Freemasons Tavern, Hove

Last updated
Freemasons Tavern
Freemasons Inn and Restaurant, Western Road, Hove (IoE Code 365664).jpg
The inn from the northwest
Location39 Western Road, Brunswick Town, Hove, Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, United Kingdom BN3 1AF
Coordinates 50°49′33″N0°09′35″W / 50.8257°N 0.1597°W / 50.8257; -0.1597
BuiltEarly 1850s [1]
Restored1928 (restaurant section)
Architect J.L. Denman & Son (restaurant section)
Architectural style(s) Classical; Art Deco
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameThe Freemasons Inn and Restaurant
Designated2 November 1992
Reference no.1292378
BrightonHove OSM1.jpg
Red pog.svg
Location within Brighton and Hove

The Freemasons Tavern [1] (also known as the Freemasons Inn [2] and the Freemasons Inn and Restaurant) [3] is a 19th-century pub in the Brunswick Town area of Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the 1850s in a Classical style similar to the surrounding buildings in the rapidly growing Brunswick Town area, it was given a "spectacular" renovation when a restaurant was added in the 1920s. Local architecture firm Denman & Son designed an ornate Art Deco interior and an elaborate, brightly coloured entrance adorned with Masonic symbols; both the exterior and the interior survive in excellent condition. The tavern is a Grade II Listed building.

Contents

History

The early 19th-century development of the Brunswick Town estate—a self-contained community between Hove and neighbouring Brighton, with high-class housing forming an architectural set-piece around extensive seafront lawns, and lower-class houses in surrounding streets—was prompted by the rapid growth of Brighton over the preceding half-century and the willingness of architects, builders and speculators to design impressive lodging houses to attract fashionable upper-class visitors. [4] [5] The estate, designed and planned mostly by Charles Busby, lay within the parish of Hove but was generally considered to be part of Brighton, which at the time was much better regarded than the "mean and insignificant assemblage of huts" (as one contemporary writer described it) which made up Hove village. [5] Work began in 1824 and continued for many years, but a second phase involving the construction of another three grand squares was unrealised. [4] [6]

Brunswick Square and Brunswick Terrace (Grade I-listed since 24 March 1950) formed the residential centrepiece; [7] commerce and other support facilities, such as a town hall, jail, market and church (which was not originally part of the estate's plan), were confined to side streets. [8] [9] One such was Brunswick Street West, which ran north–south from the seafront to Western Road, the main east–west route into Brighton. As well as some working-class housing, the small, narrow street supported four pubs; such high densities of pubs were common in lower-class residential areas in the Victorian era. [10] Three survive: the Star of Brunswick, the Bow Street Runner and the prominently sited Freemasons Tavern, on the corner of Western Road and Brunswick Street West and with entrances in each. [11]

Detail of the mosaic on the restaurant facade Freemasons Restaurant, Western Road, Hove (Detail of Mosaic Work).jpg
Detail of the mosaic on the restaurant façade

The inn existed by the 1850s, according to census information; its first landlord, Thomas Lindfield from Egham in Surrey, passed it on to his son John, who sold it in the mid-1870s. [12] The next landlord was also long-serving, but ownership changed more frequently from the late 1890s onwards. [13] The incumbent in 1928 was Frank Dickerson; at this time the recently incorporated Kemp Town Brewery of Kemp Town, Brighton, took ownership of the pub and decided to refit and extend it to include a restaurant. [3] [13] They commissioned John Leopold Denman of Denman & Son to carry out the work. [2] The firm was used regularly by the Kemp Town Brewery for pubs along the Sussex coast, and also undertook much work on offices and other commercial developments. Denman's preferred style for these buildings was Neo-Georgian, although he and his son were capable of handling other styles effectively. [14] Their design for the restaurant was highly elaborate inside and out, and was based on the Art Deco style popular at the time. The entrance was framed by a two-storey mosaic of blue and gold pieces adorned with Masonic symbols, the Star of David and bizarre griffin-like creatures. [3] [13] A partly glazed curved screen led inwards to an Art Deco interior with integral furniture. [3]

Proposals to turn the former Brunswick Town Hall, on the opposite side of Brunswick Street West, into a sports-themed bar were overturned in the early 1980s. The landlord at the time argued that having a large bar so close would damage trade. In 2000, the pub's new owners planned to restore the building to its original condition; a designer who worked on the television programme Grand Designs was enlisted for the work, which cost about £150,000 and took place in 2001–02. [13] The work included a "spectacular" lavatory installation, with a glass feature wall with a waterfall and a volcano image. [13] [15]

The Freemasons Tavern was designated a Grade II Listed building on 2 November 1992. [3]

Architecture

The restaurant facade Freemasons Restaurant, Western Road, Hove (Restaurant Facade).jpg
The restaurant façade

The Freemasons Tavern occupies a corner site, and is L-shaped and double-fronted with entrances in both the north (Western Road) and west (Brunswick Street West) faces. [3] [16] As originally built, it is a three-storey stuccoed building in the Classical style, with a slate-tiled mansard roof. Underneath the stucco, the walls are of brick. The restaurant part is on the east side, facing Western Road only; the pub section wraps around the corner, with a one-bay façade to Western Road and four bays facing Brunswick Street West. [3]

The pub section has a canted bay window in the form of an oriel rising through the two upper storeys. Pilasters topped by gold-painted capitals sit above each window; on the top floor, they reach the parapet. Above this is a flat-headed dormer window leading to attic space. [3] There are similar oriel windows on two of the four bays on the western face, as well as a large single-storey porch with a modern glazed extension at first-floor level. [3]

The "striking" [2] and "spectacular" [13] restaurant section, added as part of the "famous facelift" [13] of 1928, has been described as "reminiscent of the Viennese Secession". [2] The three-bay exterior is framed by a two-storey gold and blue mosaic with gold lettering at the top, reading freemasons restaurant and kemp town brewery. The dado has gold Masonic symbols, and the lettering at the top is framed by two Stars of David; [2] [3] [13] below these, there are a pair of gold figures in the form of chimera, with a griffin- or fish-style head and a curved body like that of a seahorse. [3] [13] Below the mosaic frame, a two-storey glazed bronze screen with metal framing leads to a recessed doorway. Some of the glass is leaded with sunburst forms. Paired bronze lamp-holders project from the entrance. [3] [13] At second-floor level, there is a modern three-part window. [3] Inside, much of Denman & Son's Art Deco work survives. There are moulded beams and friezes with swag motifs, integral seating and other furniture, Art Deco lighting, decorative plasterwork and an original staircase. [2] [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick, Hove</span> House in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex

Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amon Wilds</span>

Amon Wilds was an English architect and builder. He formed an architectural partnership with his son Amon Henry Wilds in 1806 and started working in the fashionable and growing seaside resort of Brighton, on the East Sussex coast, in 1815. After 1822, when the father-and-son partnership met and joined up with Charles Busby, they were commissioned—separately or jointly—to design a wide range of buildings in the town, which was experiencing an unprecedented demand for residential development and other facilities. Wilds senior also carried out much work on his own, but the description "Wilds and Busby" was often used on designs, making individual attribution difficult. Wilds senior and his partners are remembered most for his work in post-Regency Brighton, where most of their houses, churches and hotels built in a bold Regency style remain—in particular, the distinctive and visionary Kemp Town and Brunswick estates on the edges of Brighton, whose constituent parts are Grade I listed buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buildings and architecture of Brighton and Hove</span>

Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.

Thomas Lainson, FRIBA was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove, where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage. Working alone or in partnership with two sons as Lainson & Sons, he designed buildings in a wide range of styles, from Neo-Byzantine to High Victorian Gothic; his work is described as having a "solid style, typical of the time".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barford Court, Hove</span> Historic site in Hove, Brighton and Hove

Barford Court is a care home operated by the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution and situated on the seafront in Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The building, completed in 1937, has had this function only since 1996; it was constructed by cinema architect Robert Cromie as a private house for Ian Stuart Millar, an eccentric iron industry tycoon, who occupied it for only nine years. The large building later accommodated the Brighton and Hove School of Nursing, which for the first time brought together training provision for all local hospitals' staff on one site. When the school moved away in 1989, the house spent several years on the market awaiting a buyer—and in steadily deteriorating structural condition—before being refurbished, extended, renamed and converted to its present use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roundhill Crescent</span> 19th-century housing development in Brighton and Hove

Roundhill Crescent is a late-19th-century housing development in Round Hill, an inner suburb of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Partly developed in the 1860s with large terraced houses on a steeply sloping open hillside, the crescent—which "curves and changes height dramatically along its length"—was finished two decades later and now forms the centrepiece of the Round Hill conservation area. Smaller houses completed the composition in the 1880s, and England's first hospital for the treatment of mental illness was founded in the crescent in 1905. The five original sets of houses from the 1860s have been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance, and the crescent occupies a prominent place on Brighton's skyline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Leopold Denman</span> British architect

John Leopold DenmanFRIBA was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and as part of the Denman & Son firm in partnership with his son John Bluet Denman. Described as "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian", Denman was responsible for a range of commercial, civic and religious buildings in Brighton, and pubs and hotels there and elsewhere on the south coast of England on behalf of Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery. He used other architectural styles as well, and was responsible for at least one mansion, several smaller houses, various buildings in cemeteries and crematoria, and alterations to many churches. His work on church restorations has been praised, and he has been called "the leading church architect of his time in Sussex"; he also wrote a book on the ecclesiastical architecture of the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">20–22 Marlborough Place, Brighton</span> Historic site in Brighton , United Kingdom

The building at 20–22 Marlborough Place in the seaside resort of Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove, is a 1930s office building originally erected for the Citizens' Permanent Building Society. The "elegant" Neo-Georgian premises were later occupied by a branch of the Allied Irish Bank, which opened in the 1980s; and in 2022 it was announced that the premises would be converted into a restaurant. Designed by John Leopold Denman, "master of this sort of mid-century Neo-Georgian", the three-storey offices contrast strikingly with their contemporary neighbour, the elaborate King and Queen pub. The building features a series of carved reliefs by Joseph Cribb depicting workers in the building trade—including one showing Denman himself. It is a Grade II Listed building.

Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclectic range of buildings in the growing town of Brighton and its neighbour Hove. Their work encompassed new residential, commercial, industrial and civic buildings, shopping arcades, churches, schools, cinemas and pubs, and alterations to hotels and other buildings. Later reconstituted as Clayton, Black & Daviel, the company designed some churches in the postwar period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwydyr Mansions</span> Mansion flats in Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom

Gwydyr Mansions is a block of mansion flats in the centre of Hove, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built on the initiative of a Baptist pastor and designed by the prolific architecture firm of Clayton & Black, the "elegant" Flemish Renaissance-style building dates from 1890 and overlooks a central square. As originally built, the block had a restaurant and barber shop for residents; the latter is still operational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">163 North Street, Brighton</span> Building in Brighton, England

The building at 163 North Street in Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, was erected in 1904 for an insurance company and has since been used as a branch by several banks and building societies. It now houses a bookmaker's shop. The distinctive pink granite Edwardian Baroque-style office, embellished with towers, decorative carvings and a landmark cupola, has been called "the most impressive building" on Brighton's main commercial thoroughfare. One of many works by prolific local architecture firm Clayton & Black, it has been described as their chef d'œuvre. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">155–158 North Street, Brighton</span> Grade II listed historic building in Brighton, England

The building at 155–158 North Street in Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove, was built between 1921 and 1923 as a branch of National Provincial Bank. The King Louis-style bank was built on the site of several shops. The properties were acquired by the National Provincial Bank during 1916–20. The Brighton Gazette had occupied 155a North Street since 1910, when its long-time home at number 150 was converted into the Cinema de Luxe. Published by William James Towner, the paper’s full title was the Brighton Gazette, Hove Post and Sussex Telegraph. In 2011 it became J D Wetherspoon's second pub in central Brighton. One of many buildings by the prolific local architecture firm of Clayton & Black, whose work in various styles can be found across the city, it forms an important component of the range of banks, offices and commercial buildings on North Street—a significant commercial thoroughfare since the 18th century. In particular, the "good attention to detail" shown throughout the building's Louis XIV-style façade has been praised. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King and Queen, Brighton</span> Pub in Brighton, England

The King and Queen is a pub in the seaside resort of Brighton, part of the city of Brighton and Hove. The present building, a "striking" architectural "pantomime" by the prolific local firm Clayton & Black, dates from the 1930s, but a pub of this name has stood on the site since 1860—making it one of the first developments beyond the boundaries of the ancient village. This 18th-century pub was, in turn, converted from a former farmhouse. Built using materials characteristic of 16th-century Vernacular architecture, the pub is in the Mock Tudor style and has a wide range of extravagant decorative features inside and outside—contrasting with the simple design of the neighbouring offices at 20–22 Marlborough Place, designed a year later. English Heritage has listed the pub at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palmeira Square</span> 19th century residences in Hove, England

Palmeira Square is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. At the southern end it adjoins Adelaide Crescent, another architectural set-piece which leads down to the seafront; large terraced houses occupy its west and east sides, separated by a public garden; and at the north end is one of Hove's main road junctions. This is also called Palmeira Square, and its north side is lined with late 19th-century terraced mansions. Commercial buildings and a church also stand on the main road, which is served by many buses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Pavilion Tavern</span> Historic site in Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom

The Royal Pavilion Tavern, commonly known as the Pavilion Tavern or Pav Tav and since February 2022 as The Fitz Regent, is a pub in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Converted from a house into the Royal Pavilion Hotel in the early 19th century, its original role soon changed from a hotel to a pub, in which guise it remained until its closure in September 2019. It reopened under its new name, but still in the ownership of the Mitchells & Butlers chain, on 13 February 2022. The building was also used as a court for several years early in its history, and prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds was responsible for its redesign as a hotel and inn. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance, and it stands within a conservation area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide Crescent</span> 19th century residences in Hove, England

Adelaide Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Conceived as an ambitious attempt to rival the large, high-class Kemp Town estate east of Brighton, the crescent was not built to its original plan because time and money were insufficient. Nevertheless, together with its northerly neighbour Palmeira Square, it forms one of Hove's most important architectural set-pieces. Building work started in 1830 to the design of Decimus Burton. The adjacent land was originally occupied by "the world's largest conservatory", the Anthaeum; its collapse stopped construction of the crescent, which did not resume until the 1850s. The original design was modified and the crescent was eventually finished in the mid-1860s. Together with the Kemp Town and Brunswick Town estates, the crescent is one of the foremost pre-Victorian residential developments in the Brighton area: it has been claimed that "outside Bath, [they] have no superior in England". The buildings in the main part of Adelaide Crescent are Grade II* listed. Some of the associated buildings at the sea-facing south end are listed at the lower Grade II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norfolk Hotel, Brighton</span> Hotel in Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom

The Norfolk Hotel is a 4-star hotel in the seaside resort of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Designed in 1865 by architect Horatio Nelson Goulty, it replaced an earlier building called the Norfolk Inn and is one of several large Victorian hotels along the seafront. The French Renaissance Revival-style building, recalling E.M. Barry's major London hotels, is "tall, to make a show": the development of the passenger lift a few years earlier allowed larger hotels to be built. It is a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2–3 Pavilion Buildings, Brighton</span> Offices (now bar) in Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom

2–3 Pavilion Buildings in Brighton is a former office building which has been converted into a bar. It was constructed in 1934 as the new head office of the Brighton & Hove Herald, a "leading provincial weekly" newspaper serving the borough and seaside resort of Brighton and its neighbour Hove in southeast England. The Neo-Georgian offices were built to the design of prolific local architect John Leopold Denman and feature decorative carvings by Joseph Cribb. After production of the Herald ceased in the 1970s, the building was used by an insurance company and then as a bar. A firm of insolvency practitioners also occupies part of the premises. Vestigial remains of the neighbouring Royal Pavilion's guest bedrooms were incorporated into the building's rear elevation. The building is on Brighton and Hove City Council's Local List of Heritage Assets and is in a conservation area.

The Brighton Herald was a weekly newspaper covering the boroughs of Brighton and Hove in southeast England. Founded in 1806 as the first newspaper in the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton, it survived until 1971 and was one of England's "leading provincial weekly" newspapers—being the first publication in the country to report several important international events, such as Napoleon's escape and the start of the July Revolution. Based in the centre of Brighton throughout its 165-year existence, it moved in 1934 to new premises at Pavilion Buildings, near the Royal Pavilion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princes House, Brighton</span> Historic site in Brighton and Hove , United Kingdom

Princes House is an office and residential building in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. The prominently sited building, an example of Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel's "inimitable response to Modernism", was purpose-built as the headquarters of the Brighton & Sussex Building Society, forerunner of the Alliance & Leicester. The office was later used by Norwich Union, another financial institution, and now houses a restaurant and flats. The steel-framed structure is clad in red bricks with inlaid mosaicwork, forming a carefully detailed façade, and the corner elevation has an arrangement of brickwork and windows which suggests "the pleated folds of a curtain". The building is listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

References

  1. 1 2 Middleton 2002, Vol. 5, p. 64.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Antram & Morrice 2008 , p. 124.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Historic England. "The Freemasons Inn and Restaurant, Brunswick Street West, BN3 1EL, Brighton (Grade II) (1292378)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  4. 1 2 Antram & Morrice 2008 , p. 113.
  5. 1 2 Middleton 2001 , p. 1.
  6. Antram & Morrice 2008 , p. 117.
  7. Middleton 2001 , p. 3.
  8. Brighton Polytechnic. School of Architecture and Interior Design 1987 , p. 84.
  9. Middleton 2001 , p. 59.
  10. Middleton 2001 , p. 43.
  11. Middleton 2001 , pp. 43–45.
  12. Middleton 2002 , Vol. 5, pp. 64–65.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Middleton 2002 , Vol. 5, p. 65.
  14. Antram & Morrice 2008 , p. 25.
  15. "Graphic relief". The Argus . Newsquest Media Group. 20 August 2002. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  16. Middleton 2001 , p. 45.

Bibliography