Brighton and Hove – St Margaret, Cannon Place

Early C19 chapels in Brighton were built cheaply and few could claim architectural distinction.  An exception, and thus a grave loss, is St Margaret which dated from 1824.  The stuccoed front had a fine Ionic portico and a domed belfry that was more ambitious than most.  I Clarke of London has been given as the architect (Colvin 3rd ed p251 – he is not listed in the 4th edition).  Though the source cited dated from 1833, the plans are in C A Busby‘s hand (information from Sue Berry, who also has discovered that Clarke was the clerk of works (1 p171)), so clearly he and his partner A H Wilds were responsible (ibid p202).

The domed nave had galleries on three sides and an upper western one, with a central pulpit and table.  After becoming a parish church it was modified in 1874, as happened to other Brighton chapels where they were not rebuilt entirely.  J O Scott added a heavily Romanesque chancel (Dale p42), but did little to the nave.  As the population of the parish had declined (Cannon Place is now little more than a route for delivery lorries into the Churchill Square shopping centre), the church was pulled down in 1959.

Source

1. S Berry: Places of Worship in Georgian and Regency Brighton and Hove c1760-1840,
     GGJ 19 (2011) pp157-72