Subsequent owner Queen Victoria had the massive dining room chandelier moved into storage because she feared that it would drop on her head.
Again, I find myself in the final closing days of a World Cruise, a last few days in merry ole’ England then it will be the long laborious flight home to possibly plan another. To soften the blow, I had planned a few excursions and one was to follow in the steps of one of Britain's most colourful and outrageous characters. George IV – 'The Prince Regent', was a huge man with huge tastes and even larger whims. He had so loved Brighton, the 18th Century version of Las Vegas, that he began renovating an old farmhouse to create what would become his pleasure palace.
Thirty years ago I had been driven past this anachronism on the Brighton landscape and been fascinated by what may lie inside and now I would have a chance to find out.
Begun in 1787, the Prince's Palace was a cacophony of minarets, decorated arches and exotic domes screaming ignominiously at the traditional English buildings of Brighton – a once small, poor fishing village that was fast becoming a fashionable resort town thanks to his patronage. If George had been gay it would have gone part way to explain the high-camp extravagance of the exterior notwithstanding outrageous interior decorations of silk wallpapers, gold fittings, handmade carpets, massive chandeliers and Chinoiserie Chinese warriors which guarded hallways with gold phoenixes peering down at you from the ceiling cornices.
Slung low from the 45-foot high banqueting room ceiling and from the clutches of a massive silver dragon, hangs a huge 9m long, one ton chandelier dressed in Irish crystal and precious stones. The fitting hangs over a mahogany table seating 36 where 78 courses were often served during one of the Prince's many extravagant dinner parties. Here guests ate off solid gold plates and were entertained by exotic dancers and musicians.
Each room in the pavilion is decorated with more pizazz and gold than the last, competing with itself in an extravagant game of oneupmanship. To the Prince Regent, debt and money were of no consequence.
Huge chandeliers graced most rooms and were once the main feature of a near disastrous fire during a ball in 1863 when, after guests complained of smelling gas, a servant lit a taper to try and track the source. The subsequent conflagration travelled through the lighting plumbing, igniting the chandeliers and setting alight the rooms that they graced. Fortunately, the building was saved and a further restoration commenced.
By the time the Prince Regent had finished building, a reported 35 years after beginning, he was spending little time here completely losing interest in it. He had been distracted by other sparkly things, namely the English Crown. The building sat abandoned, languishing in its fading glory. An example of Regency overindulgence.
Subsequent owner Queen Victoria had the massive dining room chandelier moved into storage because she feared that it would drop on her head. She had never felt comfortable living here, detesting the lack of privacy and the easy accessibility to her by the public, so she sold the building to the city and used the funds to buy Osborne House where she would spend her last days.
She was obviously not amused by the building.
In 1975 an arsonist threw a flaming rag wrapped around a stone through the glass doors in the music room and set the room ablaze causing major damage to the room and those around it. It took 11 years to refurbish. A year after completion in 1986 during a huge storm in the area, one of the stone minarets from the roof dislodged and crashed through the ceiling embedding itself into the floor and causing further damage which took another five years to restore.
The building has fallen in and out of repair and restoration since its inception and more recently has had a major programme of works restoring the intricate stonework on the exterior of the building as well as the magnificent interiors which are as outrageous today as they were when first installed.
A lot of the interior furnishings have been returned by the Royal Family – perhaps too outrageous for their current tastes. One piece in particular has been carefully restored and re-established – the huge one ton chandelier in the banqueting room with its silver dragon.
The building endures and restoration will continue to be an ongoing process which seems to be its story from when it was first begun.
It wasn't just over the top, it was completely over the top and a perfectly ostentatious finish to my World Cruise. (ROSS THORBY)
