The lofty church of St Mary's has remarkable acoustics and with a reverberation period of three seconds (which is neither too long nor too short and, surprisingly, does not fog clarity) enhancing all music, whether organ, orchestral or choral. The organ is situated in its own chamber high above the north choir stalls with ample room above and around it giving free tonal egress which contributes greatly to its effect in the church, in fact it sounds practically the same whether you are standing at the front or the back of the building.

Reference to the "Organa Britannica" tells us that St Mary's Chapel, which previously stood on the site of the present building, originally contained an organ by Henry Lincoln (1789-1864). The Prince Regent held Lincoln in high regard and many other organs in this area were built under his patronage including that in the Music Room of the Royal Pavilion, which (having been taken to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in Queen Victoria's reign) is now in the State Ballroom of Buckingham Palace having been recently restored).

Other Brighton organs by Lincoln were built for the Chapel Royal, St George's Church, St James's Chapel (which stood in St James's Street not many yards west of St Mary's) and St Andrew's Hove. He also built the organ in Brighton's Old Parish Church (St. Nicholas's) which was replaced with a two manual Bevington organ (enlarged to a three-manual by Brighton builders Morgan & Smith in 1910 and augmented by Rushworth & Dreaper in 1961) but now out of action, although there was talk of it being restored in the not too distant future. Here is the specification of Lincoln's organ in the old St Mary's Chapel:-

GREAT ORGAN - GG TO F: Open Diapason, Stopt Diapason, Principal bass, Principal treble, Twelfth, Fifteenth, Sesquialtra 3 ranks

SWELL ORGAN (Fiddle G Swell): Open Diapason, Stopt Diapason, Principal, Trumpet

One Octave of Pedal pull-downs. 3 composition pedals

This organ was replaced in 1858 by a new two manual instrument by the firm of Henry Bevington. Whilst construction work was being done on St Mary's Chapel, a substantial section of the building collapsed.   Luckily the portion housing this organ escaped, but a new church had to be built, and that is the splendid edifice now standing on the site.   

When the new church was built between 1876 and 1878, the same firm, after reconstruction and enlargement, and using some pipework from that previous St Mary's Chapel organ, installed the instrument we hear today and it was completed and playing at the opening Dedication Service on the 15th October, 1878. Unfortunately, as the Bevington factory and all of its records was destroyed by fire in the early 1900s, we have no knowledge of which stops remain from that earlier organ. No doubt expert inspection of the pipes might be able to clarify this. Our organ builder and tuner, Patrick Christian, is of the opinion that the Choir Clarinet/Bassoon was originally on the Great of the old organ as there is a spare slide on the Great soundboard where such a rank of pipes could have stood.

To read more about the current organ, view the picture gallery and study the specification, click on link at left: HISTORY OF THE BEVINGTON ORGAN