If my reviews entertain, amuse or brighten your moment in any way, then my task is done! +++ Nearly ...
If my reviews entertain, amuse or brighten your moment in any way, then my task is done! +++ Nearly New Year, 2010 be kind to us all please. +++
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SUMMER 2006 UPDATE
With apologies to all of you who have already read this review on the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, I wanted to do this very brief update following our visit last weekend.
As this vies for position as the prime tourist attraction in our city - with Brighton Pier - we tend to take our Polish visitors for a look around "Prinnies Palace". Being regular visitors, Mrs R and I, although always enjoying the experience, may tend to approach each visit with a sense of deja-vu. Not last Sunday however.
We toured the Pavilion in the company of the new Audio Guide sets, nothing particularly revolutionary about that you may say, but in fact, for us, they transformed, not to mention considerably prolonged, our visit.
Instead of standing in each room, briefly referring to the guide book, we lingered to listen to all the fine detail and explaination on the guide. Not only are the contents, design and building of the palace explained, but also there are many anecdotes about the Prince Regent and his guests who stayed here, or like us, were mere visitors to his court.
We obtained far more of the "flavour", atmosphere if you like, of the place with this new Audio guide and, more importantly, our young Polish guest understood every word of it.
If not transforming your visit, this new guide is a great aid to it and really enhances the overall visitor experience.
HISTORY
Why you are asking, would I leave this, the undoubted jewel in Brighton's crown so long before writing a review about it? Well, for a start I needed a refresher, it is just over a year since I last visited the Royal Pavilion, on that occasion with my (then) 10 year old sister in law Klaudia and a Polish friend of my wife's. It was my second visit in four years. Mrs R. on the other hand has managed to sneak an annual tour over the last four years. There always seems to be someone around to show off this, the pride of our towns' heritage, to.
My wife's "love affair" with this building began just before Christmas 2000. She was living at home in Poland with her parents and we had only met two months previously over the telephone. I used to send her emails and photographs showing life in this the city of my birth. Naturally one of the first had been an exterior shot of the Royal Pavilion. She could not believe that such a building could exist in England and quite genuinely thought that I was playing some kind of joke on her!
Of course, on arriving in Brighton six months later, the first thing that had to be seen was the Pavilion. It had not crossed my mind that the last time I had actually been inside it was with a school party over 30 years previously.
The Royal Pavilion is not the country's most difficult attraction to locate. Head for the seafront on the A23 London Road and you cannot fail to find it. Finding somewhere to park may prove more of a challenge! If you arrive in Brighton by bus, Poole Valley, the main bus station is just around the corner, whilst the railway station is a pleasant walk away. Upon our first visit in May 2001 we were living only 15 minutes away by foot. Now we live at the opposite end of town.
However you arrive, you will have to cross some part of the Pavilion grounds (or gardens) to get to the entrance. These gardens may well strike you as looking rather unkempt, barely 'tamed from nature'; this is an entirely deliberate strategy on the part of the local council who maintain this whole site. Thanks to detailed records of the plant stocks kept from the 1820's they know pretty much how they would have looked in the Pavilion's heyday.
Viewing the exterior of the Pavilion today, it is hard to believe that this, like most other stately homes, evolved
originally from a much smaller, more modest house. In this case a farm house, dating from the days when Brighthelmestone (now Brighton) was a small fishingvillage. This building was situated on the very edge of the built up area, rather than, as now, being right in the heart of the city centre.
Obviously, looking at its appearance, this is no "ordinary" stately home. More a grand folly on a huge and extravagant scale, designed and built for someone with excessively rich tastes……
……that someone was George, Prince of Wales (1762 - 1830). Best known as the Prince Regent, due to ruling as King during George III's, long incapacity, he became King George IV upon his father's death in 1820.
As the Prince of Wales, George first visited Brighton in 1783, aged 21. He came to stay with his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who lived in Grove house, adjacent to the farm house which was to develop into the Royal Pavilion. The purpose of his visiting Brighton, as many modern day tourists do, was to escape the daily bustle of (court) life in London. Additionally the royal doctors had advised him that; "the sea air may ease the swelling in the glands of the neck".
In reality what he discovered here was a comparatively carefree, if extravagant, lifestyle. Thanks to Dr Richard Russell who was publishing contemporary papers extolling the virtues of not only bathing in, but also drinking, sea water (either heated or mixed with milk) Brighton had by the 1750's become THE place to visit.
Upon arrival here in 1783, George discovered and enjoyed - all too much - the pleasures of the fastest growing town in England. Thanks to the Royal presence, along with his very colourful entourage, it was also rapidly developing into the most fashionable town in the Kingdom.
By 1786, due to his excessively extravagant lifestyle, George was saddled with debts and decided to move permanently to Brighton, on the premise that it would be less costly living here than in London……
…….another trend continuing to this day!
He illegally married his beautiful mistress, Mrs Fitzherbert who was a Roman Catholic. She was installed in one of the grand terraced houses opposite what was at that time described as "a respectable farm house". A tunnel was later to be dug, linking the two properties! The following year his financial situation was (inexplicably) resolved and to such an extent that that he was able to employ notable architect of the day Henry Holland to design a "Marine Pavilion".
The metamorphosis from the original farmhouse, through Marine Pavilion into the extraordinary grand Oriental Royal Pavilion, spanned the years 1787 to 1823. Seven years later George IV was dead. The lavishly decorated palace that he left behind had been largely the work of three men; John Nash, who designed the final exterior and two interior designers, Frederick Crace and Robert Jones.
ARCHITECTURE
Whilst photographs would be of far more use to you than my wordy description, briefly the outside appearance of this large but fairly low marine pavilion is decidedly Oriental, Indian even. Some have compared it to the Taj Mahal. It is in fact a unique building. From a distance the appearance is characterised by the huge central circular 'onion' dome, flanked by several others presenting an extraordinary rich symmetry to the whole. Regrettably there is currently some scaffolding in place, obviously breaking this. As you may well imagine, with such a complex building, subjected to the sea air, external maintenance is a never ending task.
Along with the domes are the minarets, dozens of them, some purely decorative, others concealing chimneys for the many open fires inside the Pavilion.
Look more closely at this building though and it may well be the external stonework, looking like lace hanging over the windows (pelmet style) that draws the eye. Indeed the longer I look at the stonework the more detail that I see in it. Flowers, leaves and crowns, all perfectly rendered - and recently restored!
VISITOR EXPERIENCE
Obviously any passer-by can freely appreciate the external beauty of this palace. It looks particularly spectacular when lit at night. It does have however one of this country's "must see" interiors. The more often that you visit, the more that you will pick out, such is the richness of the interior detail. My wife, having visited twice as often as me, is rather more au-fait with the interior layout.
On this particular visit, Sunday 30th October (2005), we were in the company of a very good friend and her five year old son. Children and stately homes can prove to be a rather unpredictable combination from previous experience; Klaudia my little sister in law has seen the Pavilion twice now and loves the place. We were gambling that so spectacular is the interior of Brighton's Royal Pavilion that a bright five year old should find enough of interest in it, this, I think, turned out to be the case.
As every visitor has done, since its completion in 1823, we entered the Pavilion via the grand entrance on the west, or garden, side. After walking under the splendid domed 'porte cochere' - a covered porch for carriages, the building is entered via an octagonal vestibule leading to the Entrance Hall. This is where you will find the admission desk - and the front of a long queue in the summer months!
At this point I would recommend the purchase of the smaller (75p) walk around guide, leaving buying the splendid full colour guide book until reaching the shop at the end of the tour.
The Entrance Hall is a cool, if richly decorated oasis of green, partially lit by natural daylight from a row of painted glass panels set above the door where we came in. The paintings here are in gentle hues of yellow and green, the dragons - a reoccurring theme throughout the whole interior - striking various poses. This room, whilst unusual and attractive, does nothing to prepare you for the ones to follow.
A doorway leads us through to the Long Gallery, which presents the eyes with the most extraordinary riot of colours and materials. In the centre of the gallery (a glorified hallway!) is a huge glass lamp hanging from a blue painted glass sky-light set into the ceiling. The combination of the hand painted pink and blue walls, tassled lamp fittings and bamboo furniture, present a kaleidoscopic pastiche of the Far East. At either end of the Long Gallery are cast iron staircases, hand painted to simulate bamboo.
Passing between the stairs on the southern end of the Long Gallery, we encounter the first "audible gasp" moment upon entering the Banqueting Room. Even the colour and splendour of the Gallery did nothing to prepare you for THIS! We are standing, mouths agape in a huge, high ceilinged, domed space, the centrepiece of which just has to be the colossal, 30 feet (9.1 metre), 1 tonne, central chandelier. This masterpiece in glass has an outer ring of dragons holding up further lamps around the outside of the main glass canopy. There are four further, smaller chandeliers flanking it towards each corner of the room. As though this splendour of overhead lighting were not enough, along the walls of the room are positioned eight beautiful deep blue, Spode porcelain, standard lamps, the lights at the top of which are again supported by golden dragons.
The lighting merely serves to accentuate the colours and artistic details present in this room. The central chandelier hangs from a huge dragon with outstretched wings. This three dimensional caricature appears to be nestling in some large vine leaves - again in three dimensions and created from copper, standing proud from the ceiling itself onto which are painted further leaves, these being rendered over a blue sky background.
The remaining ceiling and wall decorations are so lavish and colourful that I am struggling to describe them in mere words here. I will suggest viewing the picture below to obtain a clearer impression. Predominantly red, blue and gold, this room very much continues the Oriental theme.
Incidentally, the table is laid for one (!) of the sweet courses. This answers our query on the day as to why the forks are so small! Needless to say, the cutlery is gold to match much of the detailing in the room.
Adjacent
Pictures of The Royal Pavilion, Brighton
The Classic Royal Pavilion Outside Image
to the Banqueting Room is the Table Deckers' Room. This is a large serving pantry where all the plates, dishes and table decorations were laid out in preparation for the "scene changes" to take place between courses. Conveniently this room is situated mid way between the Banqueting Room and the Great Kitchen…..…..which is an apt title for this particular area. It is truly "Great" especially in terms of size. Here an army of chefs and assistants prepared the King's banquets. Eating was one of George's passions (proving to be his eventual undoing) and was undertaken on an unbelievably lavish scale at the Pavilion. Indeed, it was not unknown for 100 separate dishes to be prepared for the King and around thirty dinner guests.
Interestingly, one of the world's first celebrity chefs Marie-Antoine Careme was employed to cook for the Prince Regent in 1816. At the Pavilion he let his talents run riot, perfecting not only the culinary side of grand banqueting, but also the social etiquette that went with it. Soon after leaving, he began very successfully publishing his recipes.
The King was justifiably proud of his kitchen, often taking guests in to admire its modern fittings and airy working conditions. Even to the visitor of today, the large ingenious automatic spit roast is impressive. The spits were driven round by a system of gears and chains attached to a turbine in the chimney - rotated by hot air rising from the fire below. Also impressive is one of the world's largest collections of hand beaten copper pans lining the shelves around this room. Laid out in pans on the big table are models of the various items prepared here - including a huge swan!
The kitchen forms the southern most end of the Pavilion, to continue the tour we therefore get a second look at the Banqueting Hall, this time on the window side, passing through on the way to the Banqueting Room Gallery, the Saloon and Music Room Gallery. These are extremely luxurious state rooms, if not quite in the grandiose style of the Banqueting Room. My favourite of these three rooms is actually the oldest in the Pavilion, the Saloon. Not do I like it for its rich gilding and massive mirrors and drapes, but for its beautiful ovoid shape and for the superbly painted circular "sky-domed" ceiling.
And so we arrive at the Brighton Royal Pavilion's piece de resistance - The Music Room. Unlike the similarly proportioned Banqueting Room, this one has no furniture as such, nor does it need it! The floor is covered in an opulent hand woven Axminster carpet, upon which we are free to walk. Music was another of George's passions, he was known to sing and play the piano in this room in order to entertain his guests, and what a place to do it!
This is one of the most awe inspiring rooms in the country, simply alive with colour and detail, so much so that our friend commented that her eyes found it difficult to come to rest in any one place. Starting at the top, with the immense gilt ceiling, your eyes are drawn down the highly ornate lotus-shaped central chandelier, flanked by eight smaller replicas, via the beautiful painted glass sky-light panels to the walls and drapes below. The wall hangings in red and gold are actually painted canvases by Crace and a French artist, Lambelet.
This room has an unlucky recent history, falling prey to a damaging arson attack in 1975, being severely damaged not only by the fire, but also the water used to extinguish it. Ten years of painstaking restoration took place and then in October 1987 the hurricane struck! A large stone ball was blown off the top of one of the minarets and came through the domed roof making a large hole in it before becoming embedded in the wooden floor beneath the precious carpet. Fortunately this most grand and colourful of rooms is now restored to its full glory.
The only rooms left for us now to see downstairs are the King's Apartments. In the final re-design of the Pavilion, the King's bedroom was moved downstairs, by 1823 he was so grossly obese that he was unable to climb the stairs. Indeed he wheeled himself about his palace in a "Merlin Chair", a forerunner of the modern wheelchair.
Which actually tidily reminds me to tell you that the ground floor is fully accessible to wheelchair users!
His Apartments consisted of a bedroom, bathroom (sadly no longer here), dressing room and private library. These rooms are fascinating because, whilst attractively and expensively decorated and furnished they are of a far more modest style and practical nature than the grand state rooms already seen. The three rooms appear now to be open plan, the large doors between them being left permanently open. With large mirrors on opposite walls of these rooms a wonderful illusion of infinity is achieved.
We now emerge back into the Long Gallery in order to climb the stairs to view what was known as the Chamber Floor. In terms of guest accommodation, for such a large palace, the Royal Pavilion was fairly modest, having no more than five guest bedrooms.
On display now we can see the apartments used by Queen Victoria during the 1837 to 1845 period. She did not like the Pavilion due to the very public position of it and also because of internal ventilation and heating difficulties. In 1850 she gifted the Pavilion and grounds to the town of Brighton, having purchased Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
Her bedroom, decorated in flowery pinks and greens appears very much as it would have done in 1840. Also on display are her closet, an inside room with no window and a fireplace, plus her maid's room, similarly positioned with no natural light.
The highly ornamentally decorated Yellow Bow Rooms were originally the bedrooms of George's two brothers. Whilst they share the carpet with Victoria's apartments, they are altogether more lavishly furnished with gold, hand printed, dragon wallpaper adorning the walls.
Running through the centre of the Chamber Floor is the extraordinary South Gallery. A beautiful painted glass sky-light is the main feature here, complimenting the blue walls embossed with trellis work - again simulating bamboo.
Whilst this completes our tour of the Royal Pavilion, before returning downstairs and leaving, I would thoroughly recommend seeking out The Queen Adelaide Tea Room. Not only is the produce on offer here good and sold at a reasonable prices, but this is a unique setting in which to take afternoon tea, either inside or outside on the balcony overlooking the Pavilion Grounds.
Finally, we are unable to depart the Pavilion without exiting through the shop. You can visit the excellent shop without an admission ticket to the Pavilion and the shop is almost worthy of a separate review in its own right. Suffice to say here that it is packed with books, cards and gifts, all relating to the very colourful history of this magnificent building and the flamboyant Georgian era.
OPENING HOURS: October to March 10.00am-5.15pm (last tickets at 4.30pm) April to September 9.30am-5.45pm (last tickets at 5.00pm) Closed from 2.30pm on 24 December and all day on 25 & 26 December 2005
ADMISSION CHARGES: (1st April 2005 - 31st March 2006) Adult £6.10 Groups of 20 adults or more £5.10 Child (under 16) and children's groups £3.60 Family Tickets: 2 Adults, 2 Children £15.80. 1 Adult, 4 Children £9.70 Senior Citizens, Students & Unemployed £4.30
Brighton & Hove Residents (1st October to 28th February) £2.35 per adult plus two children free.
The Pavilion is licensed for civil wedding ceremonies and has turned out to be one of the most popular venues in the country for this.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
As a former resident of Hove (actually) I can honestly say that this review is exceptional and reminded me of a wonderful place to visit. Well done you! Willy
psychstudent1 11.07.2006 00:04
I'm running out of Es, but its impossible to give this anything less. Great pics too.
skmm 08.07.2006 10:32
The review is excellent..you have written it elegantly..the photographs are awesome....you have rekindled my love for your country, and it multiplies with every read like this....Cheers!!!....Sri
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Nov 8th, 2005
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