George IV, statue (Francis Leggatt Chantrey)

  Brighton Statues and Landmarks  coordinates: 50.82339048721954, -0.13682343611475328

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  Grade II   "Listing" number 1380397

Old undated colourised postcard, apparently showing the statue in its original location, now occupied by the War Memorial [image info]

Statue of George IV, by Pavilion Gardens North Gate [image info]

Side view of the statue, looking North from Pavilion Gardens, with Victoria Gardens in the background (on the far side of a road) [image info]

The bronze statue of George IV (1762-1830) just outside the Pavilion Gardens' North Gate was created by the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey and was originally erected in 1828. It's in sight of the Brighton Dome and the Pavilion and Pavilion Gardens created by the Prince Regent. The sculpture is a copy of an earlier statue of George IV that was made by Chantrey in marble.

The statue was a (more sturdy) replacement for an earlier (1802) plaster statue by Rossi, which had been progressively damaged until it was no longer considered fit for display.

Location

If the siting feels slightly strange and awkward, it's because this is not the original location for the statue – the monument was initially placed towards the southern end of Old Steine Gardens in 1928, but moved in 1922 and put onto the current granite plinth (lettered simply "GEORGE IV" / "ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION 1828") in order to make way for the Brighton War Memorial, commemorating World War One.

A further compliment paid by the town to its principal patron was, in 1802, to erect in front of the recently built Royal Crescent a plaster statue, by Rossi, of his Royal Highness in regimentals, seven feet high, on an eleven-foot pedestal, at a cost of three hundred pounds. This, however, was in course of time damaged by some wanton persons, who first broke off the fingers of the extended hand, and later knocked away the other arm, with a portion of the cloak. The mutilated figure was subsequently removed, and a subscription set on foot by the tradesmen of the town at the time of George’s accession, with the proceeds of which—about three thousand pounds — Chantrey was commissioned to execute a bronze statue of his Majesty. This, in 1828, was placed within the railings of The Steine, and it still stands there, more appropriately situated than most monuments of the kind.

— , Lewis Melville, , BRIGHTON: ITS HISTORY, ITS FOLLIES, AND ITS FASHIONS, , 1909

1933 description:

Near the North Gateway is the Statue of George IV originally erected in the Steine in 1828 by the inhabitants of Brighton as an outward and visible sign of their gratitude to that monarch for favours conferred during the Regency. Chantrey undertook the work for a fee of 3,000 guineas, but for some reason the cost mounted to twice that sum, and it is said the greater part of the deficit fell on the sculptor.

— , -, , A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to Brighton and Hove, 10th Edition, , Ward, Locke & Co Ltd., , 1933

Links

• Statue of George IV (publicsculpturesofsussex.co.uk)
• George IV statue erected in 1828 (mybrightonandhove.org.uk)