The History of the Royal Pavilion

George, Prince of Wales who became the Prince Regent, gave his name to the Regency period (between 1811 and 1820) which became a byword for luxury and lavish spending. He amassed a large art collection and was responsible for architectural additions at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but the Royal Pavilion at Brighton is his greatest, if most bizarre, achievement.

The rebellious Prince
George was the eldest son of George III, but by no means the wisest. He rebelled against his strict upbringing and embarked on a life of womanising, drinking and gambling. He secretly married a Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert in 1785 and ten years later was officially, though disastrously, married to Caroline of Brunswick.

In 1811, when George III was thought to be mentally unfit, he was made Prince Regent, becoming King in 1820. It was in the very same year that he tried to divorce his consort, thus washing all the royal 'dirty linen' in public. He was the subject of many derogatory cartoons and caricaturists of his day show him as a degraded, overweight character, which was hard to deny! At one point, Parliament paid off £161,000 of his gambling debts.

Why Brighton?
In the mid 18th century Brighton was already a fashionable resort as a spa town where society people would 'take the waters'. George first visited in 1783, aged 21. Doctors thought the seawater might reduce the swelling of glands in his neck, but he loved the relaxed atmosphere away from the constraints of the Court of George III. In 1786, he took a farmhouse here, known as Brighton House, and set up Mrs Fitzherbert in a nearby villa.

From farmhouse to fantasy house
Brighton House was a simple farmhouse but not for long. The Prince gave it a neo-classical makeover and renamed it the Marine Pavilion. He commissioned John Nash to redesign the house and gardens in the Oriental style as one amazing pleasure ground. From 1815 until 1823, Nash extended the building by placing a cast iron framework over the original structure and adding domes and pagodas in the style of an Indian palace.

Guests could expect luxury beyond their wildest dreams: the army of staff included apothecaries, doctors, music masters, wine keepers and chefs. Recitals were held in the Music Room with its nine lotus-lily shaped chandeliers and in the Banqueting Room with scenes of domestic Chinese life painted on every wall. One meal was said to have had no less than 36 different entrees or 'starters'. Five rooms in the kitchen were devoted just to pastry making and when the ice ran out it was imported from Norway!

Queen Victoria is not amused
When the Queen first visited in 1837 she described it as 'a strange, odd, Chinese-looking place. Most of the rooms are low and I can only see a morsel of the sea from one of my sitting room windows'. She also disliked George's favoured red bedroom wallpaper (he slept downstairs because of his gout) and had it removed. In 1850, she gifted the Royal Pavilion to the town of Brighton, probably with some relief.

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