Chapel Royal, Brighton

The Chapel Royal stands in the heart of Brighton, a graceful 18th-century church built to serve the fashionable visitors who made the town their winter retreat. It sits on the corner of North Street and Prince’s Place, where Regency society gathered and the Prince Regent kept a home nearby. The building was designed by Thomas Saunders, a London architect, and completed in 1795 under the care of Revd Thomas Hudson. Its Classical style once featured stucco walls, Doric columns and a pediment bearing the Prince’s coat of arms. The chapel became a centre of Brighton’s social and religious life soon after opening. The Prince Regent rented a pew and laid the foundation stone, though his attendance faded after one sermon displeased him. Later, two future prime ministers worshipped here: William Ewart Gladstone and a young Winston Churchill. In the 1870s the interior was reshaped by Arthur Blomfield, who added a chancel and rood screen, and in the 1880s and 1890s he rebuilt the exterior in red brick. Inside, the nave holds a tall pulpit and an organ gallery above the altar. The 1995 alterations opened the entrance with glass panels, letting passers-by glimpse the interior. Though the local parish once dwindled, the chapel now serves the whole city with regular services. One aisle houses a Christian bookshop, and the building remains an active place of worship in Brighton’s busy centre.