The Royal Pavillion and brief Brighton tales

In 1815 George IV, newly minted Prince Regent and lover of opulence, decadence and extravagance, commissioned the transformation of his modest Brighton villa to a lavish Oriental palace.

It is one of the most fantastical, extravagant buildings I have ever seen. It was like stepping into a fantasy. The outside is impressive enough, a large building with impressive domes and decorations that seem to have come from a Disney-India. The inside is even more wonderful. I use that in the old sense - wonder full, full of wonder.

Courtesy this... design website..?

 All the colours are bright and fresh - Regency colours, and Oriental colours as perceived by the regency. The walls are painted with vines and birds and fruit, or in the pattern of bamboo, or in single shades gilded with gold. There is so much detail, and no detail is spared. Stepping into the banquet room, everything opens up - a giant dragon hangs above with a phoenix at every corner, ready to pour light down over the guests and banquet tables. There are painted panels of Asian people - detailed, beautiful, based on artwork imported from China, but all slightly Westernised. It is all the West's brightest daydreams of Oriental wealth and culture, an odd grab-bag of elements based on perceptions and ideals and imagination.

Courtesy Brighton Museums.

The kitchen is huge. Of course it is - George ate a lot, and often. Four huge stylisied palm tree pillars reach from floor to the high ceiling, and in between are large wooden tables for preparing the food. Around the edge is copper - all the copper vessels for preparation, cauldrons, pots, pans, a hundred jelly moulds in different shapes and sizes, each one perfect and shiny. I have never seen so much copper in my life.

All the rooms are marvelous, but I was also quite take by the music room, from the hand-woven carpet made by modern volunteers helping with the building's restoration and preservation, to the wonderful chandelier and other lamps, each decorated with panels of stained glass showing different flowers, different moths, all designed individually but so carefully as to be impossible to imagine apart from each other.

You cannot take photographs inside - quite understandably. But even I could, there is no way they could do justice to it - these images here only capture a fragment. It is stepping into a fantasy, full of dim light and bright colours and wonders.

Courtesy Brighton Museums.

George had moved to Brighton in the 1870s because it was becoming a fashionable seaside retreat (they were all the rage in Regency England) and because he was a vain gouty git and the fresh air and salt water would offer him many health benefits. George loved all the fine things in life - food, gaming, art, architecture, drinking, women, spending lots of money that he didn't really have. After persuading the House of Commons to not only clear his debts but raise his income - how, I am not sure, especially at this time he was merely Prince of Wales - he commissioned Henry Holland to transform his lodgings into a villa, which became known as the Marine Pavillion.

It was a nice building. I have seen pictures of it. I would have been quite happy to have the large, beautifully designed Marine Pavillion. George was not. The villa could not house the many social events and entertainments he so enjoyed, and so John Nash was summoned to add minarets, pinnacles, domes, galleries, extensions, and exquisite interior design work. On the outside it looks Indian, on the inside for the most part Chinese with other Asian influences. The transformation took several years, and was really a rather impressive feat of architecture - Nash built a cast iron frame over the original building to support the new extravagances. This hadn't been done before.

Indian War Hospital, courtesy The Telegraph.

You can see traces of this today, as they begin to restore the building. After George's death it stayed in Royal hands, but Queen Victoria did not like Brighton - the people were "very indiscreet and troublesome." It was bought by the city of Brighton, who began work to restore it. This was put on hold for a short period during the World War II, when it served as the most incredible war hospital ever for soliders of the Indian Army, and then restoration continued - and continues to this very day.

So clearly I was fond of the Pavillion, but Brighton itself was not quite as I had expected. The British seaside retreat is not my idea of a seaside retreat. It's stony for a start - which isn't a problem for me, as I like stony beaches, but it's not very retreaty. There should be less of a slope, smaller stones, less of a feeling that pollution is lurking just under the surface. When I did sit on the stones my legs came up marked with black. I don't know if it was just the spot I was sitting on, but I didn't really want to go swimming in the water after that. I did test the temperature though, and it was chilly. There were a few braves souls out swimming in wetsuits, or on boards.

Brighton Pier was fascinating - a perpetual fair on stilts above the sea. It was built solely for the purpose of entertaining Victorians and has continued and kept up with the latest entertainments. There is a haunted house, a water ride, bumper cars, target practice games (all the prizes are cheaply, badly made Disney and Pixar characters - especially minions and Elsas). There are chips and donuts and pancakes and waffles and churros, hot dogs, burgers, and stands selling all kinds of shiny marvellous-for-a-moment junk. I found it rather exciting, just for the vibe of the place - I'm not wasting my money on stupid rides (instead I wasted it on a terrible lunch at the pub - word of warning, 2 fish and chips for £10 is not a good idea).

Wuv, twoo wuv. And the Pier in the background.

What is a good idea is reading in Queen's Park, under a tree on a hot day. Try John Scalzi. He's got some very catchy stories.

There's a mansion out on the edge of Brighton, near the ocean's edge. You can see it from the Pier. I don't know who owns it, but I would like to go there.

There's also an aquarium in Brighton - the oldest aquarium, legend tells, that is still up and running today. I want to go back to Brighton in winter, when the people are thinner on the ground, and have a look around. It appears to mostly be underneath the road. The English do like building there things into the ground.