Seahaven Hard of Hearing Club

Twenty members met to hear a very interesting talk by Jackie Marsh-Hobbs on Brighton Pavilion. George IV first visited Brighton in 1762. He was then Prince of Wales. He purchased a two-up-two-down house on the site of the present Royal Pavilion. In 1787 he demolished that property and built The Marine Pavilion. This is still the base of the present building. As he wanted to entertain more people more lavishly, he added to Marine Pavilion to form what is known as The Royal Pavilion today. By this time he had become the Prince Regent. It was the first building in Europe based on an Indian design. He added the Dome as a stables for his horses and The Corn Exchange as a riding school. The only known secret tunnel running from the Pavilion is the one to the Dome so he could reach his horses without having to go outside. A fallacy is that there is a tunnel to Marlborough House, where Maria Fitzherbert resided.

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On the death of George without issue, his daughter having died in childbirth, the crown passed to his brother William who continued to use the Royal Pavilion. Upon William’s death, as he also had no legitimate children, the crown would have passed to the next brother who had been Duke of Kent, but he pre-deceased both his brothers. Therefore Victoria, as the only daughter of the Duke of Kent became Queen. She visited The Royal Pavilion six times but, although liking the palace, did not like Brighton. She felt there was no privacy as she and Albert were followed whenever they went out and about in the town. The Pavilion was then going to be demolished. Over three years from 1845, 123 wagonloads of items, including furniture, the fireplaces and wallpaper, were taken to London. The property was left empty for several years and then, instead of being demolished, was sold to Brighton Commissioners for the sum of £53,000. Although empty, this was a very good price as George IV had spent £500,000 to build and furnish the property.

In WWI the banqueting room was made into a hospital for Indian Soldiers. The gateway at the southern end of the Pavilion was given to the town by the people of India as a thank you for helping their soldiers. It was built for an elephant to be able to go through it. During WWII the gardens were turned into allotments to encourage the people of Brighton to use their own gardens for growing food. The basement and tunnel were used as an air-raid shelter. George V and Queen Mary were the first royals to give items removed from the Pavilion back to the Council. Since then the present Queen has given items back and has loaned 150 items to be shown in their original places. The building was restored and opened to the public, and used for various functions to bring in funds to carry on the restoration. Unfortunately in 1975 a fire broke out in the music room and it took 11 years to restore the room back to its former glory. As the work was being completed the scaffolding around the building moved in a storm and a ball on top of a minaret fell through the ceiling and landed in the newly restored music room. The carpet was restored and if you look carefully you can spot this repair today. After the talk, tea and the raffle took place and final numbers for the Christmas lunch were taken.