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). THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON 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 THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON 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 THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON 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. THE GEORGIAN GROUP JOURNAL VOLUME XVII THOMAS READ KEMP AND THE SHAPING OF REGENCY BRIGHTON (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 .