Viva Brighton Issue #80 October 2019

BUILT BRIGHTON
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Embassy Court Mural
by Edward McKnight Kauffer
We humans have always liked decorating the
walls of our dwellings. 64,000 years ago the
Neanderthals were painting symbols on the
walls of caves in Iberia, and we’ve been following
suit ever since.
In the 1930s any luxury apartment block
worth its salt would have incorporated
artworks; maybe stained glass, decorative
mosaics, statues or carvings, and always something
splendid in the entrance lobby. Embassy
Court, the Grade ll* listed apartment building
on Brighton’s seafront was, in its day, the most
luxurious accommodation on the south coast.
It was packed with celebrities who were waited
on hand and foot, with bellhops and porters
in the lobby, maids living on the top floor and
chauffeurs in the basement. Rumour has it
that biplanes landed on Hove Lawns bringing
wealthy Londoners from Croydon Airport.
Wells Coates, the architect of Embassy Court,
was fascinated by technology and one of his
more successful experiments was the mural
in the entrance lobby of Embassy Court,
completed in 1935. It was designed by Edward
McKnight Kauffer, who made use of a new
invention by cinema and theatre designers
Eugene Mollo and Michael Egan: a system
of projecting photographs directly on to a
wall treated with a sensitised film. McKnight
Kauffer was an American designer who lived
mainly in the UK. Perhaps best known for his
London Underground posters, he was also an
artist, illustrator and theatre designer.
The mural was destroyed decades ago, possibly
in the 1960s, and it was a long-held ambition
of some residents of Embassy Court to re-create
it. The project was led by Andrew Birds,
Sue Milnthorpe and Paul Roberts, working
alongside architect John Cook who recreated
the images digitally, working from only two
black and white photographs that survived
from the 1930s. The main features are John
Nash’s section through the Brighton Pavilion
and photographs of two Parisian sculptures,
taken from a trip made by McKnight Kauffer.
The sculptures were identified as the god
Triton in the Place de la Concorde and Fame
and Pegasus from the Jardin des Tuileries.
The colours are, of course, guesswork to an
extent, though based on research in to what
McKnight Kauffer was doing with his work
in that period. Using that research, graphic
designer Andie Airfix helped to develop the
colour palette. The four wind turbines in the
new mural (pictured above) were added as
a contemporary nod to the changing local
landscape, making the point, the team behind
the project say, that the mural is not an
absolutely accurate re-creation, but a ‘faithful
re-imagining’.
The public can view the mural during Heritage
Open Days and Brighton Fringe tours.
Keep an eye out for opportunities to visit the
building at embassycourt.org.uk or take a peek
through the front door for a glimpse.
Paul Zara
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