East Sussex (6) Brighton and the Royal Pavilion

This is a new post, though it covers the events of the 25th of February 2025
It will be moved to its appropriate chronological position soon

The Brighton Royal Pavilion - the Extravagence of a Man with More Money than Sense?

Visits in Days Gone By

East Sussex

Brighton & Hove

During our stays with my sister Erica and her husband Peter in East Sussex, they have driven us all over the county in search of wondrous sights, but we have yet to properly visit the City of Brighton and Hove, home to some 280,000 people - over half the county’s population. Last year we went to Rottingdean (it is much nicer than it sounds!) politically within the city boundary, but in fact an outlying village. This seemed a good year to take on the urban centre, and its main attraction, the Brighton Royal Pavilion.

The County of East Sussex
Brighton and Hove are shown as dots, but in reality the City of Brighton and Hove occupies the whole south west corner of the county, encompassing Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean

I had visited Brighton once before, in 1962. I was an 11-year-old Boy Scout, enjoying our troop’s annual summer camp at Small Dole, a village in the South Downs - the rolling hills north of Brighton, now a National Park. On one day our troop was transported into the city and let loose in groups of four or five with the strict instruction that each group must stick together. It was a little scary, but probably good for us to be left alone in a strange city with enough money in our pockets to buy lunch and fritter away the rest, as boys do, but not enough to do anything silly. We could not afford to visit the Royal Pavilion, but I doubt anyone cared, few if any of us had heard of it, we wanted to go to the pier and its amusement arcades.

Brighton Pier

I am sure we had a full day, but my memories are limited to eating sausages and baked beans for lunch and visiting the rifle range under the pier. Despite carefully aligning the rifle’s front sight with the bull’s eye, I not only missed the bull, but my five shots left no discernible mark anywhere on the target. Others were more successful, obviously there was something wrong with my rifle. I had another go, choosing a different weapon – and it happened again.

A couple of years later I discovered a rifle also has a rear sight which must be aligned with the front sight and target. It was blindingly obvious to the mature and intelligent 13-year-old I mistook myself for, but completely beyond the idiotic 11-year-old I had so recently been.

Getting to the Royal Pavilion

The obvious way to complete the 24-mile journey from Peter and Erica’s home in Heathfield is to drive, but then you must find a parking space. Even in February, it is easier to drive to Lewes, use the ample parking at Lewes station and take the train into Brighton.

The service is frequent, the train takes about 15 minutes and ours was on time as the sign pictured below suggests.

Lewes station

Once at Brighton it is a ten-minute walk to the Royal Pavilion....

From Brighton station to the Royal Pavilion

...but before we enter, here is a brief History of Brighton, which explains why the pavilion is there.

Brighton 1086-1823

Brighton features in the Domesday Book as Brighthelmstone. In 1086 it was a small fishing village dependent on fishing and farming, and so it remained for almost 700 years.

In the mid-1700s Dr Richard Russell, a Lewes based physician and medical writer started advocating sea water for bathing in and for drinking. It would, he believed, purify the blood, improve skin conditions and alleviate ‘glandular obstructions.’ His major work, a ‘Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in the Diseases of the Gland’ (published in 1750) caused a stir. He moved his practice to Brighton and soon wealthy people were making the journey from London to ‘take the cure.’

Brighton’s rise as a fashionable seaside resort was boosted by a visit of the Prince of Wales (later the Prince Regent, later still King George IV) in 1783. In 1786 he leased a farmhouse here and transformed it into a neo-classical villa. After becoming Prince Regent for his debilitated father in 1811, he commissioned John Nash to redesign the building in an elaborate Indo-Saracenic style. Built 1815-23, it is the Royal Pavilion we see today.

Royal Pavilion, Brighton

Inside the Royal Pavilion

The first surprise was that it was so small, but then it is a pavilion, not a palace – and it is considerably bigger than my house.

The Pavilion is often described as ‘Indo-Saracenic,’ but the architect John Nash died in 1835, while the Indo-Saracenic blend of Western and Indian styles dates from the mid-19th. It remained popular with both the colonial rulers, and their local surrogates well into the 20th century.

The early 19th century was a period of fascination with the east, mainly among people, like the Prince Regent, who had never been there. Neither had John Nash but he was one of the foremost architects of his age, so with a little research he was quite capable of knocking up a fake Moghul Palace more than good enough to fool George.

For genuine Indo-Saracenic buildings see my 2016 posts Thiruvananthapuram (Formerly Trivandrum) for traditional Indian (in this case Keralan) architecture and Robert Chisholm’s Indo-Saracenic Napier Museum (1880) and Bangalore to Mysore for the Maharajah of Mysore’s enormous Henry Irwin designed palace (1912).

Entrance Hall

The interior design was mostly by Frederick Crace, and he filled the entrance hall with chinoiserie. Well, it is all Eastern so why not?

Chinoiserie in the Entrance Hall, Royal Pavilion, Brighton

In the 19th century, even royalty expected to be cold in winter, a fireplace could never warm their large high-ceilinged rooms, so they dressed accordingly. We do not, and the result is electric radiators compromising the design work.

There is something odd emerging from behind the clock, Brighton Royal Pavilion

The Banqueting Room

Beyond the Long Gallery we entered the Banqueting Room. The table settings are lavish; the walls are hung with red silk..

Banqueting Room, Brighton Royal Pavilion

…and covered in hand painted Chinese wallpaper.

Banqueting Room, Brighton Royal Pavilion

Above it all a colossal chandelier with a gilded dragon hangs below a domed ceiling.

Gilded dragon chandelier, Banqueting Room, Brighton Royal Pavilion

And if you cannot quite make out the dragon, take a closer look.

The Gilded Dragon

The Kitchen

Down a corridor that only the servants ever saw….

Servants corridor

…is a state-of-the-art Georgian kitchen with mechanical roasting spits,….

Kitchen, with mechanical roasting spits

… high ceilings for ventilation, and cleverly hidden skylights.

More of the kitchen

In here they produced 36 course dinners – and to think I struggle with a five-course tasting menu.

Menu for the visit of Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia 18/01/1817
Chef Antonin Carême

No one is expected to eat, or even taste, every course. The menu above starts with eight soups, but I have no idea how this sort of dining was managed. Perhaps diners opted for a particular soup in advance, or eight tureens were wheeled round on a big trolley and the choices were made as it passed, or maybe a footman stood at the end of the room and shout ‘Hands up for the curried chicken soup.’ None of these sound likely, and after the soup there are ‘eight Removes of fish’ and then ’40 Entrées around the fish’ and then and then and then….. Interesting to note, that although fascination with the east aligned more with a mythical than real east, very real chicken curry had already made its way west.

Music Room

With nine lotus-shaped chandeliers and the upper windows back-lit, the music room was designed to be seen at night.

Chandeliers and back-lit windows

It was a space for performance, Frederick Crace had thought about the acoustics as well as the light,…

A space for performance

… and for dancing.

A ball in the 1820s

The pillars were exotic…

This pillar is exotic

… sometimes bordering on ’strange…

And this one is weird

… and the walls were lined with chinoiserie. In its time the room was the height of elegance and opulence. But that was then, now they even let the peasants in.

The peasants, L to R:  Me, Lynne, Erica, Peter

Royal Bedrooms

Upstairs are the royal bedrooms, which are, perhaps, less idiosyncratic in design..

A royal bed

… and include some fine furniture. The inlays are, presumably, ivory, which we would frown at now, but this is of its time. Is it Chinese or Japanese?

I find this sort of inlaid furniture strangely pleasing

There is also this strange portrait of the prince.

A strange portrait of George IV

There is nothing obviously odd about this portrait, except that it is not a painting, it is a mosaic. Weighing close to half a tonne, it consists of half a million pieces of opaque coloured glass. As the sign underneath says it is a highly skilled example of the use of a glass mosaic to imitate paint. It is, indeed, but to what purpose?

Some Thoughts

We are nearly at the end of this tour, so it is time for a little reflection.

The Royal Pavilion is an extremely odd place. The Prince Regent, as he was then, asked for a building in Indian style on the outside, but he filled the inside with much chinoiserie, much else to suit the standard taste of aristocratic Europeans of the day, and some oddities like the palm tree pillar. The only hint of India inside is a reference to chicken Curry soup on a menu. George was a dilettante, a man who snatched at fashionable ideas, like, China, India and The East, but had little idea or interest in what they really meant. Could he really be as lightweight and spendthrift as Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of him in Blackadder?

Throwing vast sums of money at a building he never really understood, is evidence that he was. On the other hand, he was wise enough to employ the best people, like John Nash and Frederick Crace. He managed the project and got it done, and it was done with such panache it is hard not to admire it. He was extravagant, but much of the money was spent employing Brighton’s artisans and labourers.

The Royal Pavilion is beautiful, dire and quirky all at the same time. It might be a curate’s egg of a building, but it is a Fabergé Curate’s Egg.

The Royal Pavilion after George IV

George did not have long to enjoy his creation as he died in 1830, aged 68. He was succeeded by his brother, William IV, who also used the Pavilion, but with less enthusiasm, He died in 1837.

Queen Victoria found it cramped, and its location meant a lack of privacy. She commissioned the building of Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight as her seaside retreat. In 1850 she sold the Royal Pavilion to the town of Brighton.

The tour finishes in the Salon. In 1914 the Salon became a hospital for wounded Indian soldiers. 140,000 men of the British Indian Army were deployed on the Western Front. Relatively few of the many thousands of wounded were fortunate enough to be treated here. It may be an Indian building externally, but this was the only time the interior saw a major Indian presence.

The Salon as a military hospital in WW1

The building now belongs to the City of Brighton and Hove; it has been returned to its regency glory and is one of the most visited attractions on the south coast.

Our Visit Grinds to a Stop

We left the Pavilion, had a light lunch, photographed the pier (see the start of this post) and walked through some of Brighton's more interesting streets. Then we headed for the Museum.

Is this one of Brighton's more interesting streets?

It is sadly true that we are older than we used to be. It is an excellent museum with a varied collection of artefacts and an art gallery, but the history section was still greeting the arrival of the Romans when we admitted we had run out of steam. We walked wearily to the station and went back to Heathfield.

But to complete the post:

History of Brighton after George IV

Queen Victoria may have forsaken Brighton for the Isle of Wight, but Brighton’s growth continued unabated. The arrival of the railway in 1841 gave a direct link to London. Once the reserve of the upper classes, Brighton welcomed increasing numbers of ordinary Londoners while retaining its wealthy clientele. By 1900, with two piers and a variety of entertainment venues, Brighton catered for visitors of all classes.

Brighton continued evolving throughout the 20th century, though how it has remained a leading seaside resort since 1850 despite the handicap of a pebble beach is a mystery. Brighton was the destination of choice for the ‘dirty weekend’ and the place men resorted to when divorce laws required proof of adultery.  

More recently, while most south coast resorts have attracted ever more elderly residents, (Eastbourne is not the only one to be referred to as ‘God’s Waiting Room,’) Brighton has welcomed language students by the thousand, attracted the highest proportion of LGBT+ residents in the UK (2021 census) and developed a vibrant cultural hub. In 2010 the Brighton Pavilion Parliamentary Constituency elected the first (and until 2024, only) Green Party MP in the UK Parliament.

East Sussex

Part 1:Bodiam and Rye (2020)
Part 2:Bateman's, Firle Beacon and the Long Man of Wilmington (2021)
Part 3: Battle and Hastings (2021)
Part 4: Rottingdean and The Devil's Dyke (2024)
Part 5: Lewes and Charleston (2024) (coming soon)
Part 6: Brighton and the Royal Pavilion (2025)
Part 7: Winnie-The-Pooh and Standen (2025)