Wednesday 2 January 2013

A Day out in Brighton

Last night we watched, 'The Madness of King George' an excellent film. This morning when we thought about where to go we thought of Brighton and its famous Pavilion. A few brief discussions later and we were off.

I have not been to Brighton before (well I might have as a small child but I cannot recall going there) and I must say first impressions were pretty good - even though it was grey, raining and somewhat cold.

After parking up we headed for the Royal Pavilion. I only have one photo of it as my cameras did not see the light of day as it was raining, so the photos below were swiftly taken with my trusty iPhone.


The pictures above does not do it justice as it is quite simply stunning. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed anywhere inside the Pavilion, so I dutifully but reluctantly obliged with their rules.

The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence, famous as a seaside retreat of the Prince of Wales, who later became the Prince Regent, who later still became George IV.

The inside is breathtaking and the decorations - especially the Banqueting Room - have the power to leave one speechless.  The Pavilion had some very famous names who were employed to improve the building, perhaps the most famous of which was John Nash - Regent Street in London, Haymarket Theatre, Her Majesty's Theatre, Buckingham Palace, Royal Mews, Marble Arch, St James' Park remodelling.

We bought a family ticket and guide book for £31 but later upgraded to a yearly pass for another £9 - as we knew we'd have to return at some point.


I have to say I liked Brighton and there were large numbers of cyclists out and about. To my surprise I saw no less than 15 Brompton bikes while there. Shamelessly I engaged three of them in conversation, giving them one of my orange blog cards and telling them about the Brompton Club. (If you are reading this it was great meeting you and a special mention to 'Panda' the black Brompton with white extremities.





I have to say that we really liked Brighton and we will certainly return - in better weather. On the return route I deliberately pointing the car in the direction of Ditchling Beacon. This is one of the landmarks that people attempting the London to Brighton never forget. I have to report that having seen it, I am doing my best to erase it from my mind, for fear that I may not attempt it in the future!

If you haven't been to Brighton you might want to give it a go. Plenty to do, see and photograph and by the looks of it (on a rainy, cold January) somewhere you could ride a Brompton around quite happily.

1 comment:

  1. Ha - for a second, I thought you were talking about the American Mathematician. But, I looked up John Nash the architect and learned something I did not know. So, thanks!

    Peace :)

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