Brighton and Hove – St Anne, Burlington Street

This church served one of the more prosperous areas of east Brighton.  H M Wagner laid the foundation stone in 1862 and contributed £2000 (Dale p21) towards the total cost of £6964 15s 11d (PP 125), a substantial sum for a church that seems never to have been intended to have more than a stone belfry on the east gable of the nave (later removed).  The architect was B Ferrey (B 20 p486) and it was typical of his later churches, built of ragstone with geometrical tracery.  The spacious interior was enriched with shafts, with stumpy double ones on the east responds of the arcades.  Like the piers of the arcades themselves, these were carved with foliage.  This work was by Farmer and Brindley (Elleray (1981) pl47), though it was not all completed.

St Anne’s was oddly inconspicuous for its west front could not be seen from the street outside and it suffered from a falling congregation, leading to closure and demolition in 1986.

Fittings

(Their present whereabouts are not known)

Font: Round and arcaded with marble shafting on the base.
Glass:
1.  (Vestry) Two panels of Flemish glass, probably C17 or C18
2.  (East window) M O’Connor, 1864 (Clarke papers).  The pictorial idiom was old fashioned for the date.
3.  (South window) Clayton and Bell, designed by R O Bell, 1936 (DSGW 1939).
4.  (Two two-light windows) H R Mileham, 1938 and 1951 (P Mileham p20).
5. (Two-light window) J Powell and Sons 1957 designed by R Moore (Hadley list).
Pulpit: Stone with blank arcading, possibly part of the original fittings.
Reredos: Arcaded, with marble and decorative tiles, stretching right across the east wall and centred on a carving of the Last Supper.  This appears to have been added later, as it is not shown in an undated but early photograph reproduced by Elleray.  At least the main reredos could well have been by Farmer and Brindley as well.