SIX SEASIDE LITHOGRAPHS: VI
This is the last of a summer series of lithographs of the Kent and Sussex seaside by Alan Powers, entitled Views of the South Coast. The series, which has eight prints, 10" x 61/2", has been commissioned by the Spectator and is available for sale as a signed limited edition of 300. Each cased set, with a text by Alan Powers, costs £49.50 including post, packing and VAT. Order form on page 39.
Brighton — Nocturne
AQUARIUM Amusements keeps it up till the late hours. By night, the cries of a mechanical parrot carry across the upper air demanding, like an electronic club-bore, 'Come and talk to me'. Nobody does, for the roundabout of giant ladybirds is stilled and children are pushed home by weary parents, clutching the last ice- cream. The name of the Palace Pier suddenly lights up, like the end of a firework display. From the ballroom the distant music sets the somnolent house-fronts swaying with stucco syn- copation. Nobody rides till tomorrow on the pug-dog fireman whose head surfaces above the concrete balus- trade. Like Mr Belaker, 'the allegro, negro, cocktail shaker', he will wait until the neo-Renaissance lamps are dimmed before he cruises the prom- enade from Kemp Town to Hove in search of a ghostly lover.
The Aquarium was reconstructed in 1929 and opened by H.R.H. Prince George. The Official Corporation Handbook (1936 edition) notes how `fish of all sorts lead care-free lives in commodious tanks and a kind of Celtic twilight'. There was also 'a very com- prehensive Amusement Arcade, in- cluding a Scoota Boat Pool, Dodgem Cars, Ghost Train, Mirror Maze and the latest devices for the amusement of children, such as Jungle Ride, Aerial Ride, etc'. The Spirit of Brighton, so memor- ably awakened by the Prince Regent in Rex Whistler's mural, has spread around the middle and needs fairly constant make-up, but she has never yet gone back to her seaweedy bed. Her moralising sister Hove may pull down the blinds, but Brighton carries on anyhow. Like the Pavilion, Bright- on turns its back on the sea and the unattractive beach. Yet the sea air brings an architectural intoxication, encouraging strange growths. And would those domes and minarets have sprouted quite the same in Horsham or in Hayward's Heath?
Alan Powers
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