Week 10

With the hubby home for a couple of weeks we headed off for a night out in Brighton.

The main purpose of the visit was to meet up with some of his former UK work colleagues to celebrate an endurance award (sorry long service award), but it was also a good opportunity for a night away in a seaside hotel, a chance to explore the antique shops in Brighton’s tiny Lanes and a bit of a blustery stroll along the sea front.

I like Brighton, it’s a slightly faded,  shabby chic sort of place. It’s not quite Santa Monica although there are certain resemblances – a vast of expanse of beach, an old wooden pier with a fairground and amusements and  several down and outs. Of course pebbles in Brighton replace that soft Santa Monica sand and the homeless huddle in sleeping bags in doorways as opposed to lying flat out on the grass, but I could definitely see the similarity between the two places – I even spotted one brave surfer in the water.

Brighton does have great architecture although most of it needs a bit of sprucing up.  The jewel in its Regency crown is  the Royal Pavilion.  Back in 1787, the Prince Regent -  later George IV -  liked his seaside holidays just as much as the rest of us, and positively embraced the idea of escaping  for a weekend away with his mistress. Unlike the rest of us, he decided to build himself a palace in the centre of town.

Designed on the outside to look like a home fit for an Indian Maharaja, inside the Pavilion is a shrine to all things Chinese – in terms of decor at least. Even the metal stair bannisters are painted to look like bamboo. When Queen Victoria inherited the Pavilion from her deceased uncle she declared it too tiny and impractical for her growing brood, and sold it off to Brighton town council who have been paying for its upkeep and restoration ever since.

Ornate is too small a word to describe the interior of the Pavilion; it is ostentatious in the extreme. I’ve never seen a dining room like it – full size palm trees, fresco’s on the ceilings, ornamental silver dragons and an absolutely massive, as big as a hot air balloon,  chandelier.  The Prince even installed a ‘show’ kitchen, complete with yet more plaster palm trees, adjacent to the dining room and was known to entertain at the kitchen table, although he insisted a red carpet be laid over the flag stoned floor.  

There is nothing like a good old piece of extravagant opulence to remind me how lucky I am to live in a country that has preserved so much of its history. A great weekend, and a lot of hangovers, were had by all. George IV certainly wasn't the only one who over-indulged.