City Father
The
historian, Timothy Carder, has called Sir Herbert Carden (1867 - 1941)
"perhaps the greatest figure in Brighton's civic history since incorporation".
Praise indeed.
Surprisingly Carden stood for the council in 1895 as
a socialist, six years before the Labour Party was established. Within
8 years he was an alderman, and he served as mayor for 3 years from 1916.
Carden was a patrician socialist from an old Brighton
family, and a wealthy solicitor.
He was an strong advocate of municipal enterprise or
municipal socialism at a time when all parties could see the value of
it. He was the political force behind municipal telephone and tramway
systems.
But his greatest legacy is perhaps the city's downland
landholding. which today stands at around 14,000 acres. Carden believed
that the Downs should be preserved both for the residents' enjoyment
and to protect the city's water supply, and this became a settled policy.
He used his own money to buy land when it was available and resold it
to the council at no profit.
In this way the Devil's Dyke estate of 190 acres was
acquired in 1928. Today it belongs to the National Trust.
At a time when the Royal Pavilion is a Grade 1 listed
building, a very successful heritage tourist attraction, when special protection
for it during time of war is sought under terms of the 1954 Hague Convention,
it might be hard to believe that Herbert Carden believed it should demolished
at part of a general redevelopment of the seafront.
However, Carden was not alone. Many thought the Pavilion
an aristocratic folly, reflecting the decadence of its first owner and
resident, the Prince Regent.
The Little Guide to Sussex (1900) described it as "architecturally
contemptible".
Carden lived at 103 Marine Parade, where you can see
a memorial plaque.
