Freemasons Tavern, Hove
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The Freemasons Tavern (also known as the Freemasons Inn and the Freemasons Inn and Restaurant) is a 19th-century
pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
in the Brunswick Town area of
Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the 1850s in a
Classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
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 Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
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 In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.


History

The early 19th-century development of the Brunswick Town estate—a self-contained community between
Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
and neighbouring
Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, 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. 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. Work began in 1824 and continued for many years, but a second phase involving the construction of another three grand squares was unrealised. Brunswick Square and Brunswick Terrace (Grade I-listed since 24 March 1950) formed the residential centrepiece; commerce and other support facilities, such as a town hall, jail, market and
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...
(which was not originally part of the estate's plan), were confined to side streets. 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 In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. 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. The inn existed by the 1850s, according to
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
information; its first landlord, Thomas Lindfield from Egham in
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, passed it on to his son John, who sold it in the mid-1870s. The next landlord was also long-serving, but ownership changed more frequently from the late 1890s onwards. 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. They commissioned
John Leopold Denman John Leopold Denman (15 November 1882 – 5 June 1975) 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 ...
of Denman & Son to carry out the work. 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. Their design for the restaurant was highly elaborate inside and out, and was based on the
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style popular at the time. The entrance was framed by a two-storey
mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
of blue and gold pieces adorned with Masonic symbols, the
Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
and bizarre griffin-like creatures. A partly glazed curved screen led inwards to an Art Deco interior with integral furniture. 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 ''Grand Designs'' is a British television series produced by Boundless and broadcast on Channel 4 which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects. The programme has been presented by Kevin McCloud since it first ...
'' was enlisted for the work, which cost about £150,000 and took place in 2001–02. The work included a "spectacular" lavatory installation, with a glass feature wall with a waterfall and a volcano image. The Freemasons Tavern was designated a Grade II
Listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on 2 November 1992.


Architecture

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. As originally built, it is a three-storey
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
ed building in the
Classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...
, with a slate-tiled
mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...
. 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 A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...
façade to Western Road and four bays facing Brunswick Street West. The pub section has a
canted Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...
in the form of an oriel rising through the two upper storeys.
Pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s topped by gold-painted
capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
sit above each window; on the top floor, they reach the
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
. Above this is a flat-headed dormer window leading to attic space. 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. The "striking" and "spectacular" restaurant section, added as part of the "famous facelift" of 1928, has been described as "reminiscent of the
Viennese Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...
". The three-bay exterior is framed by a two-storey gold and blue mosaic with gold lettering at the top, reading and . The dado has gold Masonic symbols, and the lettering at the top is framed by two
Stars of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
; below these, there are a pair of gold figures in the form of chimera, with a
griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...
- or fish-style head and a curved body like that of a
seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...
. Below the mosaic frame, a two-storey glazed
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
screen with metal framing leads to a recessed doorway. Some of the glass is
leaded Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...
with
sunburst A sunburst is a design or figure commonly used in architectural ornaments and design patterns and possibly pattern books. It consists of rays or "beams" radiating out from a central disk in the manner of sunbeams. Sometimes part of a sunbur ...
forms. Paired bronze lamp-holders project from the entrance. At second-floor level, there is a modern three-part window. 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.


See also

* Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove: E–H


References


Bibliography

* * * ''(monograph)'' * {{B&H Buildings Commercial buildings completed in the 19th century Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove Art Deco architecture in England Pubs in Brighton and Hove Masonic buildings in the United Kingdom Grade II listed pubs in East Sussex