St Nicholas Church, Brighton
The Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra, usually known as St. Nicholas Church, is an Anglican church in Brighton, England. It is both the original parish church of Brighton and, after St Helen's Church, Hangleton and St Peter's Church in Preston village, the third oldest surviving building in the city of Brighton and Hove. It is located on high ground at the junction of Church Street and Dyke Road in the city centre, very close to the main shopping areas. Due to its architectural significance the church is a Grade II* listed building.
View of St Nicholas Church from the churchyard
St Nicholas Church in the snow in 2013
View of St Nicholas Church from the graveyard
Plaque on the east wall of the church
Henry Michell Wagner (1792–1870) was a Church of England clergyman who was Vicar of Brighton between 1824 and 1870. He was a descendant of Melchior Wagner, hatmaker to the Royal Family, and married into a wealthy Sussex family who had a longstanding ecclesiastical connection with Brighton. Wagner paid for and oversaw the building of five churches in the rapidly growing seaside resort, and "dominated religious life in the town" with his forceful personality and sometimes controversial views and actions. His son Arthur Wagner (1824–1902) continued the family's close association with Brighton.
A new vicarage was built for Wagner in 1835.
One of Wagner's first tasks as Vicar of Brighton was to oversee construction of St Peter's Church.
Wagner built St Paul's Church in central Brighton for his son Arthur.
St John the Evangelist's Church (now the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity) served the Carlton Hill district.