| In 1783 Prince George of England, son of
the reigning King George III, visited the seaside fishing village of Brighthelmstone
for the first time. In the following years, he revisited it frequently,
eventually buying a farmhouse for his own entertainment and that of his
guests. With this royal patronage setting the tone, the fishing village
transformed into a seaside resort and the English began to exploit the sea
for its recreational and medicinal benefits.
Over the years, George remodeled his farm house inside and out on several occasions. The original farm house itself soon disappeared under the guise of the French neoclassical remodeling carried out by the architect Henry Holland. In 1802 the prince had the Crace brothers design the interior in Chinese style. In 1806 he had the architect William Porden design a stables in the Indian Islamic style. Several proposals were made for the enlargement of the house, now called the Marine Pavilion. Porden himself proposed a Chinese exterior; the noted landscape architect Repton produced a magnificent portfolio of drawings proposing a studiously accurate Indian Islamic exterior. Finally, in 1820 George's architect John Nash, who was also to remodel Buckingham Palace in London, carried out a whimsical interpretation of the Indian Islamic style. Nash experimented with modern building materials: a "mastic" stucco to model exterior architectural effect and iron for structural support. Iron was used as a skeleton to support the large decorative dome placed above the central saloon, as structural columns in the kitchen and drawing rooms, and as a staircase at either end of the main corridor. When visible, the iron was molded, painted, and decorated to look like tree trunks and bamboo. The other decorations of what became known as the Brighton Pavilion were lavish examples of craftsmanship carried out to create a recreational palace of make-believe. The result was an extravagant building which was the subject of controversy in its own time, much like its patron the prince. |
BRIGHTON RESOURCES
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