Brighton Architecture II

The Church of St Michael and All Angels, Victoria Road, by Bodley and Burgess, contains notable pre-Raphaelite stained glass.

Brighton's other important architectural legacy is its stock of Victorian churches. Brighton had a frenzy of church building in the mid to late 19th Century. A significant number of these were the result of the efforts of the Wagners, father and son. They were keen exponents of the Tractarian tradition, which reintroduced traditional Catholic ritual to worship and liturgy, and they used their considerable wealth to build over half a dozen churches. The most important include St Paul's in West Street with its collection of stained glass by Pugin, and the astonishingly vast St Bartholomew's in Ann Street.

The city has an interesting range of earlier Victorian churches, reflecting the change in tastes from Classical to Neo-Gothic architecture, as well as a stock of very early (and often quaintly humble) mediaeval churches from villages it absorbed as it expanded. A good example is Ovingdean, below, founded during the Anglo-Saxon period.