Holed up in the turret of a fantastic Georgian seaside abode. The tiniest room, but the flamingo wallpaper gives a pretty good hint as to what is outside. Being a sort of ‘feel at home in Mayfair’ sort of girl I got off the train and thought OMG I should have gone to Edinburgh. BUT after I got over the ‘where in hell am I’, and ‘this place is totally mental’ feeling I am having the maddest time. It is fantastic. John Nash’s folly of a seaside shack for the Prince Regent would arguably be the most fantastic building I have ever been in. From the outside, I was expecting a slightly grungy, pseudo Indian, dusty shell of a place, but oh my god. I just kept saying that over and over again as I walked through every room. Maybe exotic, fanciful, whimsical, eccentric and over the top, but I walked around with my mouth open muttering OMG the whole way. Words cannot describe it (and damn I wasn’t allowed to take photos). If you haven’t been here it is worth flying half way around the world just to see. Musty, conservative old palaces are just blown out of the water by this mental oriental, Indian odyssean extravaganza. Every room made me OMG even more. I don’t think I will ever recover from the site of the Banqueting Hall, with its 10 metre chandelier, where the gilded fronds of palm leaves, and the enormous silvered dragon claws hold on to the six smaller dragons as they puff their fire through lotus glass shades. The opulence of dark crimson, red, gold and royal blue, complete with bamboo staircases, and amazing paintings, and completely over the top oriental stuff was just jaw dropping. The extravagance of the lotus chandeliers and the flying dragons in the music room really made me wonder why I had not, in the past, taken more notice of this mental masterpiece. I am totally excited as I have a two-day pass so can’t wait to go back today.
http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/royalpavilion/
I went from the sensory overload of George’s beach shack to the fantastic vintage retro of the Brighton Museum. The cool furniture brought back great memories of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s gorgeous domestic creation in the Glaswegian vicinity. I am sure every sense was shattered after I left, as I walked around for the rest of the afternoon with the worst non headache migraine I have ever had. Seriously bad, but I just couldn’t drag myself back to lay on the bed. I wandered the Laines, with more sensory onslaughts, and eventually slumped into the reassuring boringness of Starbucks. Seriously, I needed to hide somewhere slightly familiar. To Jamie’s, for great gnocchi and the best Mojito, and then a stagger back along the mental Brighton Pier. Honestly, I ended up wondering whether the mushrooms I had at breakfast had created my hallucinogenic day. Well guess what, I am sitting here drinking buckets of good Yorkshire tea preparing myself for another total mental onslaught of a day – I could skip the mushrooms – but why would you – I am seriously excited about re-joining the psychedelic madness that is Brighton – but I definitely need more tea to brace myself – I don’t think a weekend will ever be the same again!
Sleeping under the stars 