1800

1801

1802
May 29 Daniel and William Constable open a drapery store at 3 North Street.
August 8 A grand concert and fireworks display are held at Promenade Grove, attended by the Prince of Wales
October 23 A private in the Prince of Wales’ Light Dragoons has an arm amputated at Brighton Barracks in Church Street by Mr Chambers, the Prince’s surgeon extraordinary ‘in consequence of hurt he some time since received from the bite of a monkey. ... Most of the surgical gentlemen of Brighton attended the operation.’
October 26 Captain William Codlin is executed at Newgate for sinking his ship, the Adventure, off Brighton in August.

1803
April 15 Dr Bankhead’s offer to treat the poor free of charge is accepted by the churchwardens and overseers.
June 24 Brighton Chapel of Ease Act receives royal assent, designating the Chapel Royal in North Street, which is now consecrated, as a chapel of ease to the parish church.
August 23 Race Stand is destroyed by fire.
August 25 The Prince of Wales reaches agreement to close the road running alongside the Marine Pavilion and to create a new road to the west of his estate. This is to be called New Road.
• The Prince of Wales commissions William Porden to build a stable block and riding school close to the Pavilion (now The Dome).
• A sewer is constructed from Pavilion Parade to the back if William’s Baths at the expense of the Prince of Wales and Duke if Marlborough.

1804
February 20 Isaac Bass comes to Brighton and is admitted to the Society of Friends (the Quakers). He opens a grocery shop in Brighton Square.
• William Porden designs Steine House on the Steyne for Mrs Fitzherbert.
• The Prince of Wales commissions a trophy, the Brighton Cup, for the horse races.

1805
April 18 The Vestry Clerk’s salary is increased to. £30 a year.
July 29 A boy is killed on Race Hill when he falls from a swing and breaks his back.
July 30 The Brighton Cup is presented for the firs time at Brighton Races. The Prince of Wales’ own horse Orville wins.
September 23 A grand review of the Artillery, Inniskillings, Queen’s Dragoons and five militias is held on the Downs near Rottingdean.
October The organ is installed in the Pavilion.
October The Prince of Wales buys the dairy at Preston from W Stanford.
November 6, 15:40 An express courier arrives at the Pavilion with news of Napoleon’s defeat at Trafalgar and the death of Nelson on 21 October.
December 26 The royal stables are completed.
• Construction of a new Friends Meeting House in Ship Street begins, to replace the 1690 building.

1806
March 12 In a heavy snowstorm a Brighton inhabitant is lost =in a drift near the site of the Adur Hotel in Aldrington.
March 13 The subject of a charter of incorporation is mooted at a public vestry meeting.
July 25 The Earl of Barrymore and Mr Howarth fight a duel at Black Rock Bottom over a dispute at cards in the Castle Tavern the previous evening.
August 12 A mock invasion of the town is staged.
September 1 Williams’s Baths opened.
September 6 First edition of the Brighton Herald.
September 12 Lord Thurlow dies at his residence, West Cliff.
September 24 The foundation stone for the new theatre in New Road is laid by Mr Brunton snr.
October Henry Cope, known for a green lifestyle (dress, eating) attempts suicide from the cliffs.
• 10 recently-built houses are destroyed in a severe storm along the Sussex coast.
• The Prince of Wales buys Quakers’ Croft, land adjacent to the Pavilion estate. The Corn Exchange now occupies the site.
• Humphrey Repton produces his ‘Red Book’ to propose an oriental design for the Marine Pavilion.
• The Smoaker Stakes are introduced at Brighton Races by the Prince of Wales to honour his friend, the late dipper ‘Smoaker’ Miles.

1807
January Construction of Royal Crescent is completed.
May The Brighton mackerel haul set a record price at Billingsgate market of 40 gns per 100, or 7s each.
June 6 The Theatre Royal, then simply referred to as ‘the new theatre’, is opened by Hewitt Cobb in New Road, replacing the one in Duke Street at a cost of £12,000. The opening play is Hamlet, with Mr and Mrs Charles Kemble in the leading roles.
September 3-4 A sheep and lamb fair is held on The Level, to which nearly 20,000 animals are brought. This becomes an annual event.
October 1 A masked ball is held at the Old Ship Hotel.
October 22 Three brigs, two colliers a nd a vessel laden with corn are wrecked in front of the town.
• Portslade Manor House is built.
• A Traveling Menageries is brought to The Level by Mr Polito, known as ‘the modern Noah’.

1808
April 27 Jonathan Grenville is appointed poor-rate collector, being paid 3d in the £ for all money collected.
• Smith Hannington acquires Constable Brother’s store business.
• The Prince of Wales’ riding school (now the Corn Exchange) is completed.
• A Wesleyan chapel opens in Dorset Gardens.
• A permanent circus is established in Grand Parade, leased to a Mr Brunton, with 100ft frontage and similar depth. [1810?]
• A wooden stand is erected at the race course.
• First performance of the musical composition Brighton Camp, or the girl I left behind me is given before the Prince of Wales at the Pavilion.
• Mr Forth is elected Master of Ceremonies to replace Colonel Wade.

1809
January 19 The Stanmer (Sussex) and Palmer Parishes Amalgamation Act receives royal assent.
March 21 A plan for a harbour at Brighton is considered at a meeting in the Old Ship Tavern.
July 7 Mr Tilt, proprietor of the Castle Tavern and Subscription Rooms, dies.
August 8 Sarah Siddons appears at the theatre in The Gamester.
August 9 All houses and lodgings in the town are let.
August 12 A mock battle is staged on the Race Hill.
October 25 Philip Mighell holds a dinner for 2,000 of the poorest residents to celebrate George III’s golden jubilee.
• Brighton Dispensary is founded.