A day at the Brighton Pavilion

As you may have guessed, the cafe likes to give its staff interesting trips when they have days off. For this reason a correspondent was sent to Brighton for the day, to sample the delights of the Royal Pavilion there. The pavilion was recently voted the best palace in the country by Sky television viewers. The cafe would have preferred Hampton Court Palace or Buckingham Palace to be awarded this distinction, but it is pleased that people are interested in England’s great national buildings sufficiently to express an opinion at all.
The current building is very large and is an amalgam of several different construction phases. Believe it or not, the pavilion is built on a farmhouse that was once the (modest) residence of the Prince Regent. George IV first rented the site in the Old Seine area of Brighton in 1786. After some time, the house was bought and developed with the prince’s funds into a large riding school and residence. This first stage was completed by 1803. Sometime later John Nash was employed to redesign the palace into broadly the form it is in now, which was completed by 1822. Surprisingly, the original house remained underneath a complex network of frames and supports. Queen Victoria did little to change the palace, except to take out almost its entire contents and put the palace up for auction; it was purchased by Brighton Council in the 1850s. Since the 1940s, considerable effort has been taken to produce as faithful a recreation of the interior and exterior appearance as it would have been in 1822.
If you happen to be in the area, the pavilion is well worth a visit. Here is a brief introduction to some of them.

Here is a shot of the Banqueting room. Be in no doubt, this room was designed to make an impression. A large chanderlier hangs magestically from the ceiling supporting nearly 1 tonne of ornamental lighting! Paintings in a Chinoiserie style adorn the four walls in a surprising backdrop to a room that exudes luxuary over every inch.



To the right is an image of the Price's living room, which in comparion with other parts of the palace is rather subdued. The wall paper and colours are well balanced in this room and its atmoshere is surprisingly pleasant. Personally, I would have chosen a different carpet, but fashions to do change and perhaps I would have felt diferently 200 years ago.

For the music lovers among the cafe clientel, it only seemed fair to include an image of the music room. This particular illustration was provided to us by John Nash. As you can see the room is capacious and even contains a small organ. On occasion great artists of the day such as Roissini came to play in this room. George IV even played there somtimes.

This is a view of the William IV gate, one of the few changes to the palace that took place after the death of George IV. As you can see, it retains the spirit of exotic splendour found elsewhere in the palace.

A parting view of the palace brings us full circle. Until next time, probably tomorrow, good bye from the cafe.

(my thanks to John Nash, Brighton Pavilion and the Cafe's photographers for their pictures in this blog)