Brighton Pier

Powys expended much energy in the search for the perfect embodiment of the eternal feminine, or his version of it...

'...after striding up and down the whole length of Brighton beach with eyes like the eyes of a ger-falcon I settled down at last by some soft, receptive feminine form...'

...and considered that he had finally found it in the shape of a performer in the winter entertainments on one of 'the bigger Brighton piers'.

Brighton had three piers at the time in question: the Chain Pier, a partially constructed Palace Pier and the West Pier. But the Chain Pier had no facilities for entertainments, and the Palace Pier was not completed until 1901, so the pier JCP refers to must have been the West Pier. Its pavilion was not formally converted into a theatre until the early 1900s, but had been used for pantomimes and entertainments since its construction in 1893.

' It is impossible for me to describe to you the loveliness of this figure. She was an extremely quiet girl, grave and self-possessed, and of a very dark complexion...I suppose she was a sort of supernumerary ornament, like a lovely figure on a Grecian urn, for she did nothing during the whole performance but simply stand there.'

The photograph shows the pavilion as JCP would have visited it, before its conversion into a theatre. For some press notices of the sort of entertainment he would have seen, click here. For a photograph of the West Pier today, click here.

 

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