At the moment we’ve got some time off and decided to take the opportunity to see some more of the UK. We flew into Edinburgh and have road tripped down to Lincolnshire (Leanne’s home county) via Durham. This post however isn’t about that, but you can be sure to expect one in the near future. This post is a little late and is actually about our trip home over the Christmas period when we went to see some sights we’ve each lived down the road from but never taken the time to explore. You might remember a previous post by Leanne about St Denis Church in her village. Well now it’s my turn to write about my local attraction, which personally I think is a little better than Leanne’s.
I’m from Brighton. Any Brightonian is proud to be from “London-by-the-sea”…whoops.
If you were wondering where Brighton might be
I lived in Brighton for 23 years. That’s a long time. The funny thing about actually living in a place is that you end up ignoring everything that any tourist sees. An example of one such tourist attraction is the Brighton or ‘Royal’ Pavilion.
I know it’s there and exactly what it looks like, but have never visited. The Pavilion looks oddly out of place. There are no turrets, draw-bridges, or dungeons as you would expect with a typical English castle, like Warwick Castle – our only previous experience of a British castle. In fact it’s almost hidden, however as soon as you see it you know it’s special. So on an overcast, cold December morning we set out to take the grand tour.
Even though we’d already decided we wanted to visit the Pavilion, there was one very strict rule about us actually going in – price. If it turned out to be ridiculously expensive like other historical attractions then oh well, we wouldn’t be visiting. To our surprise, both of us being Brighton residents – well on paper – were given 50% discount. We decided to take the audio tour – given our local-savings – to find out a bit more about the place.
The Royal Pavilion
It’s quite a surprise when you walk in. You’re transported not to Regal, Georgian England but rather a surreal mixture of India & China, or what the designers of the day imagined it to be. This style is known in the design world as chinoiserie, as we learnt from the audio guide. The effect is genuinely impressive with each room ornately decorated and stunning. The massive dragon chandelier in the dining room is one of the many eye-catching features on the ground floor.
One thing that did surprise us was that moving from the ground floor to the first floor the decor changes completely. Upstairs is simple, elegant and colourful – yellow being the main colour of choice.
Also on show are many items related to King George IV, who without which there would be no Pavilion. It’s hard to believe that he transformed this place from a humble country retreat into what it is today.
King George IV - the man behind the Royal Pavilion
The main question about the pavilion is “is it worth going to?” If you’re interested in seeing a small piece of British history, want to see something other than a castle but something that is still quintessentially British or if like me, it’s a place you’ve always thought about visiting but never have then Brighton’s Royal Pavilion is a must.
*****
The Brighton/Royal Pavilion’s official website has information about opening times, admission prices etc.
Note: For the Residential discount you need to live in specific postal code areas and have to provide proof (in our case our driver’s license)
As you can see there are no pictures from inside the Pavilion itself as photos are not permitted throughout the building.
TwoTravellingTeachers 
Posted on February 19, 2012
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