The Prince Regent--Day 58

Despite the nasty weather today, Brighton was pretty fun. I expected the town to be a little more quaint than it actually is. It is very gaudy and a bit touristy, and it reminds me very strongly of the East Coast and all of those boardwalks and piers and carnival rides by the seaside. The history of  Brighton is rather interesting. It began, not surprisingly, as a small fishing village. It was cramped and smelly, not exactly the kind of place you would want to visit. Well, in the mid-1600s, a physician proposed that salt water (such as at Brighton) was just as good as mineral water (such as at Bath) for curing a large number of ailments. Very slowly, people started to come to the seaside to partake of the healing waters, both by bathing in them and by drinking them. Very many people actually did get better, but it wasn't really a direct result of the salt water. Most people in the 1700s did not bathe, so they were breeding grounds for all kinds of diseases. Bathing in salt water helped to kill and remove bacteria and lice and other lovely creatures from the skin of many patients. Weak children also benefited because they were instructed to swim and run around the beaches, so they were able to build up muscle and partake of the fresh air. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to smell fresh sea air at Brighton because of all the other competing smells--food, diesel, and human life in general. But it was still refreshing to get away from the big city for a bit. It took us a little under two hours before we stopped to explore, and before that, our tour guide Angie gave us a lot of information about Brighton's best known resident, the Prince Regent George IV. He was the son of King George III (the crazy one, although now we know that he wasn't so much crazy as afflicted by a curable blood disease called porphyry), and he ruled in his father's stead (hence the "Regent" part and the period called The Regency) when it became clear that his father was in no condition to reign. and he happened to visit Brighton for a couple of weeks when he was 21. Well, he loved the lifestyle of Brighton, with all the debauchery and drinking and parties and such. He wanted to building a vacation house there so he could get his fill of pleasure in Brighton. The result was the Royal Pavilion, an interesting mix of Indian and Chinese styles and influences. But more about that later.

After leaving the coach, we took a quick walking tour of Brighton to see the shops known as The Lanes and to see our meeting spot for the tour of the Royal Pavilion. Then, we were released to explore on our own and grab some lunch before the 3:15 tour. I packed my lunch, so I just ate as we walked. We went into some pretty funky shops, including a vintage clothing store, a store devoted entirely to stuffed animals and other animal toys, and a weird Asian gift shop. I wasn't really into all of that Bohemian stuff, so I was glad when it was time for the tour.

The outside of the Royal Pavilion looks almost like the Taj Mahal, with those weird onion domes and minarets. We could see the stables behind the Royal Pavilion, too, which are now a museum and a theater (and I think they were a corn exchange sometime in their history, too, because I noticed "Corn Exchange" carved into the facade). However, the interior of the Royal Pavilion puts the exterior to shame.

A good view of the minarets (not to be confused with minuets).

Palaces are like onions...they have many layers.

The old stables/Corn Exchange and current museum/theater.

A detail from one of the wooden gates leading to the Royal Pavilion.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs in the building, so I will attempt to describe it to you with as much detail and accuracy as possible. It is important to note that the Royal Pavilion started out as a small fishing cottage with just four rooms. It was purchased by George IV in 1786, and its expansion was begun in 1787. (Just to give you an idea of the time-line, George IV was declared king in 1820 and ruled until 1830.) George IV wanted to make the palace as fanciful, exotic, and playful as possible, so it is chock full of optical illusions and ornate designs. The interior is very Chinese (a style known as chinoiserie, which was pretty new when George IV was building the Pavilion but which was soon to be very popular). The first room we saw was a grand meeting hall, with pink walls and paintings of bamboo, flowers, and birds on the walls. Glass lamps painted and decorated to look like paper lanterns hang from the ceiling, and statues of Chinese servants to the Emperor line the hall. These statues are quite interesting because each figure's head rests on a thin bamboo neck, so when a group of people enters the room, the sweep of wind rushing in moves the heads of the figures and causes them to bob up and down, as if bowing to the party-goers. George IV was all about making people feel welcome, and I'm sure that being bowed to by servants of the Emperor was about as welcoming as it could get!

Our next stop was the exquisite Banqueting Hall. The ceiling was immense, and the table was lavishly set for dessert. Most of the meals in the palace (which was quite common with the upper classes) were 20 courses or more! Nobility in those days were extremely fat. The chandeliers were probably my favorite part of the Hall, especially the largest chandelier, which has a three-meter-long dragon at the tip that is "holding" the whole chandelier between his front paws. Just behind the Banqueting Hall is the largest kitchen. It may not seem impressive to us today to have the dining room and the kitchen close together, but in those days it was quite shocking. The smoke from the kitchen could easily get into the dining room and disturb the guests, so dishes were often carried from many yards and even miles away. Needless to say, the food was quite cold by the time it got to the diners. George IV wanted hot, delicious food at his table, so he devised a high, vaulted ceiling with windows installed so that the kitchen servants could let drafts in to take the smoke out of from the kitchen and away from the diners. The kitchen also features a self-turning spit powered by the smoke from the cooking meat, which was another innovation for its time. In the kitchen was the menu for one of the most famous meals at the Pavilion, which included almost 100 courses, including starters like chicken and vegetable soup, dishes like rabbit pie and fish, and desserts like ice cream and marshmallows!

After consuming such a large meal, guests would retire to a drawing room to lounge on couches and drink liqueur and play cards. The women always preceded the men because the men would stay around the table and drink port and smoke (it was seen as disgraceful to smoke in front of women). In honor of the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Pavilion (1812), the staff have put out great examples of Regency clothing in the drawing room of the Royal Pavilion. Did you know that men would wear corsets around their legs to make them appear thin and elegant? And they wore those coats that were shorter in the front with longer tails in the back to make their legs appear longer. Both men and women would wear a lot of make-up and would cover their real eyebrows, only to replace them with mouse fur. I was shocked to hear how extravagant and vain Regency men could be when it came to appearance.

The next room was the Saloon, which I think was for drawing and taking walks inside (taking a "turn about the room," as they used to say). There is quite a lot of gilding in this room, and a lot of it is being redone to try to restore its former brilliance. The best feature of the room, in my opinion, was the sun that was painted on the ceiling above the chandelier. It was very ornate but had a lot of cool designs on it. After the Saloon, we saw a drawing room with a pianoforte in it--this room's purpose was playing music and entertaining the guests. The final room was a larger music hall with a pipe organ. This room was very Chinese, with its lotus-flower-shaped lamps and painted dragons. In China, dragons are seen as good-luck symbols. It is surprising, then, that the music hall has seen two pretty major disasters in the last few decades. The first took place in 1975, when an arsonist broke one of the windows, poured lighter fluid on the curtains, and set them on fire. The room was closed for 11 years while it was repaired, including the touching up of each of the 26,000 tiles that make up the domed ceiling. A few months before the room was scheduled to reopen, a hurricane hit South England, damaging the windows and carpet. It wasn't until a native Chinese person visited the Pavilion that the staff figured out why the room was so cursed. The room had carved snakes near the dragons, which is never seen in China because it apparently throws the world off balance and invites chaos and destruction. I thought that the explanation was intriguing, to say the least.

Queen Victoria, when she came to the throne, was never a fan of Royal Pavilion. She was a very serious person, so she wanted to distance herself from the extravagance and silliness of the Regency period. As such, she wanted the Royal Pavilion to be demolished. However, the people of Brighton resisted because they considered the Pavilion an important part of their heritage. In short, they bought the Pavilion outright, and to this day, it remains the only palace in England not owned by the Royal Family. Famous lecturers at the Pavilion include Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens. In addition, music concerts are held at the Pavilion even to this day.

The tour got off with a little bit of time left before we had to be back on the coach, so my friends and I wandered down to Brighton Pier, a fanciful collection of arcade games, carnival rides, and fair food that sits on a pier jutting out into the ocean. The old pier with its sumptuous gathering hall was badly burned, but its eerie skeletal remains still exist (you can see them in one of the pictures below). The day was pretty snotty weather-wise, so I'm sure it would have been more fun in the sun, but as it was, we were pretty allured by Brighton Pier. We wanted to keep exploring, but we ran out of time.

It's carnival time!

The Atlantic Ocean/English Channel with the remains of the old pier on the right.

I was really glad that I was able to capture the sign in mid-blink (half lit up, half dark).

Another ocean pic.

A close-up of the clock.

I think he just saw me! Run for your life!

A view of the ocean with the marina in the distance.

The Ferris wheel at Brighton Pier.

Brighton's rocky shore contrasted with the smoothness of the Atlantic Ocean waves.

Brighton Pier.

On our way back, we stopped to collect a souvenir from the sea, and Sarah picked out a rock for me. I don't know if I'll actually be able to smuggle this thing back into America, but it is still a fun keepsake for the rest of my time here. It's a great rock because it's multicolored and because it has this great little divot in it that I can rub my thumb over (it's supposed to be good for relieving stress).

My little pet rock. :)

I started to have more fun when we were at the Royal Pavilion and then Brighton Pier because I really enjoyed taking pictures of the sea. Even under the clouds, it was a fantastic shade of turquoise. When the afternoon got a little darker, Brighton Pier was lit up with a cool sign (and also some little lights on some of the buildings).

The buildings of Brighton Pier lit up in the semi-darkness of late afternoon.

We left a little before 5 o'clock, and we didn't get back until some time after 7. It was a pretty brutal ride because I started to get a headache (I was kind of tired today, and I did a lot of walking around and such with a backpack on my back). I also got really hungry, and when I get hungry, I tend to get carsick. But we eventually made it, and I got some food in me before taking some Advil.

Tomorrow is another exciting day because I am going to tour the Houses of Parliament. I have been looking forward to this all trip! I will be able to see the House of Commons, where the Prime Minister's Questions take place (among other things) and marvel at the fabulous Gothic Revival architecture (which I really love, and I admire the architects so much for picking such a quintessential British style to rebuild Parliament after that crazy guy blew up the old one). I don't think we are allowed to take pictures of the interior, but I will try to get some good, new angles of the building (since I have already shown you numerous photographs of Parliament from previous visits to the area). Have a good night!