24 October - Brighton Palace
Waking up in Brighton, thick brocade and print curtains shut out the day, but there was a hotel breakfast awaiting. Galvanised into action at the thought of bacon and eggs, I was ready in minutes and met my trusty native guide in the hall.
The Brighton hotel's breakfast room looked out over the esplanade to the sussurating waves on the stony shore. The air had a seaside quality to it that improved the appetite - I went back for figs and compote. And more coffee.
Now for some walking. Probably need to do a few miles before I visit the first clothes store.
Brighton has a maze of twisting alley ways, and narrow cobbled or paved streets; many which are just treated as pedestrian, some which are. There are expensive designer stores, and alternative music shops; shops for the mods and shops for the rockers; t-shirt shops and tea shops.
Theres fountains and hotels tucked away around odd corners, and down arcades.
Around one particular corner, is this approach to the Royal Pavilion.
Built by King George IV in a fit of eccentric indulgence the Pavilion is a smallish palace, it was built over what was originally a farmhouse. It typified the excesses of the Regency period in the early 1800's, with elaborate Indian or Persian stylings in the external architecture, and Oriental motifs throughout the interior.
King George stands here in statuary, modestly holding his robes with his left hand, and inviting one to his excesses with his right. He must have had a [very skewed view of the world|http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page2199.asp], indulging in profligate spending while his subjects suffered to the point of rebellion.
The beautifully restored Pavilion is in lush gardens, with palms and exotics giving it, if possible, a more fantastical air. Who knows what Architect [John Nash|http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Royal_Pavilion] must have thought on being briefed on its unusual far eastern design by George.
In good weather the playboy King and perhaps his female consorts would've walked through the french doors behind this collonaded loggia from the Kings apartments into the garden, to enjoy the sea air. The balcony above now adjoins the Pavilion tea rooms.
This column stands at the Northern entry to the Pavilion, the side away from the sea. Its a common idiom of Regency style that slender columns would stand either side of the entry. This sort of floral detail, I think after a bamboo flower or leaf appears in stone, iron and other materials through the Pavilion.
The column's sides slope out from the base to the capital, unlike most seen in classical British architecture. Most columns I have seen are modelled after Greek and Roman archetypes like the Parthenon, which include an entasis to correct for perspective, and to provide a feeling of weight and presence.
Its almost as though George had directed his architects to produce something light and whimsical; tall like the tent-pole or bamboo shaft. According to the placards of the Pavilion trust, the entry hall off the portico this column supports was meant to feel like a canvas tented pavilion.
Inside the Pavilion the walls are decorated with bamboo and birdlife, according to the attendants restored as the original papers and prints would have been. There are bamboo handrails of wrought-iron, and absolutely incredible chandeliers. Plasterwork features cornice trimmings of hundreds of tiny bells, in one room they have crystal clappers.
One of the chandelier designs, I think in the Music Room, features gold dragons snaking over a frosted glass enclosure. The organic leaf shaped sections of glass form an oblate sphere nearly 2m in diameter with four wyrms, tails encircling at the base; their tiny wings and beards definitely more Eastern than the tradtional King George dragon.
This sketch shows the facade of the Banqueting Room, one of the most impressive spaces in the Pavilion.
Again apparently designed to be a impressive pavilion tent, and palace banquet hall at the same time; it features an immense chandelier depending from a 5m dragon flying at the very apex of the conical ceiling.
In the sketch you can see the round portholes in the roof, which seem to have been designed to allow light in to the actual second membrane constructed inside the roof, perhaps to evoke the lighting qualities of a canvas pavilion.
Adjacent to the banquet hall is a room for assembling the serving dishes and other banquet accoutrement, and beyond that the enormous Great Kitchen.
After spending a few hours goggling at the wonders of the Royal Pavilion, we walked back through the looking glass streets of Brighton to the Hotel for roast beef sandwiches.
Packing up and heading back on the train was something of an anti-climax, but I determined to try to snap something of the English country farms. This was the best I managed, there are much more lovely hidden secrets that I'd need another 6 months to discover.
