Royal Pavillion, Brighton, England
Some people really do have more money than sense, don’t they? One of the big tourist attractions in Brighton is the Royal Pavilion, built for some king (George IV, I think) . It is the biggest mish-mash of styles and over the top ostentatiousness I think you could find. Apparently it had a large Chinese influence and I could see that inside in places, but I have no idea about the outside, seems rather weird to me. Here I am bagging the place but I spent the £10 entry fee to take a look inside – always a sucker!!
There were some interesting stories to read and the sheer scale of the furnishings and rooms was impressive. The kitchen, for example, was unusual for the time, being part of the main building – although it was a couple of rooms away from the dining room so the guests didn’t have to put up with the cooking smells. I couldn’t believe the size or number of ovens and the number of saucepans was incredible – saucepans back then must have been like our plastics cupboards now – you can never have too many! They have copies of one of the menus for sale, it only consisted of 100 courses – not over the top at all – no wonder he couldn’t make it upstairs and had to have a bedroom on the ground floor. It’s funny, isn’t it, the parts you remember after visiting these places – actually, I’m lucky to remember much at all most times….
Punch and Judy at the Brighton Museum
Being quite underwhelmed by the Pavillion I thought the museum was well worth a look and the fact that it, like most Museums I’ve come across here, had free admission made it even more appealing. It was virtually next door, in a lovely building, and had a great coffee shop on a sort of walkway overlooking the ground floor – very cute.
While I appreciate the opportunity to see them, I sometimes wonder at the number of artifacts from other countries you find in museums and the morality of it all. Seems to me, Egypt is probably fortunate to still have much left judging by the amount you see in other places. I remember as a kid being captivated by stories of archaeologists working in Egypt; and the museum here has a great section devoted to them, mesmerized again!!
There’s also marvelous photographic and fashion collections of the Brighton of the past. Seems it’s always been a bit on the wild side – guess that comes with being a seaside holiday spot but my guess is that Brighton is a tad more liberal than most places.
That was about the extent of my cultural ventures in Brighton; more on shopping, the pier and beach in my next post.
Also, to those who are silently correcting my spelling/grammar mistakes (yes, that’s you Jen) my apologies; the battery died in my iPad keyboard and you have no idea how bloody difficult it is to use the touch screen for this sort of thing. Bugger, the joys of travel and blogging!
Cheers
MidLife Traveller 