Preston Park Avenue

Developed with red-brick villas c1880

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

f) PRESTON PARK AVENUE: This road was developed from the 1880s with large red-brick villas, many of which still remain, but several have been replaced by blocks of flats. Whistler Court commemorates the artist Rex Whistler who was stationed in the road with the Welsh Guards during the Second World War. During his posting he decorated the wallpaper of the squadron mess at no.39, where two of his paintings were the famous 'Allegory: H.R.H. the Prince Regent awakening the Spirit of Brighton' of June 1944, and a silhouette of the Prince Regent . Whistler himself was killed during the D-Day landings, but the two pictures were presented to the town and were physically removed on the plaster-work to be framed; they now hang in the tea-room of the Royal Pavilion . Other Chinese decoration remained in the house as it was considered too difficult to remove. {3,294}