Podcast #1: The First Giraffe – featuring Alexandra Loske

Art historian and curator Alexandra Loske is researching her thesis and curating the upcoming Regency Colour exhibition. But she also uncovered the story that I’ve found perhaps most exciting so far.

If you know anything about my music, you may know I’ve had an obsession with giraffes for years – used them in songs, written about them and run photo streams of them. Meanwhile Alexandra, tasked with looking through a collection of old satirical cartoons, discovered several images of George IV including a giraffe, as if it was one of his toys. She started to research this and uncovered the first ever known giraffe in Britain, which was given to King George as a diplomatic gift by the Pasha of Egypt (the same fella who gave Britain the gift of Cleopatra’s Needle).

‘Twould puzzle a conjuror. Print, 1827.

I couldn’t pass it up. I interviewed Alexandra in the recently closed History Centre, to get her to tell this incredible story. It’s a doozy… for me, it felt like the best episode of In Our Time ever, although I do a horrible impression of Melvyn Bragg. What a way to kick off the podcasts.

Here’s a link to the audio podcast via Soundcloud. There will be more – and in the next few days I aim to publish podcasts to iTunes, which will enable you to subscribe – but I’m not quite there yet technically.

Chris T-T, Blogger in Residence

The Brighton Man-Fly

Update 2 April 2013: Tracy Anderson, who is currently researching the lives of the Pavilion’s servants, has discovered this picture and description of a fly from a volume of cuttings in the Brighton History Centre.

A Brighton fly, 19th century

Two unassuming buildings in a Brighton backstreet have recently been identified as possibly the only surviving examples of early nineteenth century ‘fly stables’ in the country. The structures in 13A and 14 Stone Street have now been given Grade II listed status.

Grade II listed status ‘fly stables’

A fly was a small, covered, very low carriage drawn by a single horse, ideal for short distances, and looked not unlike a hansom cab. They were usually charged at the same tariffs. Flys were the cause of some debate in the early nineteenth century – mostly due to being numerous and because of complaints about variable rates, and so the town Commissioners, the local authority of the day, issued a table of fares and started to regulate them. They could be described as the Regency equivalent to the mini-cab, and were particularly popular in the busy seaside resort of Brighton, and may even have originated here. The difference to a normal coach or hansom cab was that they were pulled and pushed by manpower rather than horses.

The Brighton Ambulator, a guide book compiled by a local man and published in 1818, sheds a little light on this means of transport:

‘The local conveyances in Brighton are innumerable. A nouvelle kind of four wheel vehicles, drawn by a man and an assistant are very accommodating to visitors and the inhabitants. They are denominated flys, a name given by a gentleman at the Pavilion on their first introduction in 1816′.

This guide book claims that the man-fly had superseded the sedan chair. But this isn’t quite true, as a diminishing number of sedan chair men are still listed in later guides and directories.

In his 1862 History of Brighthelmstone, John Erredge tells the story of how both the vehicle and its name were invented in Brighton in 1809, although sadly without providing references:

‘During the erection of the Royal Stables, in Church Street, in 1809, a carpenter, who lived in Jew Street, named John Butcher […] accidentally fell and injured himself. Upon his recovery, not being able to resume the heavy work of his trade, he constructed a machine of similar make to the sedan chair, and placed it upon four wheels. It was drawn by hand, in the same manner as Bath chairs, while an assistant, when the person was heavy, pushed behind. Its introduction was quite a favourite feature amongst the nobility, and a second fly, in consequence, was soon constructed. These two vehicles were extensively patronised by the Prince of Wales and his noble companions; and from being employed by them on special occasions of a midnight “lark”, they received the name “Fly-by-nights”.’

These ‘man-flys’, operated by men and boys, were probably the best mode of transport in the narrow, packed streets of Brighton’s old town centre where the thoroughfares were far narrower and windier than they are today. Once the town began to spread out, with the development of Regency Square and,from the early 1820s, with Hanover Crescent (north east of The Level) and the two suburban ‘towns’ (Brunswick and Kemp), horse-drawn flys or hansom cabs were quicker and better suited for travelling greater distances.

Brighton’s flys appear in a number of prints and drawings, many of them placed in picturesque manner in front of the east side of the Pavilion. They were also referred to as ‘fly-by-nights’. Here is one from a print from c. 1823. The ‘Fly-by-Night’ can be seen in the bottom right corner.

They were also referred to as ‘fly-by-nights’. Here is one from a print from c. 1823. The ‘Fly-by-Night’ can be seen in the bottom right corner.

A fly was included in the lithograph of the Steine front of the Pavilion in James Rouse’s The Beauties and Antiquities of the County of Sussex from 1825:

A fly was included in the lithograph of the Steine front of the Pavilion in James Rouse’s The Beauties and Antiquities of the County of Sussex from 1825

And here is one parked outside Mahomed’s baths in 1818:

Fly parked outside Mahomed’s baths in 1818. HA922800

Flys had not completely disappeared by the end of George IV’s reign. In 1830 Bruce’s History of Brighton notes flys which are either pulled by horses or mules or hand-drawn. Those drawn by horses or mules are grouped with hansom cabs and the hand drawn ones are grouped with Sedan chairs.

If anyone knows of other examples of ‘men-flys’ or fly stables in pictures of the city or anywhere else, please let us know.

Alexandra Loske, Doctoral researcher and Guide, and Dr. Sue Berry, Historical researcher

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Robert Goff & the destruction of Brighton’s first pier

On 4 December 1896 a storm destroyed the first of Brighton’s piers, the Chain Pier. It had been built in 1823, the same year the finishing touches were added to John Nash’s transformation of the Royal Pavilion into an Oriental-looking fantasy palace.

Destruction of the Old Chain Pier, Brighton, 1896

This etching by Hove-based artist Robert Charles Goff (1837-1922) records the destruction of Brighton’s first pier in that great storm of 4 December 1896.

Goff’s etchings and paintings earned him an international reputation during his lifetime. A fervent traveller, he found subjects for his art in Italy, Egypt, Japan, Holland and Switzerland, but he had a special connection with England’s south coast. He spent a total of 33 years in Hove and Brighton, whose seafronts inspired some of his best and most popular works.

This is one of Goff’s larger plates. It has a narrative comment etched onto one corner of the plate, noting the fate of Brighton’s earliest pier. Goff must have gone to the scene during the great storm, or soon after. The wind is still strong and there are large dramatic rain clouds in the west, plunging Brighton’s skyline into darkness. Dozens of curious people brave the wind and rain to look at the remains of the pier. The picture is also noteworthy for showing all three Brighton piers together. The Palace Pier (now Brighton Pier) is under construction, while rain is falling on the West Pier in the distance.

Water was a major theme in Goff’s work. He painted and etched views of the sea, shorelines and waterways in every phase of his career, wherever he worked and lived. In another etching Goff depicts waves crashing precariously around the end of the West Pier. The artist appears to have sketched this scene in strong wind and rain, standing very close to the edge of the water. The art critic Frederick Wedmore praised the work in 1911, commenting that there is ‘no better wave-drawing than Goff’s in The South Cone’.

The South Cone, before 1895

Within a few weeks of its destruction the Brighton writer John George Bishop paid tribute to the Chain Pier with the publication of a booklet commemorating  the building. A few months later he published a larger and lavishly decorated and illustrated book: The Brighton Chain Pier: In Memoriam. Its history from 1823 to 1896, with a biographical notice of Sir Samuel Brown, its designer and constructor, and an appendix. Several of the photographs in the book are the work of Brighton and Hove photographers Ebenezer Pannell and Thomas Donovan.

The Brighton Chain Pier: In Memoriam. Its history from 1823 to 1896, with a biographical notice of Sir Samuel Brown, its designer and constructor, and an appendix.

A digital copy of this book is available via the Internet Archive. 

Alexandra Loske, Guide and Researcher at the Royal Pavilion