The Fashionable Resort of the Regency Era

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For a long time I always wanted to visit Brighton and recently more so when I studied about The Royal Pavilion in my last humanities course. So during my recent London stay, I decided to go down for the day and got the train to Brighton from London's Victoria Station. When I reached Brighton, an hour later, I did not have any maps on me so I had to rely on map signs dotted around the town centre that got me to the Pavilion.

I thoroughly enjoyed touring The Royal Pavilion with its exotic theme throughout. We were given an audio guide where we learnt about the palace's rooms. The Oriental Palace was designed by George Nash in the early 19th Century and was the home of King George IV who was known as the Price Regent. Queen Victoria also used the Pavilion during the early days of her reign before selling it to Brighton's Council for 50k GBP in 1850. Walking through the rooms were fascinating with its extravagent Chinese and Indian themes throughout. This included The Banqueting Room with its large crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling; The Music Room for its red and gold colours and the loftus-shaped lanterns that are suspended from the top; and The Royal Bedrooms where King George spent his last days.

Afterwards, I spent the afternoon relaxing on the pebbled beaches and wandered on the Palace Pier. I felt the pier was not any different to those I had visited on my travels. I found that Brighton is not any much different to other seaside resorts I have visited in the country especially with its sea fronts. It had its fashionable reputation during The Regency Era but at the end of the day I think it is just another typical seaside town with that history. From one of my humanities course last year, I did an end of course assessment on Blackpool, a seaside town in the North West of England, and discussed how fashionable it was during its hey day, during the Victorian era and the first half of the 20th Century, but also argued that this somewhat changed, sadly for the worse, over recent decades especially that people had begun travelling abroad for the sea and the sun and that the town now is not as fashionable. I was happy to check out the town especially for The Royal Pavilion but not too worried about returning in the future due to the fact I am not a fan of seaside places.

I stopped at Tesco's to get some provisions as I did not fancy going to a restaurant before catching my train back to London. It was a wonderful day out with sunny weather which kept the beaches and its sea front busy!

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Photos

Brighton Dome
Now a concert hall

Brighton
On the beach

Comments

[rrruss]

Good Old Sussex By The Sea!
Nice one Dawn. Glad you enjoyed your time in the city where I was born! Love the monochrome picture of the Pavillion.

[AnnaAdventuring]

Gorgeous photo! Always thought the place looked so odd in England though... rather like coming across a Norman keep in the sahara! Hehe.