Poor Law Commissioners to interfere with the parish ends in disorder when Chartists move an amendment in favour of universal suffrage.
February 19 The inhabitants of Hove are found guilty at Lewes Sessions of failing to repair a section of the Shoreham turnpike.
February 21 The chimney of the stove used to heat Preston church catches fire and is extinguished.
February 23 A vestry meeting unanimously adopts a petition against interference by the Poor Law Commissioners.
March 11 A church-rate is approved in Brighton by 804 to 235.
April 22 The Brighton Bench refused to enforce the burial ground rate but then accepts an indemnity and enforces the rate.
May 15 The Dart steamer commences the runs to Dieppe.
May 17 The Directors and Guardians agree to erect school rooms and make other improvements at the workhouse.
May 29 The Princess Royal steam tug, the first vessel licensed to use an Archimedian screw, arrives in Brighton from Sunderland.
June 9 The Princess Royal makes its first pleasure trip from the Chain Pier to Arundel with shareholders and guests on board.
June 16 Patcham tunnel on the London-Brighton line is keyed by Mr Statham, the engineer, in the presence of a party brought from Brighton by train.
July 1 Parliamentary election. Isaac Newton Wigney (Radical) regains his seat from Dalrymple.
July 5 The railway line opens as far as Hayward’s Heath.
July 12 The section of the London & Brighton Railway Company’s line from Norwood, where it joins the London and Croydon Railway Company’s line, to Haywards Heath comes into use.
July 24 The Brighton theatre opens under the management of Saville and Holloway.
July 29 Brighton market tolls are let to Levy & Co for £1,840.
August 2 The Directors and Guardians rescind the resolution to make improvements at the workhouse.
August 4 Brighton Races begin.
August 11 Brighton Commissioners vote £25,000 to construct a road to the railway terminus from the western end of North Street (Queen’s Road).
August 23 A Brighton town meeting resolves in favour of Captain Tayler’s project for a floating breakwater off the town.
September 14 A town hall meeting agrees to petition for an extension of the suffrage.
September 20 the London & Brighton Railway Company’s line from Haywards Heath to Brighton is completed. A splendid dinner is given to the directors by the town at the Old Ship.
September 21 Service on the London & Brighton Railway Company’s line from the capital to the coast is inaugurated.
October 6 The day-mail is carried by rail for the first time.
October 8 The Dart steamer is damaged in tempestuous seas entering Newhaven harbour and is replaced by the Lord Melville for the rest of the season.
October 24 Vallance & Catt’s brig John and William is stranded near the entrance to Shoreham harbour.
October 27 A vestry meeting refused to pass the churchwardens’ accounts and the clock on St Peter’s Church is stopped in consequence. A church-rate of 1d in the £ is refused.
October 31 The Lord Melville makes the last sailing of the season to Dieppe.
November 3 The directors and guardians refuse to send plans for the proposed workhouse buildings to the Poor Law commissioners.
November 5 Mr Constable opens a photographic institution in Brighton.
November 15 A Chartist meeting at the town is attended by James Bronterre O‘Brien.
November 26 The Emma, a coal-brig owned by James Collins of Brighton, and the Regina, a coal-brig from Sunderland, are stranded when trying to enter Shoreham harbour and become complete wrecks.
December 3 An auxiliary of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and for the Civilisation of Africa is formed in Brighton, chaired by the Earl of Chichester.
December 6 Adelaide Kemble, the opera singer, makes her first Brighton appearance in T H Wright’s concert.
December 13 Adelaide Kemble sings at Madame Oury’s concert at the Old Ship.
December 15 The Poor Law Commissioners prohibit the Brighton directors and guardians from making alterations to the workhouse until plans are submitted.
December 23 The directors and guardians adopt a recommendation to challenge the legality of the Poor Law Commissioners order and resolve to ask the parish officers to summon a vestry meeting.
January 10 A town meeting resolves to raise subscriptions ‘for the relief of the necessitous poor by the distribution of soup’.
January 12 The first mackerel of the season sell at Brighton market for 6d and 9d.
January 14 Prince Polignac visits Brighton.
January 29 Third meeting of the Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners’ Society, chaired by Rev H M Wagner.
February 10 The Queen and Prince Albert arrive in Brighton with the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and his two sons, princes Augustus and Leopold.
February 11 The Queen and Prince Albert visit the Chain Pier.
February 16 Prince Albert attends a review of the Scots Greys on Preston Downs.
February 19 Prince Albert and suite visit Brighton Tennis Court.
February 28 The Queen and Prince Albert leave Brighton for Portsmouth.
March 1 After visiting Spithead and the dockyards, the Queen and Prince Albert return to Brighton.
March 2 A town rate of 1s in the £ is signed at Brighton.
March 4 Wigney’s Bank ceases payment. A town meeting immediately passes resolutions of confidence in other banks. Isaac Newton Wigney MP and Clement Wigney, who inherited the bank from their father, are gazetted as bankrupts. A requisition is raised for Lord Alfred Hervey to represent the town in parliament.
March 8 The Court leaves Brighton.
March 23 A watering-rate of 1d in the £ is signed at Brighton.
March 24 Sir Robert Peel and family visit Brighton.
March 28 First meeting of Wigney’s Bank creditors.
March 30 James Ireland dies suddenly.
April 6 After three days of polling for directors and guardians, the entire Conservative list is returned.
April 28 The writ for the parliamentary by-election is issued.
May 2 The London papers arrive in Brighton by rail for the first time at 10:30am.
May 5 Parliamentary by-election caused by the resignation of Isaac Newton Wigney. In a four-way context, Lord Alfred Hervey (Conservative) wins against a Radical, a Chartist and a ‘nondescript’.
May 12 George Faithfull jr is fined £3 for assaulting Lord William Hervey during the election.
May 20 The director and guardians petition against Brighton being placed under the Poor Law Commissioners.
May 26 The South-Eastern Railway opens as far as Tonbridge.
May 27 A vestry meeting unanimously petitions against Brighton being placed under the Poor Law Commissioners.
May 30 A town meeting petitions the same.
June 8 The temperature in the shade is considered noteworthy at 75°F (24°C).
June 8 The order of the Poor Law Commissioners to restrict the Guardians from making alterations or improvements to the workhouse is upheld by Lord Denman.
June 16 The Brighton theatre opens for the season under the management of Saville and Harroway.
June 19 A flyman is killed when his horse takes fright and throws him over the cliff on Marine Parade.
July 28 Brighton market tolls are let to Mr Levy for £1,750.
August 3 Brighton Races begin.
August 16 The temperature reaches 125°F (52°C) in the sun, 92°F (33°C) in the shade.
August 29 Sussex beat an All England cricket team by six wickets in a match at Lillywhite’s Ground.
August 29 The dissevered limbs of an infant are found in a cesspool in Black Lion Street but nothing more is discovered.
September 22 Madame Giulia Grisi, the opera singer, appears in a concert given by Mr M’Carroll.
September 23 A skeleton is found in the soil at the top of North Road while excavating for the new Queen’s Road.
September 28 The Albion steamer replaces the Dart on the Brighton-Dieppe station.
October 3 A man survives a suicide attempt by jumping down a well 120 feet deep in Chesterfield Street.
October 13 The audit meeting for Wigneys’ bankruptcy takes place.
October 27 Mr Cobb, owner of a moiety of the Brighton theatre, buys the other half at auction for £1,650.
October 29 The Albion makes the last sailing to Dieppe for the season.
October 31 Charles Kean and his wife Ellen Tree commence an engagement at the Brighton theatre.
November 3 A railway policeman, George Gorringe, is killed near Clayton tunnel when a train runs over his arm and leg.
November 5 The Albion, sailing from Shoreham to Ramsgate, collides with a Brighton fishing boat without lights and a man named Humphrey is drowned.
November 8 In his first communion, the Bishop of Chichester confirm 466 people, nearly two-third of them female, at St Peter’s Church.
November 24 The Queen’s visit to Brighton is postponed.
December 1 The Brighton circus closes after a short and unsuccessful season.
December 9 After a three-day meeting, the Brighton Vestry rejects a church-rate.
December 15 Sinking of an artesian well begins at the Chain Pier.
December 20 The Lord Melville steamer concludes the season of sailings from Brighton to Le Havre.
December 23 Sale of Wigney’s property is wound up, Mr Bass buying the bank premises.
December 23 James Mathews of the Britannia Inn in Cacvendish Street rides his mare 24 miles in five seconds under an hour.
December 19 A joint committee of Eastern and Western magistrates resolves to abolish Horsham Gaol.
January 13 In a violent storm Vallance & Catt’s brig John and William is wrecked at Bearshide, two of the crew drowned, and the Prince Regent at Aldrington.
February 15 The coldest day of the winter, the temperature falling to 26°F (-3°C).
March 13 A public meeting is held to explain the principles of the recently formed Building Society at Brighton.
March 26 The printing offices of John Francis at 5-6 Charles Street are destroyed by fire.
March 30 William Catt, C S Hannington, T Carter and F Ellis are appointed Overseers of Brighton.
April 18 Edmundus Burn is elected High Constable.
April 20 The first examination of children of the Brighton Deaf and Dumb Institution is held at the town hall, chaired by Rev H M Wagner.
April 22 The packets of the General Steam Navigation Company being sailings for the season to Dieppe and Le Havre.
April 25 A town meeting petitions against the educational clauses of the Factories Bill.
May 8 The pump room at the Royal German Spa opens for the season.
May 8 A town meeting appoints a deputation to meet the Railway Committee to alter the summer timetable and reduce fares.
May 22 The London & Brighton Railway starts cheap Sunday trains between Brighton and Hassocks.
May 23 A town meeting petitions against the educational clauses of the amended Factories Bill.
May 25 The North Street sewer is completed.
July 9 The Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel in North Street re-opens.
July 10 Examination of the pupils of Brighton School for the Blind, chaired by Rev H M Wagnerr.
July 18 Mr Mainzer gives £70 towards an organ at the town hall.
July 22 The Brighton theatre opens for the season.
July 27 Brighton market tolls are let to Mr Levy for £1,610.
August 2 Brighton Races begin. An affray takes place between the military and the police.
August 17 Mr C Green and Mr Bradley ascend in a balloon from Brighton to cross the Channel but the direction of the wind changes and they are forced to return.
August 19 The temperature is 82°F (28°C) in the shade, 112°F (44°C) in the sun.
August 29 The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal and Princess Alice arrive in Brighton under the care of the Dowager Lady Lyttleton.
September 1 The steam packets are in daily communication between France and Brighton.
September 7 The Queen and Prince Albert arrive at the Chain Pier from France.
September 8 The Duchess of Kent arrives by railway.
September 9 The Queen sails in the Royal Yacht towards Worthing.
September 11 The Queen and Prince Albert leave Brighton on the Royal Yacht for Ostend.
September 11 A benefit cricket match for Thomas Box is held at the Royal Ground, an All England team beating Sussex, with Alfred Mynn, by 54 runs.
October 2 The Prince of Wales leaves Brighton for Windsor.
October 5 The Grenadier Guards leave Brighton by a special train.
October 7 The sweeps of Streeter & Ingeldew’s mill at Rose Hill are destroyed in a thunderstorm.
October 10 A new street-sweeping machine is tested in King’s Road and fails entirely.
October 27 Several vessels are lost in a storm off the coast.
October 29 The Venezuela steamer makes the last trip to Dieppe for the season.
November 6 Charles Kean and his wife Ellen Tree commence an engagement at the Brighton theatre.
November 12 Lillywhite’s cricket ground and adjoining properties in Montpelier Road are laid out for a crescent.
November 22 A man falls to his death off the cliffs near Black Rock.
November 23 Another person died in a fall from the cliffs near Black Rock.
December 1 A third person dies in a fall from the cliffs near the Abergavenny Arms at Black Rock.
December 2 A large portion of cliff falls at Beachy Head.
December 17 Sermons preached in aid of the Sussex County Hospital raise £620.
December 19 Thomas Box becomes the tenant of the Hanover Arms.
December 26 The Brighton theatre re-opens with a Christmas pantomime.
• There are 518 members of the Methodist church in Brighton (see also 1840).
January 4 The Menai steamer makes her last voyage from Dieppe for the season.
January 18 Superintendent of Police Elmes resigns and is later replaced by Inspector Crowhurst.
January 22 The vicar, clergy and churchwardens, ‘in obedience to the Queen’s letter’, begin door-to-door collections on behalf od the National Society and raise £460.
February 1 The Bude Light Company erects a lamp to light the whole of the Steyne but the plan fails.
February 8 Isaac Newton Wigney dies in London after a long and severe illness.
February 19 Batty’s circus opens for a short season (to 3 April)
February 27 The Directors and Guardians petition against Sir James Graham’s Poor Law Amendment Bill.
March 13 Chief Constable Henry Solomon is murdered in his office by John Lawrence.
March 22 A town meeting at Brighton passes resolutions in favour of the Brighton to Hastings and Brighton to Chichester railways.
March 23 A town meeting appoints a committee to collect subscriptions for the widow and family of Henry Solomon.
March 26 The Hastings and Chichester railway Bills have their second reading in the House of Commons.
March 29 The Brighton Commissioners vote £500 to the widow and family of Henry Solomon.
April 3 R Rawley is appointed collector for the Hove Gas Company and resigns as Brighton’s collector of town taxes.
April 6 Execution of John Lawrence for the murder of Henry Solomon, the chief constable—the last hanging for murder at Horsham.
April 6 The Menai steamer under Captain Goodburn makes its first trip of the season to Dieppe with nearly 40 passengers.
April 7 Lord Abinger dies at Bury St Edmunds.
April 8 The Brighton Railway Company issues excursion tickets at half-fare and 5,000 people visit Brighton.
April 9 G Chittenden is appointed High Constable of the Hundred of Whalesbone.
April 22 The Ojibbeway Indians arrive in Brighton.
April 23 The Metropolitan Wood Paving Company lay an experimental crossing from the Blue Coach Office in Castle Square to the Pavilion.
May 1 The Magnet steamer under Captain H Cheesman makes its first trip of the season to Dieppe.
May 4 The Magnet makes the crossing from Brighton to Dieppe in six hours and 10 minutes.
May 25 The General Steam Navigation Company adds another packet steamer, the Fame, to the Brighton-Dieppe run.
May 27 Thousands take advantage of half-fare excursion railway tickets to spend Whit Monday in Brighton.
May 30 The King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus II, makes an incognito visit to Brighton during a British tour.
June 8 Sir Henry Hardinge arrives in Brighton by train and boards the Fame for Dieppe on his way to take office as Governor-General of India.
June 10 Gentlemen of Sussex beat Gentlemen of Hampshire (each side with two players) at Box’s Ground, Sussex without losing any second-innings wickets.
June 21 The Directors and Guardians petition parliament against parts of the Poor Law Amendment Bill that would give the Poor Law Commissioners power to interfere with Brighton.
July 5 The Haywards Heath railway line opens.
July 11 The Brighton and Chichester Railway Act receives Royal Assent.
July 11 Mackerel sell at 12 for a shilling.
July 16 A man named King is killed by a fall of earth while excavating a cellar in Montpelier Crescent.
July 17 The Brighton Commissioners resolve to retain the market tolls in hand.
July 20 Captain Warner destroys a vessel at Brighton with his ‘invisible shell’.
July 29 The Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway Bill receives royal assent and construction of the line from Brighton to Lewes soon begins.
August 3 The Brighton theatre opens for the season under the management of Mr Hooper.
August 7 Brighton Races begin. ‘The sport unusually good.’
August 8 Preston Black Hole is demolished.
August 12 Count Karl Vasilyevich Nesselrode, the Russian foreign minister (and within a year to be Chancellor of the Russian Empire), arrives in Brighton for the sea bathing. He stays at Pegg’s Royal York Hotel and leaves on 16 September.
August 13 Isaac Van Amburgh, the American animal trainer, arrives at Brighton with his animals.
August 25 A Sunday excursion train from London comprises 78 carriages.
August 29 William Grant is fined 5s for Sunday trading.
September 1 An excursion train of 88 carriages brings 2,160 passengers from London to Brighton.
September 9 At the half-yearly meeting of the Brighton & Hove Gas Company, a dividend of 8s a share is declared.
September 10 The Prince of Wales, Princess Alice and Prince Alfred arrive in Brighton by railway.
September 17 A town meeting in Brighton passes a resolution requesting the trustees of the Brighton and Cuckfield Road to remove the Preston toll-gate but it is refused.
September 17 A detachment of the 1st Battalion of Scots Fusilier Guards arrives from Windsor by train as a guard of honour for the royal children.
September 19 The royal children are taken on the Chain Pier on this and subsequent days.
September 20 Sir Robert Peel takes a house in Brighton.
September 25 A Free Trade soirée in Brighton is attended by William Fox MP, R R R Moore and George Thompson.
September 27 Last crossing of the year to Dieppe for the Fame and to Le Havre for the Magnet but the Menai and Magnet steamers alternate on the Dieppe run.
September 28 The first section of Captain Tayler’s floating breakwater is launched at Shoreham (see 23 August 1841).
September 30 Jury lists are revised at Brighton and magistrates again raise the ‘Esquire’ question.
October 2 The royal children leave Brighton by train.
October 4 The Scots Fusilier Guards leave by train.
October 5 Brighton Borough registration.
October 13 The unexampled drought of the summer ends and on this and the following two days nearly three inches of rain falls.
October 14 The High Constable calls a meeting to consider the propriety of petitioning the Queen to incorporate Brighton.
October 17 The new poor-rate of 8s in the £ is the lowest for many years.
October 21 A town meeting appoints a committee to consider whether incorporation would be beneficial.
November 1 Enclosed third-class carriages begin running on the railway at 1d a mile.
November 1 The Magnet ceases runs between Brighton and Dieppe.
November 9 A fire on Mr Gorringe’s farm at Withdean destroys property worth £500.
November 11 Sunday return tickets on the London & Brighton Railway are introduced, entitling holders to travel by the first down train and return by the last for one fare.
November 20 The committee considering incorporation of Brighton reports in favour. The committee adjourns to consider.
November 20 The Brighton Commissioners resolve to plant a belt of trees round the Level.
November 21 A town meeting appoints a committee to collect subscriptions towards a national testimonial to Rowland Hill.
November 26 Brighton and Hove Gas Company shareholders empower the directors to arrange the lighting of Shoreham.
December 4 A severe frost begins.
December 7 The Brighton theatre closes for a fortnight.
December 9 The temperature falls to 24°F (-4.4°C).
December 13 A vestry meeting at Hove passes resolutions against the incorporation of Brighton.
December 16 An adjourned town meeting in Brighton rejects the report recommending incorporation of the town.
December 17 A town meeting resolves to raise subscriptions for distribution of soup at a penny a quart during the cold weather.
December 18 The Brighton Commissioners meeting has a blank agenda for the first time.
December 20 The frost returns and skating resumes.
December 25 A gentle thaw begins.
December 26 The Brighton theatre re-opens with a the Christmas pantomime Mother Goose.
December 29 The temperature rises to 47°F (8°C).
December 30 The court resolves to prepare a portion of the House of Correction (at Lewes?) for debtors, preparatory to the abandonment of Horsham Gaol.
December 31 Tenders for the construction of the Brighton to Chichester Railway are considerably below the parliamentary estimates.
January 9 The London & Brighton Railway Company shareholders approve the directors’ project for branch lines to Horsham, Redhill to Dorking and to Wandsworth (West-End Terminus).
January 10 The mackerel season begins well: Samuel Andrews’ boat brings in 11,000 fish.
January 27 A day-mail service is established between Brighton and Hastings.
February 1 The Princess Royal, Princess Alice and Prince Alfred arrive at the Royal Pavilion by train.
February 1 Captain George Frederick Hotham is appointed chairman and James Cordy deputy chairman of the Brighton & Chichester Railway.
February 5 The Commissioners give Mr Cordy Burrows permission to erect a fountain on the Steyne and to James Cordy and others to place a portrait of the Marquis of Bristol in the town hall.
February 6 Rowland Hill is appointed chairman of the London & Brighton Railway Company.
February 7 Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their four children arrive in Brighton by train from New Cross Station in south London, a journey time of 1¼ hours, compared with the 5½ hours she said it took in former times.
February 11 A considerable depth of snow falls, the Queen and Price Albert ride out in a sledge. The temperature drops to 15°F (-9.5°C) in the evening.
February 13 The Queen and Prince Albert visit the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk at Arundel Castle and return to Brighton in the evening.
February 15 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert pay a brief visit to the Earl of Liverpool at Buxted. The Queen is pestered by some boys while walking on the Chain Pier.
February 18 The composer and pianist Sigismund Thalberg gives a command performance for the Queen.
February 19 The Brighton theatre opens for a one-night command performance for the Queen.
February 20 The Court and Royal Family leave Brighton by rail for Buckingham Palace.
February 26 The Brighton mackerel boats bring in 50,000 fish.
April 5 The Menai steamer makes the first tip to Dieppe with 35 passengers.
April 7 A town meeting petitions the House of Commons to extend the Brighton and Chichester Railway to Portsmouth.
April 7 The court at the East Sussex Easter Sessions declares the Brighton police to be ‘extremely deficient in the detection of crime’ in relation to a spate of Sussex burglaries.
April 16 A railway labourer dies behind Brighton Barracks when powder used to blast the chalk on the Hastings line explodes.
April 24 The Brighton Police Committee meets to investigate the charge of the force’s alleged inefficiency.
May 1 Horsham Gaol discontinues, Lewes becomes the jail for eastern Sussex, Petworth for the west.
May 3 The Magnet makes the first trip to Dieppe of the season and alternates on twice-weekly crossings with the Menai.
May 7 Mrs Jenner of 16 Gardner Street, wife of a greengrocer, gives birth to triplets.
May 17 The first stone of the London Road viaduct on the Brighton-Hastings line is laid by Mr Nash, chairman of the company.
May 29 The Bishop of Chichester confirms 483 young people at St Peter’s Church.
June 4 The Menai makes the first crossing the Le Havre and is replaced on the Dieppe run by the Fame.
June 18 The Countess of Airlie dies at 31 Sussex Square after giving birth to twins.
June 18 The Brighton Commissioners decide to retain the collection of coal duties for another year.
June 25 Richard Henry Nibbs’ painting of Queen Victoria Landing at Brighton , purchased by subscription, is presented to the Commissioners and then placed in the town hall.
July 3 Sussex beat Kent by three wickets in a match at the Hanover Ground.
July 7 Leopold, 4th Grand Duke of Baden arrives in Brighton for a few days.
July 16 Brighton Commissioners appoint Isaiah Barnden to the new office of inspector of hackney carriages, pleasure boats, &c.
July 17 A vestry meeting nominated 12 persons to be examiners of weights and measures. They are afterwards appointed by the magistrates.
July 21 Twenty-six vacancies for Commissioners are filled without a poll.
July 25 William Thacker of the Dyke Inn at Devil’s Dyke, gathers a mushroom 30 inches in diameter on the Downs.
August 1 A sheriff’s jury assesses damages in Dew v Cohen, a libel case against the Brighton Gazette at one eighth of a penny.
August 6 Brighton Races begin.
August 8 The Portsmouth Extension (Brighton and Chichester) Railway Bill and the Rye and Ashford Extension (Brighton and Hastings) Bill receive royal assent.
August 13 A special excursion train brings between 700 and 800 children from Spitalfields British Schools to Brighton.
August 18 Erection of the fountain in the Steine begins.
August 26 Magistrates grant five new licences on annual licensing day.
August 30 A commission of escheat opens with regard to property at the top of North Street.
September 17 The Directors and Guardians pass a resolution against the chairman and vice-chairman taking part on the election of poor-law auditor.
September 23 The Brighton magistrates grant billiard licences under the new Act.
September 25 Three houses collapse in Lansdowne Place.
September 29 Brighton Borough revision.
September 29 Two boats catch upwards of 50,000 herring in one night.
October 2 Experiments are made on the Brighton railway of Mr Thornton’s self-acting railway brake in the presence of General Charles Pasley, inspector-general of railways.
October 8 The first stone is laid for the new bridge across Trafalgar Street at the railway terminus.
October 8 Three concerts are given at the town hall in aid of the fountain in the Steine.
October 10 Charles Mathews and his wife Madame Vestris perform at the Brighton theatre for three nights.
October 10 Admiral Sir Charles Rowley dies at his residence in Marine Parade.
October 25 A skeleton of a warrior, an urn &c are found while digging at the top of Church Hill (now Seven Dials).
October 25 The Duke of Wellington visits Shoreham to inspect the harbour.
October 28 Sir Matthew Tierney dies at his residence on Pavilion Parade.
October 28 The remains of William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada, the daughter of William the Conqueror, are found while excavating in the priory grounds in Lewes.
November 4 The ballet dancer Marie Taglioni appears at the Brighton theatre for three nights.
November 4 The Magnet packet ceases running for the season.
November 24 Brighton and Chichester Railway opens as far as Worthing and the old Hove station opens.
December 11 A French company performs at the Brighton theatre.
December 30 A meeting chaired by the Earl of Chichester is held to form an Athenaeum.
• The window tax paid in Brighton for the year was £16,191.
January 1 The Brighton Athenaeum and Young Men's Literary Union is formed with reading rooms and a library at 2 Pavilion Buildings.
January 13 The Brighton circus closes for the season with a performance at the Sussex County Hospital.
January 13 A free trade meeting is helf at the town hall, inviting discussion by the free-traders but when W Rigden speaks in favour he is put down by clamour.
January 19 The Blind Institution in connection with the National School opens in Brighton.
February 23 The Brighton theatre closes for the season.
February 23 A dissenting chapel and other buildings in West Street are cleared to make room for another church (St Paul's).
March 2 A third daily delivery of letters commences in Brighton.
March 11 Rev J S M Anderson delivers the inaugural lecture at the Athenaeum.
March 16 The Brighton and Chichester Railway opens between Worthing and Leominster.
March 18 The Commissioners order the widening of the King’s Road between West Street and the Battery at an estimate cost of £3,500. The contract afterward goes to George Cheesman for £2,130.
April 3 The London & Brighton and London & Croydon railway companies agree to amalgamate.
April 14 William Catt is elected High Constable of the Hundred of Whalesbone.
April 16 Wisden & Anscombe win the tender to build a new eye infirmary in Queen’s Road.
April 19 The crew of the Lady Falkland from New York are landed at Brighton after being saved when the ship sinks off Beachy Head after colliding with the Martha from Guernsey.
April 30 Mr Kenward, bailiff to William Stanford of Preston, is thrown from a horse and dies.
May 25 The Victoria Fountain in the Steine is inaugurated on the Queen’s birthday, incorporating sarsen stones found nearby in 1823.
May 25 Mr Scrase of Patcham is robbed at night by footpads on his way home from Brighton.
May 28 A Brighton vestry meeting rejects a proposed church rate of 6d in the £ to enlarge St Nicholas’ Church.
May Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid donates land at Preston for a new church.
June 3 The temperature rises to 81°F (27°C).
June 8 The Brighton & Chichester Railway opens to the public and the Brighton and Hastings Railway opens from Brighton to Lewes.
June 9 The temperature rises to 84°F (29°C) and remains above 62°F (16°C) at night.
June 10 The Distin Family quintet of musicians play at the Brighton theatre. They are pioneer uses of instruments invented by Adolph Sax, beginning with the saxhorn.
June 14 The coach running to Devil’s Dyke overturns on the Downs and Dennis, long-time perter at the Clarence Hotel, dies later at Sussex County Hospital from injuries.
June 15 The Directors and Guardians agree to building a new county lunatic asylum.
June 17 In the continuing hot weather the temperature reaches 86°F (30°C).
June 18 Bills receive the royal assent for railway branch lines from the main Brighton line to East Grinstead, Steyning, Littlehampton, Eastbourne and Hailsham, and to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings and Rye from the south-eastern line.
June 22 The temperature continues to soar, reaching 87°F (31°C) in the shade.
June 24 The price of gas in Brighton is reduced for the coming year from 9s per 1,000 cubic feet to 7s. [See also 1847 June 24.]
June 27 The Coast Railway opens between Lewes and Hastings.
June 29 Patrick Shaw, station clerk at Balcombe, is killed while unsuccessfully trying to prevent a similar catastrophe to Mrs Murphy, a passenger.
June 29 The Bishop of Chichester lays the first stone of the new eye hospital in Queen’s Road.
July 1 A dinner to celebrate the inauguration of the new fountain on the Steyne is held at Pegg’s Royal York Hotel.
July 1 In the Brighton Commissioners' suit in the Court of Chancery to restrain the Brighton & Hastings Railway Company from encroaching on the Preston boundary road by building a bridge the jury finds for the railway company. This refers to the viaduct.
July 12 Last journey of the coach to Lewes, leaving only the London coach via Horsham running from Brighton.
July 14 A meeting elects 42 Brighton Commissioners.
July 20 William Leman falls from a scaffold at the Terminus Tavern in Queen’s Road and dies.
July 23 Day-tickets for the railway issued on Saturdays allow a return journey on Sunday or Monday.
July 27 The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) is formed by the amalgamation of the London & Brighton, London & Croydon, Brighton & Chichester and Brighton, Lewes and Hastings railway companies.
August 1 The Brighton theatre opens for the season.
August 1 The temperature is again up to 87°F (31°C) in the shade.
August 3 The Brighton Water Company resolves to extend the present works.
August 6 The London & Brighton Railway Company declares a half-yearly dividend of 24s 6d a share.
August 10 Rev A J Macleane of Trinity College, Cambridge is elected principal of Brighton College.
August 14 Prince George of Cambridge visits Brighton.
August 19 The Brighton Commissioners appoint a committee to consider the best steps to avert the threatened sale of the Pavilion.
August 24 The Commissioners’ committee meet Lord Morpeth, First Commissioner of the Woods and Forest about the Pavilion.
August 31 W Acton is appointed Superintendent of Police and Inspector of Traffic for the LB&SCR.
September 7 The High Constable arranges a regatta at Brighton.
September 9 Ira Aldridge, ‘a native African’—actually, born in New York and regarded as one of the first black American tragedians—plays Othello in a short engagement at the Brighton theatre.
September 9 Rev H Cotterill, late fellow of St John’s College, Cabridge, is appointed vice principal of Brighton College.
September 22 An extraordinary rise of the tide in Brighton; it subsequently appears that an earthquake occurred on the same day in Iceland.
September 26 One of the coastguards finds a dead body of a man near Mills Terrace; it proves to be an immigrant tailor called Müller living in London.
September 29 The town crier, Giles, dies, aged 61. His son is appointed town crier on 7 October.
October 5 The revising barrister, Archer Ryland, holds a court at Brighton to review the borough lists.
October 8 A new harmonic society is formed at the Clarence Hotel.
October 15 The shop of jeweller Peter Morganti at 50 Grand Parade is burgled and £500 of stock is ‘abstracted’.
October 19 The Fame steam packet has to return because of damage to the machinery and two fugitive bankrupts, trying to escape to France, are captured.
October 28 Madame Vestris and her husband Charles Mathews commence an engagement at the Brighton theatre.
November 3 Prince Louis Napoleon leave Brighton for London after a lengthened sojourn.
September 5 A new lighthouse is erected at Shoreham harbour.
November 10 The new Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye opens at 102 Queen's Road.
November 16 An unidentified young woman drowns herself by jumping from the Chain Pier.
November 23 A town meeting approves a proposed fixed breakwater at Brighton proposed by Captain Sir Samuel Brown.
November 29 The Menai makes the last trip for the season.
December 2 Lady Emma Pennant dies at her home in Queen’s Park.
December 14 A dinner is given for Captain Pechell MP by the Churchwardens, Overseers, Directors and Guardians in approval of his opposition to the new Poor Law.
December 15 The Vice-Chancellor at the Court of Chancery, orders a new trial about the Preston boundary road (see 1 July), being of the opinion that two of the three issues had not been properly tried.
December 19 Distribution of soup to the poor begins in Brighton.
December 26 The Brighton theatre re-opens after a short break with a new pantomime, Puck and the Puddings.
December 29 The governors of Brighton Dispensary adopt a recommendation to buy the curved piece of land in North Street opposite the White Lion as the site for a new dispensary.
January 1 Work begins on the Newhaven branch railway.
January 4 The high price of malt leads to a general rise in the price of beer.
January 6 The Drainage Committee present to the Commissioners the surveyor’s estimate of £38,000 for the general drainage of the town. A town rate of 1s in the £ is ordered.
January 7 A vestry meeting rejects the proposed 1½d [frac12] church rate.
January 14 A town meeting is called to petition for an extension of suffrage, adopting the ‘national petition’.
January 26 Opening of Brighton College, the Bishop of Chichester in the chair.
January 26 The large room on the town hall, decorated by Mr Vick, is opened by the Commissioners with a ball.
January 28 Election of 22 Commissioners at Brighton.
February 1 Brewers revert to the previous beer prices.
February 7-8 A severe snowstorm blocks the London-Brighton and Brighton-Hastings railway lines for two days.
February 19 Robbery at the residence of Alderman Wilson in Eastern Terrace involves jewellery worth £300; several other robberies and burglaries are carried out about now by a gang of London thieves.
February 24 The last Court of Requests is held at Brighton.
March 12 Mr Stead is appointed town surveyor of Brighton.
March 22 Brighton Commissioners dissolve the Police Commission and appoint a new one.
April 13 Brighton Commissioners appoint a committee to consider the Health of Towns Bill.
April 15 Directors and Guardians are elected at Brighton.
April 15 The General Steam Navigation Company begins cross-Channel sailings.
April 16 A court is held in Brighton following the passing of the County Courts Act.
May 6 The new schools connected to St John’s Church open.
May 6 A vestry meeting again refuses to make a church rate.
May 8 Considerable damage is done at Brighton railway terminus by an engine, left unattended, that gets into motion and runs into the parcels office.
May 10 Money and cheques worth £300 are stolen from Brighton railway terminus.
May 31 The Director and Guardians agree to enlarge the infirmary at an estimated cost of £1,765; John Fabian tenders for the work at £1,615.
June 1 A town meeting approves the principle of Lord Morpeth’s amended Health of Towns Bill.
June 4 William Coningham starts to campaign as a candidate to represent Brighton.
June 7 Brighton Commissioners resolve to augment the police force by adding 10 men and a superintendent.
June 14 LB&SCR opens to Portsmouth.
June 16 Borough surveyorStead, appointed 12 March, resigns after being censured by the Commissioners for acting without orders and against orders.
June 24 The price of gas in Brighton is reduced for the coming year from 7s per 1,000 cubic feet to 6s. [See also 1846 June 24.]
June 24 The Brighton and Continental Steam Packet Company’s boats, Brighton and Dieppe, arrive from London.
July 1 The Brighton and the Dieppe steamers commence running from Kingston to Dieppe and Le Havre.
July 4 Another engine runs into the parcel office at Brighton railway terminus.
July 30 Parliamentary election; no change in representation.
August 1 Brighton races begin for three days and stakes are much heavier than usual.
August 10 LB&SCR declares a half-yearly dividend of two per cent.
August 12 Last Brighton church rate (1d in the £) is refused by a vestry meeting.
August 15 The Builder reports that to defray some of the £150,000 cost of additions to Buckingham Palace, the Brighton marine palace [Royal Pavilion] and its grounds is to be sold.
August 16 The Brighton theatre opens for the season under the direction of C Poole.
August 17 The Brighton Dispensary committee resolves to raise subscriptions for a new building.
August 19 A charge of assault by William Hallett against Chief Officer of Police Thomas Hayter Chase is dismissed with costs.
August 23 Jenny Lind sings at a concert in Brighton attended by nearly 1,000 persons that raises nearly £1,200.
August 31 Of 13 application on annual licensing day at Brighton only one (Mr Mutton’s) is granted.
September 5 The Royal Pavilion is shut up.
September 24 Richard Allen Stickney is appointed town surveyor at Brighton out of 41 candidates.
September 26 A correspondent in The Builder, architect and antiquary George Russell French, discussing royal palaces, writes: 'The "Pavilion" at Brighton is doomed to destruction. Her Majesty will never again set foot within that costly gewgaw.' Then adds a footnote: 'The riding-school and stables belonging to the Pavilion are really fine things in their way. If they could be spared, they would be ornaments to the town, and might be made useful.'
October 1 The Keymer branch railway opens.
October 9 An eclipse of the sun is not visible at Brighton because of cloud cover.
October 24 An aurora borealis is seen in Brighton.
November 1 The two cross-Channel steamer companies, the Brighton and Continental and the General Steam Navigation Company, cease running their packets to Dieppe and Le Havre.
December 6 The railway branch line from Lewes to Newhaven opens.
December 9 A vestry meeting, ‘pursuant to the monition’, makes a church rate of 1d in the £.
December 18 An unfinished house collapses to the ground in Waterloo Street.
December 21 An anti-church-rate meeting is held in Brighton.
December 22 Three sections of the floating breakwater are sold at auction and produce £148.
December 27 The Pavilion establishment is broken up: all the domestic servants are discharged and the building left in the care of Mr Saunders.
December 27 The Brighton theatre re-opens with a Christmas pantomime, Gog and Magog.
January 18 The churchwardens respond to a monition calling on them to repair the parish church.
January 20 Palmer, Green & Co supply an engine and tender to the LB&SCR.
January 31 Over 700 people attend the annual county hospital ball.
February 14 The Brighton theatre closes for the season.
February 23 The premises in Ship Street that have been used as a soup house are leased by the Commissioners to the Post Office authorities for 60 years at £20 a year.
February 24 A court of enquiry opens into the objects of the proposed amended Act of the Brighton Gas Light and Coke Company.
February 28 A town meeting condemns the proposed increase in income tax.
March 7 The composer and pianist Sigismund Thalberg performs in Brighton.
March 8 A committee is formed at a town meeting to consider the Health of Towns Bill.
March 10 Lord George Seymour dies at Brighton.
March 27 A town meeting receive the report of a vestry committee on the Health of Towns Bill.
April 1 The body of a lad named William Townsend is found suspended in an unfinished house in Kemp Town.
April 3 A Chartist meeting in Brighton petitions in favour of extending the suffrage.
April 7 A vestry meeting in Hove passes resolutions against the incorporation of Brighton.
April 13 A vestry meeting at Brighton resolves by a majority of 60 against incorporating the borough.
April 17 After three days’ polling, a town meeting also decides by a majority of 673 against incorporation of the borough.
April 30 Election of Directors and Guardians at Brighton.
May 4 The Brighton parish officers tread the bounds.
May 5 A loyal address is presented to the Queen by the inhabitants of Brighton.
May 5 Three lads named Guildford and one called Walter Peaceable, while digging for sand, are killed by a portion of the cliff at Black Rock.
May 11 A town meeting considers the new arrangement of the railway company and forms a committee to contact the directors.
May 22 The body of a newly-born infant boy is found in Regent Row.
May 28 The Bishop of Cashel preaches sermons at Trinity Chapel and the Chapel Royal on behalf of the Irish Society.
May 29 A meeting of the friends of the Irish Society, chaired by Sir John Eustace, is addressed by the Bishop of Cashel.
June 16 Some ancient remains are dug up at Rottingdean.
June 27 Public distribution and foundation laid of the new Brighton College.
June 29 A vestry meeting at the town hall considers the Tenantry Down question.
July 4 The Pavilion organ is presented to the town by the Queen.
July 11 The remains of Gundrada (see 28 October 1845) are re-interred in a new tomb at Southover Church, Lewes.
July 12 A party of 1,500 licensed victuallers arrive from London by train.
July 13 A special meeting of the Directors and Guardians refuses to make the proposed alterations to the workhouse.
July 22 The Brighton theatre is opened by Mr Poole for the season.
July 24 A meeting in London of the Brighton and Continental Steam Packet Company orders their packets to be sold.
July 31 A vestry meeting decided against the proposed alterations to the workhouse.
July 31 Mr and Mrs Cuzens of Shipley, West Sussex, are appointed master and matron of the Brighton workhouse.
August 2 The General Steam Navigation Company’s packets commence sailings between Brighton and Dieppe.
August 2 Friend Paine, keeper of the town hall, is severely injured in an affray on the Race Hill.
August 3 A whirlwind passed over Brighton from the sea and does great mischief to the race booths.
August 7 Gustavus Vaughan Brooks, the Irish actor, appears at the Brighton theatre.
August 10 A cricket match between Sussex and Kent at Brighton is abandoned after three days because of the inclement weather.
August 10 A branch of the Colonisation Society is established at Brighton.
August 15 Blondels begin importing cattle from Honfleur.
August 23 The body of a male infant is found in Clifton Terrace and a verdict of wilful murder returned.
September 11 A town meeting refers the Tenantry Down question to a committee.
September 15 Prince and Princess Metternich and family arrive in Brighton, having taken a house for the season.
September 25 Mr and Mrs Charles Kean commence an engagement at the Brighton theatre.
September 28 Italian opera singers Giulia Grisi and Mario (Giovanni Matteo de Candia) perform at the town hall.
October 3 A cricket match at Gausden’s Royal Brunswick Ground between 11 one-armed and 11 one-legged Chelsea Pensioners excites much interest.
October 7 County Revision at Brighton.
October 9 Brighton Borough revision includes no cases of public interest.
October 11 The body of a newly-born male child is found in Derby Place.
October 12 The Princess Katharina Alexandra Dorothea von Lieven arrives at the Bedford Hotel.
October 16 The General Steam Navigation Company’s packet cease running after a very unprosperous season.
October 18 St Paul’s Church in West Street is opened by the Bishop of Chichester.
October 23 Rev Frederick Robertson founds a Working Men’s Institute, the first in the country, and delivers an inaugural lecture.
October 23 A Provision Committee for Improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes holds a meeting in Brighton.
October 30 Jenny Lind sings at Brighton town hall.
November 3 HRH the Duchess of Gloucester arrives at the Bedford Hotel for a few weeks’ stay.
November 7 At Brighton Chess Club Daniel Harrwitz, the celebrated German chess player, engages blindfold in two games simultaneously and wins both.
November 23 The Duke, Duchess and Princess Mary of Cambridge arrive on a visit to the Duchess of Gloucester for a short stay.
November 27 G Cheesman & Son are appointed to build the new church of All Saints and the Brighton Dispensary.
December 4 The royal visitors leave Brighton after sending donations to many local charitable institutions.
December 7 Edmond Barre, the finest tennis player in Europe, plays several matches at Brighton tennis court.
December 8 Joseph Phelps is fined £5. By the Brighton bench for allowing rat matches in his house.
December 19 ‘Judy Hill’, a well-known Nottingham Street character, is found dead in a well.
December 21 PC Nye sustains very severe injuries from a party of fishermen, who are committed for trial for the offence.
December 29 The Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes holds a meeting in Brighton with Sir Ralph Howard in the chair.
January 1 Start of annual distribution of soup to the poor in Brighton.
January 1 G Cheesman & Son begin digging the foundations for All Saints Church, in Clifton Road (now Compton Avenue).
January 9 Many sign a petition in favour of introducing the Health of Towns Act in Brighton.
January 15 Remuneration of £200 a year is fixed by the vestry for the collectors of poor rates.
January 16 The body of a man killed by a train is found in Clayton Tunnel.
January 17 A committee of the Brighton Town Commissioners recommends erecting a public clock at the town hall.
February 8 The Prince and Princess of Parma visit the Duke of Devonshire in Brighton.
February 10 The Opéra Comique performs in Brighton.
February 28 A hurricane causes severe damage along the coast.
March 1 The Earl of Chichester lays the foundation stone for the new Brighton Dispensary in Queen’s Road.
March 1 The actuary of the Brighton Savings Bank, R D Buckoll, absconds with a large amount. The bank is closed until 21 May.
March 26 The Post Office moves from New Road to Ship Street.
April 3 A young man called Hornsbury is gored to death by a bullock in Church Street.
April 3 An improved dietary plan is adopted by the Directors and Guardians of the Poor of Brighton.
April 5 Messrs Blaber, Casher, Gwatkin and George Lynn are appointed Overseers of Brighton.
April 16 Prince and Princess Metternich leave Brunswick Terrace for London.
April 16 An inquiry begins into the sanitary state of Brighton by Mr Cresy, superintending inspector under the Public Health Act.
April 24 A public meeting at the town hall in favour of the Early Closing Association.
May 1 The ex-king and queen of France arrive at the Bedford Hotel, ‘and returning the same day’.
May 1 A town meeting at the Town Hall petitions parliament to extend the suffrage.
May 6 Three concerts are given at the town hall by Strauss.
May 9 Fairs are banned by the Town Commissioners from being held on The Level.
June 9 Cuzens, the governor of the Brighton Workhouse, absconds.
June 21 The strained glass chancel window at St Paul’s Church, West Street, is the gift of Rev H M Wagner.
June 21 A Bill is presented in the House of Commons for the sale of the Pavilion.
June 27 A public meeting on the Pavilion Bill unanimously resolves ‘that the Town Commissioners take the necessary steps to oppose the bill’.
July 12 Horace Smith dies.
July 17 A contract to acquire the Pavilion is signed by Lewis Slight, clerk to the Town Commissioners, for £53,000, despite the public meeting’s resolution.
July 18 The vestry clerk, Lewis Slight, tells the Commissioners that the Board of Woods and Forests will sell the Pavilion for £53,000.
July 22 An excursion train brings upwards of 1,000 passengers.
July 27 Rate-payers at a vestry meeting vote unanimously in favour of buying the Pavilion.
July 28 The Race Committee buys the race-stand from Thomas Attree and others for £360.
July 30 The Commissioners pass a resolution to buy the Pavilion.
July 31 Lewis Slight delivers copies of all the proceedings for the completion of the purchase of the Pavilion to Mr Pemberton, solicitor of the Board of Woods and Forests in London.
August 6 A terrific storm does extensive damage along the coastline.
August 8 Brighton races begin and the Brighton theatre opens for the season.
August 9 The former Brighton Dispensary building in Middle Street is sold for £405.
August 10 Two fire engines are now stationed at the railway terminus.
August 30 A new farce, Wanted to Marry, produced by W Sawyer, is staged at the Brighton theatre ‘with considerable success’.
September 5 A town rate of 1s in the £ is agreed by the Commissioners.
September 6 Coins from the reign of King John are found by George Lynn’s workmen at Montpelier Crescent.
September 10 William Macready commences a short engagement at the Brighton theatre in Macbeth.
September 13 Louis-Antoine Jullien’s band plays at the town hall.
September 20 A church rate of 1s in the £ is rejected at a vestry meeting.
September 24 The pianist Madame Dulcken gives a concert in Brighton.
September 27 The German soprano Madame Henriette Sontag gives her first concert in Brighton.
September 30 The Italian contralto Madame Marietta Alboni gives a concert at the town hall.
October 4 John Orlando Parry gives the premiere of his new entertainment at the Newburgh Assembly Rooms.
October 8 Mr & Mrs Charles Kean appear at Brighton theatre for the week.
October 18 St Paul’s Church, West Street, is consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester.
October 21 A town hall meeting about suffrage and financial reform is addressed by the chartist Feargus O’Connor.
October 24 A town hall meeting, chaired by Rev H M Wagner, passes a resolution against Sunday labour in the Post Office.
October 27 Mail bags are sent from Brighton to London on Saturday evening rather than on Sunday for the first time.
October 29 Madame Sontag gives a second concert.
November 5 The Commissioners vote 32 to 4 in favour of completing the acquisition of the Pavilion.
November 8 A vestry meeting about the purchase of the Pavilion is dissolved ‘after a stormy discussion’.
November 22-28 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stay at the Bedford Hotel.
November 22 Mr Wiber, the box-book keeper at the Brighton theatre, takes his benefit and has the fullest house of the season.
November 29 Pianist and composer Wilhelm Kuhe gives his annual concert, at which Catherine Hayes, the Irish soprano, sings for the first time.
December 10 Mr Cooke’s company of equestrians performs in a temporary circus at Mighell Street.
December 11 Madame Sontag sings again at the town hall.
December 19 Lewis Slight signs the agreement for the purchase of the Pavilion.
December 20 Louis-Antoine Jullien gives an entertainment at the town hall at which mezzo-soprano Henrietta ‘Jetty’ Treffz (first wife of Johann Strauss II) sings for the first time.
December 20 A poll at a vestry meeting defeats a motion opposing the purchase of the Pavilion.
December 26 The new pantomime opens at the Brighton theatre.
Page updated 13 May 2024