Thomas Read Kemp and the Shaping of Regency Brighton C.1818–1845’, the Georgian Group Journal, Vol
Sue Berry, ‘Thomas Read Kemp and the shaping of Regency Brighton c.1818–1845’, The Georgian Group Journal, Vol. xVII, 2009, pp. 125–140
text © the authors 2009 THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON c . –
SUE BERRY
he story of the enterprises of Thomas Read their harsh living conditions. The Morning Chronicle TKemp ( – ) can only be understood remarked in on the presence of the Prime within the the context of Brighton’s development as Minister, William Pitt, at Rottingdean (east of a resort. Before , few architects were employed Brighton), along with a number of friends of the in Brighton. Henry Holland enlarged a lodging ministry, contractors, and other people who stayed house to form the first version of the Royal Pavilion; in Brighton and would have had something to lose Robert Adam modernised a large town house for if there was danger. ‘Single Speech’ Hamilton; and William Porden With the Wars over, the long narrow terraces so designed Mrs Fitzherbert’s house. Bath, Brighton’s characteristic of Brighton’s suburban development main rival, owes its present appearance to a series of since were too small to accommodate wealthier architect-developers, first the Woods (from the s visitors who now wanted to use their homes for to the s), then Thomas Baldwin, John Eveleigh entertaining (Fig. ). Regency Square, commenced in and John Palmer (mid s to ) and finally, in , was the first large new scheme. The demand for the early nineteenth century, John Pinch. Although housing is reflected in the increase in population, most of their schemes were not completed as planned, which doubled between and to , and they gave Bath more cohesion than Brighton achieved, then rose to , by . Between and an image aided by the use of a good quality local stone. the number of houses also increased from in Landownership also played a major part in the shaping to in . The many terraced schemes of of both resorts. The willingness of landowners to this decade were more successful than those consisting make plots of enclosed land available for development of villas; more were built and more completed. played a significant role in the look of Bath; the Thomas Read Kemp became involved in both types scarcity of such plots in Brighton before ensured of project, but for him neither was profitable. that its early development was very different. The decline of Bath as a major resort for visitors coincided with Brighton’s rapid growth, beginning during the Napoleonic Wars and continuing until THE RISE OF THE KEMP FAMILY –. The large contingents of the military based Kemp’s father, another Thomas ( – ), was a in and around Brighton must have reassured many wealthy merchant of Lewes. He inherited copyhold visitors. Jane Austen’s Lydia in Pride and Prejudice and freehold land in Brighton and other parishes, wished to go to Brighton to see the soldiers; Frances and in married Anne Read of Brookland (Kent), Wheatley’s painting Brighton Camp romanticised the daughter of a wealthy grazier. In he moved
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON his family to Coneyborough in the parish of Barcombe, emerged. This is why his land in Brighton became so just north of Lewes. He also became MP for Lewes. important to him. In , after his death, his son became MP for Lewes The Kemps were faced with making a profit out and inherited the family estates. of farmland in the parish of Brighton which was still Thomas and Anne Kemp had considerable unenclosed. Many streets were built over the old ambitions for their son. In they made a fossilised field system of ‘paul pieces’ (strips of arable substantial settlement on him when he married land) in furlongs within large fields called Laines. Frances, fourth daughter of Sir Francis Baring, This layout forced developers to build long and Chairman of the East India Company and founder narrow streets orientated south to north (Fig. ). of Barings Bank. Herstmonceux Place in East Urban development over land like this was not Sussex was purchased for £ , , and the unique to Brighton; Portsmouth and Nottingham are newlyweds also occupied No. Queen’s Square other examples. Thomas Kemp the elder began the (the modern Queen Anne’s Gate), London. process in the s by enclosing arable and pastoral This marriage probably sowed the seeds of later land to make larger plots for easier development, financial problems for the young man, who was now particularly on the west and northern sides of the mixing with people who were far wealthier than him. town. He was fortunate to be the Lord of half of the When he inherited the land in Brighton from his Manor of Brighton-Lewes, which held more arable father, he owned less than , acres in Sussex, land in the parish than any of the other eight manors. including his holdings in Herstmonceux and This gave him the opportunity to enfranchise any Brighton. No evidence of substantial assets in other leasehold land he bought within his share of the forms such as cash or business investments has Manor and sell it as freehold.
Fig. . Brighton in . Published by John Bruce, showing Kemp Town on the east, Brunswick Town on the west, Brighton (Queen’s) Park, Ireland’s Gardens (at top centre of map).
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Fig. . The parish of Brighton’s Arable and Pasture areas in . Copied from a terrier map by Ron Martin.
Thomas Read Kemp read theology at Cambridge Street chapel was sold too, Kemp having lost interest and, influenced by his wife, joined an evangelical sect in the evangelical sect. He meanwhile resumed his led by Harriet Wall, the eldest of the Baring sisters, Parliamentary career, as MP for Arundel, and in and the Rev. George Baring, her brother. This sect he bought Dale Park, just west of the town, but this sought to interest wealthier members of society in its was sold in when he regained his Lewes seat. beliefs. In Kemp resigned his Parliamentary From he never owned another country estate. seat to devote more time to preaching, and He continued, however, to keep a house in London preached in Brighton from at St James’s and in he decided to build a villa, No. Chapel. In , Amon Henry Wilds designed and Belgrave Square (now the Spanish Embassy), built Trinity Chapel for him in Ship Street in an which went up to the designs of H.E. Kendall, Egyptian style. senior, on the Belgravia Estate then being built by In Kemp and his wife built a villa known as Thomas Cubitt. The Temple, just north-west of Brighton. Also designed by Wilds, it stood on the land enclosed by Kemp’s father in the s (Fig. ). Then in Herstmonceux Place was sold, and in the Ship
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Fig. . The Temple (Now a Girls’ High School). Drawn by G. Earpe and Engraved by H.A. Ogg published c. .
EARLY PROJECTS IN BRIGHTON along the stretch of road north of St Peter’s Church The Temple was the start of Kemp’s unsuccessful (see below) to the parish boundary with Preston development of the pasture land north-west of proved equally unsuccessful, though some houses Brighton enclosed for villas by his father in the early were built and a few still remain. s. It was followed before by another Kemp also invested in visitor facilities intended Grecian-style house, Hampton Villa, to the south- for the wealthy. In he became a director of the east, detailed descriptions of which suggest that it Chain Pier (Fig. ), immortalised by, inter alia , was quite substantial (Fig. ). Meanwhile, before J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, and agreed with , Kemp’s sister Mrs Sobers built the large the other Lord of the Manor of Brighton-Lewes to Western Villa or Lodge further south, at the corner assign a suitable space for it on the cliff face; he also of Western and Montpelier Roads. But by the late agreed to relinquish manorial rights over the foreshore s Kemp had abandoned the idea of building villas underneath it, and to the area below the cliff that was in this area and was selling land for the construction required for access. This venture was not profitable, of Montpelier Terrace. A projected development of and nor were projects for the development of two large c. for smaller detached and semi-detached villas private gardens, Ireland’s Gardens and Brighton
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Fig. . Hampton Villa , provenance unknown.
Fig. . The Chain Pier. A polygraph showing the site before the cliff was shored as it is now c. . Provenance unknown.
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(now Queen’s) Park. Ireland’s (or Royal) Gardens THE GENESIS OF KEMP TOWN (Fig. ), of approximately ten acres, was opened in In the freeholders and leaseholders of the when Kemp underwrote the landscaping with farmland on the Downs near Brighton finally agreed £, ; from , Wilds incorporated part of the to divide and enclose the pastoral areas, amounting Gardens into the gardens for Park Crescent. to acres: Queen’s Park, opened in , was laid out over an area of Hilly Laine (Fig. ) in which only Kemp, TABLE 1: SHARES of the PASTURE LAND, 1822 Thomas Attree and Philip Mighell held paul pieces, Kemp having by far the largest share. By August Thomas Read Kemp and Frances shares the park had been landscaped with clumps of trees, Charles Scrase Dickens of West Stoke . and the roads and entrances were constructed. House, Elizabeth his wife and son In December , spaces for detached villas were also of West Stoke House. advertised, offering views of the park, the downs John Whichelo of Bristol Esq. . and the sea. But the land for villas did not sell and Nathaniel Kemp of Ovingdean . Kemp had trouble collecting the rent. Attree finally bought the land owned by Kemp and Mighell, and George Hoper of Lewes . (Ackerson land) in the early s he built a villa to the design of Charles Barry to try to push the development Isaac Tree Rich of Brighton and Mary . along. But it was not successful, and only a few Philip Mighell of Brighton . plots were sold. From about Kemp became involved in high- profile activities in Brighton. He became a patron of The table shows how dominant the Kemp holding the Dispensary and supported other public fund- was. In when the Tithe Commissioners tried to raising events. He also gave and sold land for assess how much of this land had not been built on, public needs, such as land for the Jewish Cemetery Kemp was thought to still own acres. in . The same year he conveyed land in East In the short term, Kemp was entrusted by the Laine for the Sussex County Hospital and Sea other owners with the freehold of about acres, all Bathing Infirmary (now the Royal Sussex) to the of which was to be conveyed to the Commissioners newly formed body of trustees of which he was one. for the use of the town. The land included the Old The trustees agreed to treat the value of the land as a Steine, the Northern Inclosures (just south of donation towards the costs of the project. St Peter’s Church), the Level, the Race Course, the Kemp recognised the value of a railway line to Cricket Ground and the old bowling green (Fig. ). London, and became a Director of the Surrey, In Kemp also conveyed to the Commission for Sussex and Hampshire Railroad Company and then Building New Churches, on behalf of the same of the London and Brighton Railway Company. owners, three acres of land called Richmond Green But again he did not benefit, though his heirs did. for the construction of St Peter’s Church (then called He also backed the promotion of the Brighton Water the New Church), a much needed chapel of ease for Company in . By the late s he was well the parish church of St Nicholas. The main roads established in the town. He helped to organise the into the town were slightly diverted so that they Regatta in , and in he bought stags for the joined further south in order to position the church Brighton Hunt and gave land for the new kennels where it now stands (Figs. , ). when the old ones were lost to development. Without the enclosure agreement of Kemp
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Fig. . Ireland’s Gardens by R Havell. Looking down from the north-west. Hanover Crescent to the east, by A.H. and A.Wilds. Published as frontispiece in E.W. Brayley, Topographical Sketches of Brighthelmston , London, .
Fig. . St Peter’s church with spire. The spire was never built as Barry failed to persuade the Parish Vestry to agree to it. Published as an aquatint View of Brighton’s New Churc h c. .
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Town could not have been built. Already in Designed by Charles Augustin Busby, it cost Kemp November the Sussex Weekly Advertiser could report £ , and the additional cost of a private Act of that ‘Two elegant new squares are talked of to skirt Parliament. The Sussex Hospital (Fig. ) and the East and the West of the town. But there was St Mary’s Hall, a school for the daughters of still no inland access by road enabling travellers to impoverished clergymen, also went up on Kemp’s avoid the winds along the cliff tops in the winter. So land in East Laine. between c. and Kemp bought land in East Kemp chose Busby and Wilds as his architects Laine, a large arable field east of the town where he for the design of his grand project, and they were had inherited considerable holdings intermixed with responsible for the spectacular arrangement of a those of other owners. He then laid out what is now crescent (Lewes Crescent) overlooking the sea-front, Eastern Road, leading from the edge of Brighton to continued east and west by terraces, and opening up the future Kemp Town. This new inland road also into a square (Sussex Square) to the north. Busby opened up the land that Kemp owned in East Laine was inexperienced in work of this scale, and was not for development (Fig. ). His intentions for this area yet well known; Wilds was a local builder who, like are indicated not only by him bearing the cost of many of this period also produced designs for his extending the road but also by the construction of clients. The development was originally intended to St George’s Chapel in the centre of unsold land. have houses and mews on its forty-acre site
Fig. . The Royal Sussex Hospital, as designed by Charles Barry. Published in John Bruce History of Brighton , facing p. .
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Fig. . Kemptown, Brighton erecting on the East Cliff, on the estate of T .R. Kemp Esq. MP. Drawn, engraved, printed and publishid (sic) by J. Bruce. Aquatint c. . Reprinted c. in Bruce, Select Views of Brighton .
(Fig. ), but Kemp did not appoint an experienced In November a fire damaged an unfinished surveyor or architect to supervise their construction. house, No. Lewes Crescent, and a few days later an Having drawn up the plan, Busby went off to work adjacent house was blown down in a ‘tremendous for the Rev. Thomas Scutt, for whom he laid out storm’. In spite of such setbacks, most of the Brunswick Town (see below), and Wilds became carcases were ready for sale by January . involved in other projects. Kemp meanwhile Kemp therefore offered them for completion on decided to pay builders to build the carcases of the -year building leases with an annual ground rent houses to and then to sell them to the builders at a of £ and an option to purchase the freehold fixed price. This was probably the least profitable within ten years for £ , . But there were few sales, option he could have chosen. and, with his capital severely reduced, Kemp was In Kemp was paying the wages of at least forced to borrow £ , from his wife’s relatives, two hundred workmen to level the site and to the Barings. construct the houses. The cost must have steadily The carcases, or shells, of the houses were put increased, as he bore the expense not only of the up by a local builder, George Stafford, who was building work but also the landscaping and the directly employed by Kemp and paid by him as esplanade to the south of the main road along the building progressed. But in , not long after the seafront. In he enclosed the gardens in three completion of the houses, he went bankrupt and sections with iron railings and paid Henry Phillips, Kemp was forced to give bills of exchange to his a local botanist and landscape gardener, to lay them creditors. By October , Kemp had advanced out. By there were carcases awaiting buyers £ , for work on the houses and esplanade, but and no evidence of interest in them. Kemp had was still owed £ , . Kemp got the buildings back, already borrowed £ , , secured on the land in and a small amount of the capital, but was left in his marriage settlement and in Kemp Town. with large numbers of unsold carcases.
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Fig. . View of Brunswick Town and adjacent buildings adjoining Brighton. Drawn, engraved and produced by J. Bruce and C.A. Busby . Aquatint. Published in Bruce’s, Select Views of Brighton , . The building north of Brunswick Town is Scutt’s house and the domed building to the right is The Temple.
Kemp now decided to sell The Temple, which crescent . The Marquess of Bristol bought two was let as a school, and to move to No. Sussex houses in the north-west corner of Sussex Square in Square, Kemp Town. An account by a French and then large plots of land from Kemp, visitor, Comte Auguste de la Garde, in November including all of the pasture from his house to the , gives the impression of a man who is trying to Preston boundary at what is now Bear Road. sell houses by showing how lavish a lifestyle could be More land on the cliff to the west was sold in led there. Sales picked up in , when Matthias to Hallett, a local businessman. Wilks of Tandridge (Surrey) bought a house on the The slow progress of Kemp’s house in London south-east corner of Sussex Square, and Kemp’s indicated that he still had financial problems, so he sister Mrs Sober contracted to buy No. Sussex gave back some of the London plot to Thomas Square for £ , . By May Kemp had sold Cubitt and paid him for work there with land in seventeen carcases on to William Cubitt, the builder Kemp Town, on which he proceeded to build of Belgravia, fifteen to Joseph and Matthias Wilks houses. In the sixth Duke of Devonshire and eleven to Nehemiah Wimble of Lewes, but he bought the carcase of No. Chichester Terrace still remained the largest proprietor, with houses from Kemp, and in March No. Lewes and sites. By , No. Sussex Square was ready Crescent from Cubitt, who completed No. Lewes for occupation, and so were Nos. – Arundel Crescent and did all the interior work within it for Terrace, the eastern continuation of Lewes Crescent, £, . The two houses were on a wedge-shaped and a house in Chichester Terrace, to the west of the plot, and although the Duke used them both they
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON were laid out as two separate houses with a connecting door and a large detached kitchen to TABLE 2: KEMP TOWN & BRUNSWICK TOWN state of Construction in keep the smell of cooking out of each. The accounts of this splendid bachelor’s home give a clear idea of Kemp Town Brunswick Town how a wealthy person finished such a house. Finished Nearly Finished Mahogany was used for the handrail of the stairs and Basement level the seats of the two water closets, one for the Duke Carcase and the other for his guests. The stairs and door Not Slated jambs were Portland stone. In the drawing room, Glazed carcase statuary marble chimney pieces were installed and in Roof not on the dining room and parlours, black and gold ones. Upper Floors laid Cubitt’s men even unloaded wagons of furniture Lathed and glazed Plastering from Chatsworth. During the early s this house Lathed cost over £ , a year to run excluding major work Plastered on it: a considerably smaller sum than the Duke Ready to Paper spent on Chatsworth, Chiswick or Devonshire No comment ___ _ ____ House in London. ______
management all helped to push Brunswick Town BRUNSWICK TOWN – A RIVAL ahead, even though in January Kemp Town was By the mid s Kemp was faced with competition further advanced. at the western end of the town in the form of The houses in Brunswick Town sold more Brunswick Town, projected less than a year after quickly than those in Kemp Town, and resales of Kemp Town. Busby designed the scheme for the houses in Brunswick Town appeared in the local freeholder, Rev. Thomas Scutt. Here, in contrast to press before new houses in Kemp Town were sold. Kemp Town, Busby supervised the sales of plots and By the end of the s, the Square and the seafront purchasers undertook the construction of houses. terraces shown on the drawing of Brunswick Town Busby’s authority was established by ensuring that (Fig. ) were probably complete, and in a large conveyances included his name as well as Scutt’s and group of the fifty or so ‘proprietors’ paid for the the purchasers’. Kemp did not appear to grasp the Brunswick Square (Brighton) Improvement Act. value of taking the same approach at Kemp Town. Thomas Scutt vested in the Commissioners the Kemp supported a plan in – to build roads and open spaces and the right to enforce another square immediately west of Brunswick covenants over properties he sold, such as the Town, which would have rivalled Kemp Town. Kemp height of railings. contracted to buy the land for £ , from Thomas A private Act could also have been secured for Scutt in and to complete the transaction in Kemp Town but Kemp did not initiate it. Instead, in December . When the scheme foundered, Isaac May , Thomas Goodall convened the first Lyon Goldsmid bought the land, instead paying meeting of the Kemp Town Proprietors, who closed Scutt £ , and in due course, the Goldsmid the road through the gardens between Lewes family built Adelaide Crescent on the site. Crescent and Sussex Square and paid Henry Phillips Proximity to the town centre, better funding and to plant that land. At their next meeting they set up a
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Committee of Management with seven members THE TIDE OF INDEBTEDNESS including Kemp and Cubitt. A standard rate to pay The editor of the Brighton Gazette commented on for improvements was agreed in June and a January that a national depression was competition was held for the design of the esplanade affecting employment and the banks. Kemp tried to under the cliff with a link tunnel under the main road offset his costs at Kemp Town by using his other into the gardens. It was won by H.E. Kendall, the land to raise capital. He mortgaged land, including architect of Kemp’s London house, and his son, who part of Montpelier, to his local agent and sold land. was working on the two houses bought by the In , at about the time of his second marriage, to Marquess of Bristol in the north-west corner of Frances Harvey (née Shakerley) – his first wife Sussex Square. But the whole project – a major having died in – he borrowed £ , from his work of civil engineering – took twelve years to former brother-in-law Henry Baring, secured against complete, due mainly to the difficulties associated his first marriage settlement and other assets he had with raising funds. used in . His failure to keep up the interest In , Kemp Town was still described as payments forced Baring into filing a bill in Chancery unfinished, its dilapidated state blamed on a severe against the trustees of the marriage settlement (which winter. The slowness with which Kemp Town included other Barings) to register the debt. At this developed impacted on the services offered locally, point Kemp owed at least £ , to the Baring on sales of second hand houses and on the funding family and had mortgaged houses in Kemp Town. of public works. In , the owners of the Gas The problems he faced are well illustrated by the rate Works just to the east of Kemp Town advertised land book for which recorded that only of the for the construction of second and third rate houses were inhabited, compared with in . houses with shops. John Vyvyan of Notting Hill Kemp was still an MP in late February , but Place designed a key part of this scheme, but, due to only a day after a Parliamentary vote he said that the the lack of interest, only part of it was built. The family was leaving the country for the sake of his lack of business at the Bush Hotel bankrupted its health. In April he resigned his seat and first proprietor in . From the early s there moved abroad with his second wife, their son was a small market in second hand houses which Frederick and his daughter by his first marriage. reveal how lavishly furnished some were, but new One of his other daughters, Fanny, remained at owners were not easy to find. In , Thomas Potter Belgrave Square until , when the houses there MacQueen tried to sell No. Sussex Square, and in Kemp Town were let. Kemp returned to described as one of the largest houses in Brighton. England only once, over the winter of –. Its luxurious contents included a drawing room with Kemp’s complicated affairs now resulted in legal green silk damask on the walls and gallery hung with action in the civil courts, most of them begun by four Canalettos, a Correggio and a Guido Reni. After people seeking to recover debts. On May , some months, he offered to rent the property. Sir Thomas Baring wrote to Kemp and set out the In so few houses had been sold that it was not results of a meeting with the Receiver appointed possible to raise enough funds from residents in under Chancery proceedings instigated by the order to extend the sea wall for which they should Barings in order to relieve the trustees of Kemp’s have paid. After lengthy discussions, the Brighton first marriage from having to interfere with his Commissioners decided that the town should meet financial affairs. the rest of the cost due to the need to protect the The sums due from sales of land to the railway seafront road. company, to the parish for a cemetery and to Hallett
THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON and Attree, two local businessmen, were considered evidence that they were abroad and unaware of the sufficient to pay off the balance of Kemp’s arrears. case, but Kemp remained liable for the debt. Then, Baring recommended that the rental of Kemp’s during the morning service on Sunday January property still in the hands of the receiver should be , a proclamation of outlawry was posted on the used to pay off a debt to William Campion, to pay doors of the parish church at Brighton, Kemp having interest on Henry Baring’s loan of £ , , to pay a neglected to respond to an action brought against sum into the trust for his children in England, and him by Sir William Pilkington and his wife. Even on outstanding legal fees. Baring also suggested that after he died, more cases emerged. In his sister, the rest of the property held in trust be distributed Mrs Sober, went to court to recover her rights to between Kemp’s children, an idea which Mr Faithful, No. Sussex Square, mortgaged by her brother the family solicitor, also supported because the without her knowledge. children had little left to inherit. From this, Kemp Kemp died in Paris at No. Rue du Faubourg would not receive a penny. de St Honoré on December , and was buried The Barings forced the sale of more land in in Père-Lachaise Cemetery. His widow returned to January , indicating just how extensive Kemp’s Kemp Town in the late s and lived in the former holdings still were and the extent of his indebtedness family home until , but then moved to Tunbridge to them. The auctioneer clearly exaggerated the Wells where she died. value when he claimed the land was worth £ , , given the fact that houses and land in Brighton were not in demand: a situation which did not improve until the later s. In Kemp Town, Kemp still CONCLUSION owned Chichester House, which was let, four Why did Kemp find himself so short of capital and unfinished houses on the east side of Lewes Crescent, income when he still owned a considerable amount and four more in Sussex Square, one of which was of land in the parish of Brighton which he might occupied by his agent Mr Harris. He also owned have used as security for mortgages? In July , of most of Henry Street, all of Albion Mews (both off the acres of pasture and arable land surveyed by St James Street), land near Jubilee Street, the Race the Tithe Commissioners, Kemp’s land (by then Course and the surrounding land (some acres), inherited by his widow) amounted to acres. several farms, land along Montpelier Road and along The answer seems to lie partly in his refusal to put Queen’s Road, Lilleywhite’s Cricket Ground on more of the risk of development at Kemp Town onto Montpelier Road, and Hodson’s Mill. In December others in the way that Scutt and Busby did at , more land was put on the market. This time the Brunswick Town, partly in his existing indebtedness assets included his house, and land in Rock Mews. which made him a poor risk. He also failed to benefit The advertisement claimed that land now in the area from the boom of the early s and became one of still called Montpelier had been laid out as a villa the many victims of the town’s failure to grow; the suburb close to the station, with its principal population increased by only six thousand between frontage on Montpelier Road. and , and only a few hundred houses were Kemp had considerable debts in addition to built. The railway stimulated growth from the later mortgages. In , a fashionable tailor called Becker s when the population rose sharply. For Kemp went to court to claim about £ due to him. As this was far too late. Kemp did not appear, Becker obtained a writ of Kemp inherited land and the desire for the outlawry against him. The Kemp family produced lifestyle of a gentleman from his father, Thomas
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Kemp. Faced with the need for income to maintain NOTES an expensive way of living, he decided to venture S. Berry, Georgian Brighton (Chichester, ) into urban development. He lacked any experience provides an overview. M. Jones, Set for a King: years of gardening at the Royal Pavilion (Brighton of business and failed to employ someone to manage Museum and Libraries, ) has a series of his schemes. Rather than spread the risk as rivals diagrams showing the development of the Pavilion. did, he tried to fund the building work himself, and Berry, op. cit. , pp. – . P. Hembry and W. & E. this led to his nemesis. But although he failed to Cowie, British Spas from to the Present profit from his many speculations, schemes with (London, ), pp. – . Berry, op. cit. , pp. – ; Morning Chronicle , which he was associated survive. He also determined August . the layout of substantial areas which were not Census data. developed until far later. Without such people taking National Archives, PROB / , / , / . The risks, towns such as Brighton would not have citation of inheritance is clearly laid out in East developed such a rich legacy from this period. Sussex Record Office (hereafter ESRO), SAS-ACC , Queens Park. For additional Kemp inheritances, see ESRO A , – ; A , – ; A , . J. Farrant, ‘A garden in a desert place and a palace among the ruins’: Lewes Castle ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS transformed, – ’, Sussex Archaeological P. J. Berry, Helen Glass, Henry Smith, Geoffrey Collections CXXXIV ( ), pp. – , gives a Tyack, Jan Lank, and her sponsors, American short account of family inheritances. ESRO, SAS-ACC ; AMS / , October Express, who have funded Mrs Lank to work on the ; AMS / , April . Victoria County History: City of Brighton and Hove C. Whittick, ‘Coneyborough’ in J. Farrant, Sussex for a year. To the Trustees of the Chatsworth Depicted (Lewes: Sussex Record Society, ), Settlement for permission to see the documents p. ; ESRO AMS / , May . about the Duke of Devonshire’s house in Kemp Town. Sussex Weekly Advertiser (hereafter SWA ), May . SWA , July . SWA , May , July ; ESRO, AMS /, July ; ESRO, SAS-ACC ; Boyle’s Court Guide , and . C.W. Chalklin, The Provincial Towns of Georgian England – (London, ), pp. –. ESRO, SAS-N , , ; AMS //- ; DB/B/ //; AMS //-. ESRO, ACC // (c ); ACC / ; A / ; PAR / //; PAR / (Burial Land Grant) . SWA , June . The Times April ; G. Carter, Anglican Evangelicals (Oxford, ), pp. , . ESRO, AMS / . F.E. Sawyer, Churches of Brighton (c. ), p. . Baxter’s Brighton Guide and Directory , , p. liv; ESRO PAR /. The chapel was refaced in . ESRO PAR . Sold – . For Dale Park, Farrant (ed.), Sussex Depicted , p. ; British Library, Add Ms , f. ; Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle , January ; Brighton Herald (hereafter BH) , January .
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H. Hobhouse, Thomas Cubitt (Didcot, ), p. . Dale, Fashionable Brighton , p. . The house is still standing, but has been much BGaz , December, December ; The Times, altered. Also in S. Bradley, and N. Pevsner, London : November . BGaz. nd November . Westminster , New Haven and London, ), p. . BGaz, January . ESRO ACC // ; SWA , July ; Brighton ESRO, SAS-N/ , / ; National Archives, Gazette (hereafter BGaz .), November ; B/ , . The Times December . BGaz, Jan ; BH , Oct ; National Morning Chronicle February . Archives, B / , . In his evidence to BH , July , November ; ESRO, Acc Stafford’s bankruptcy proceedings Kemp asserted ; J. and J. Ford, Images of Brighton (Richmond that Wilds was the original architect on the estate on Thames, ), p. . and was replaced by Busby. SWA April , Cottage style plan; ESRO, Dale, Fashionable Brighton , pp. – ; BH , Oct HOW / , July ; BGaz, March , . July . In Kemp was the plaintiff in a case ESRO, SAS-B/ , with a rare plan of the estate in Chancery in which he sought to recover the land: attached; J.A. Dunlap, Reports of cases decided in the London Gazette July , p. ; National High Court of Chancery (London, ), pp. – ; Archives, C / / . London Gazette August , p. . BH , February, and March . Hobhouse, Cubitt , p. . Brighton Gleaner , , p. ; Baxter’s Directory of BH , October . Brighton, , p. xxxvii. Suffolk Record Office, HA // , / . BGaz, August, December . ESRO, HOW /, Budgen Account Book. Lists of donations in BH, BG ; Baxter , p. lix. Hobhouse, Cubitt , pp. , , , ; ESRO, A. Dale, Fashionable Brighton – HOW, Budgen – , March . (Newcastle, ), p. . Derby Mercury March ; Devonshire MSS, BH , March , p. . Chatsworth, Brighton House accounts. The Times , January ; BH December . Devonshire MSS, Chatsworth, L/ / . Brighton Guardian (hereafter BG ), January . N. Bingham, C.A.Busby (London, ), p. . BH , April . Jackson’s Oxford Journal, February ; ESRO, AMS //–; National Archives, Morning Chronicle February . The story IR / ; BH April ; Proceedings of the about Thomas Kemp’s purchases referred to is Commissioners in relationship to the rights of incorrect; he inherited most of the land; Morning inhabitants over certain parcels of land referred to in Chronicle April ; Dale, Fashionable Brighton , the deeds of on the division of the Tenantry p. . Down (Brighton, ). BGaz January (figures compiled by Busby). Copies of deeds relating to the division of the tenantry BGaz January , . January , . downs in the parish of Brighton in the year The second house was next but one to the Duchess (Brighton, ), pp. , ; BH , November of Dorset to east side; BH January . . BH, November ; ESRO , Land Tax, Hove; BH , November . BG , March . SWA , November . GEORGII IV. REGIS, Cap xvi. rd June . ESRO, HOW / , map c. . Comparison with Morning Chronicle June ; A.M., terrier maps of the town shows how Kemp cut ‘A forgotten gardener: Henry Phillips, – ’, straight across the paul pieces when needed. Garden History Society Newsletter XIV ( ), Anon, The Fashionable Guide and Directory to the pp. –; Dale, Fashionable Brighton , pp. – , and Public Places of Resort (London, ), p. . Dale ( ), p. , both citing the minutes of the ESRO, HOW, Budgen . Kemp Town Committee. RIBA Drawings Collection, SD / (–). Morning Chronicle , April . Brighton Gleaner ( ), p. . Morning Chronicle May ; RIBA Drawings A. Dale, The History of the Kemp Town Gardens, Collection, SD /, –, Black Rock scheme Brighton (Brighton, ), p. . (Vyvyan’s drawings).
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The Examiner November . Dale, p. , no source. BH , February , April , August . National Archives, C / , C /, C / /B . BH , March . The Commissioners decided to ESRO, DAN , May . go ahead anyway, but not without debate. ESRO ACC // . BG az, , January . The Times, December . ESRO, HOW / . The Times , November ; Morning Chronicle , Dale, Fashionable Brighton , p. ; National October ; November . Archives, C / /, C / /B , C / /S . The Era , January . National Archives, as above; Dale, Fashionable Dunlap, Cases in the High Court of Chancery ( ), Brighton , p. . The rate books cited seem to have pp. – ; London Gazette , August , ; been lost. National Archives, C / /S , C / /C /. BG, February. ; B.Gaz. February . Obituary, Gentleman’s Magazine , pp. – . Another report said that they were leaving due to Census . She died in Tunbridge Wells in . the health of his wife: BH , March . Census. ESRO DAN , January , DAN Kemp September .
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