Health Resort and Royal Patronage in The Late 18th Century
During the 1730s, Dr Richard Russell of Lewes began to prescribe the medicinal use of seawater at Brighthelmstone for his patients. He wrote a tract advocating the drinking of seawater and sea bathing in 1750. In 1753 he erected a large house on the southern side of the Steine for his own and patients' accommodation.
In 1758, Dr. John Awsiter, another prominent local doctor, also wrote a paper advocating drinking seawater and seabathing.
Still another local doctor, Anthony Relhan (ca. 1715–1776) published a tract in 1761 advocating the consumption of mineral waters and sea-bathing. This increased interest in the use of the local mineral waters for drinking and bathing. By 1769 the cornerstone of the Brighton Baths was laid.
After Dr Russell's death in 1759, his house was let to seasonal visitors including the brother of George III the Duke of Cumberland in 1771. On 7 September 1783 the Prince of Wales, later the Prince Regent, visited his uncle, whose taste for gaming and high life matched his own. The Prince's subsequent patronage of the town for the next forty years was central to the rapid growth of the town and the transition of the fishing village of Brighthelmston to the modern town of Brighton. Rex Whistler's famous cheeky satire The Prince Regent Awakens the Spirit of Brighton is on view at the Brighton Pavilion.
Currently enjoying restoration, Marlborough House on the Old Steine was built by Robert Adam in 1765 and purchased shortly afterwards by the fourth duke. By 1780, development of the Georgian terraces that characterise the classic Brighton streetscape had started, and the town quickly became the fashionable resort of Brighton. The growth of the town was further encouraged when, in 1786, the young Prince of Wales, later the Prince Regant and George IV, rented a farmhouse in order to make a public demonstration of his new-found fiscal sobriety. He spent much of his leisure time in the town, where he set up a discreet establishment for his mistress Mrs Fitzherbert and constructed the exotic Royal Pavilion, which is the town's best-known landmark. The Kemp Town estate (at the heart of the Kemptown district) was constructed between 1823 and 1855, and is a good example of Regency architecture.
Read more about this topic: History Of Brighton
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