At the beginning of last month and this month I was working alongside Portsmouth Historic Dockyard for their newest promotional video 'Race Across the south coast' one of the filming locations was Brighton Pavillion which I had been planning to visit for a while.
It is widely known that Queen Victoria disliked the Royal Pavillion but the reasons are often overlooked. The Queen disliked the lack of space for her growing family and the lack of privacy. Although these factors tainted Victoria's impression on the residence, Prince Albert enjoyed the residence and greatly admired the architecture of the building, particularly the Banqueting room and the Music room which both feature elaborately ornate interiors.
Not only did the lack of space disappoint Victoria but the views also displeased her. According to her journal, she was only able to see a small part of the sea from her sitting room window even though the Pavillion is quite close to the sea.
‘The Pavilion is a strange, odd Chinese looking thing, both inside and outside; most rooms low, and I only see a little morsel of the sea from one of my sitting-room windows, which is strange, when one considers that one is quite close to the sea.’ - Queen Victoria's Journal, 4th October 1837
Victoria, Albert and their family spent the festive season of 1845 at the Pavillion, their visit is immortalised in the print of Prince Albert driving the Queen and the Princess Royal in their Sledge, at Brighton.
To top off the Queen's dislike of the Pavillion - both her and Albert experienced a most unpleasant encounter whilst in Brighton. On the 15th February 1845, as the royal couple enjoyed their promande along Chain Pier they were exposed to 'much annoyance' when a group of young boys peered under The Queen's bonnet and then proceeded to chase the royal couple back to the gates of the Pavillion. This incident left the Queen tremendously upset, so much so that she left Brighton by train and never returned.
The Illustrated London News reported on this event, noting, “if the Queen cannot enjoy a walk without being subjected to annoyances from which the meanest of her subjects are free, it is not to be wondered that Brighton is so seldom selected as the Royal residence.”
The article reads - " It has been held - as the lawyers have it - that a cat may look at a king; but it is not to be tolerated that a set of unmannerly curs should poke their noses under the bonnet of a Queen as was the case the other day at Brighton. It is very hard that Her Majesty and her Royal Consort cannot walk abroad, like other people, without having a pack of ill-bred dogs at their heels, hunting them to the very gates of the Pavilion. The illustrious couple, whom the Brightonians seem to regard as fair game for their idle curiosity, were started by a young hound, of the butcher boy breed, who commenced the view halloo, and a lot of little puppies, beginning to give tongue, the pack was joined by a number of mongrels, who were all soon in full cry together. Some of the dogs were so very ill-bred, that they headed the game, and it was much to be regretted that there was no whipper-in at hand to keep the hounds at bay, for they ran their prey literally to earth after a chase of nearly half-an-hour."
By 1846 Queen Victoria had decided to sell the Pavillion and began stripping the residence of its exotic furnishings so they could be transferred to Buckingham Palace. In 1850 the Pavillion was sold for £53,000 and on the 19th June of that year, the Pavillon became property of the people of Brighton.
By 1860, under the ownership of Brighton Council the interior of the Pavilion was refurbished. In 1864 Queen Victoria returned many important items, including the Banqueting Room chandeliers and other large chandeliers from the Music Room. Throughout its renovation and throughout the modern age, both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth II returned on long term loan various pieces of original furnishings.
One of the more prominent items of the collection include a reproduction of the bed in which Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stayed in. Unfortunately the original bed did not survive but has been recreated so it can be seen in the Victoria apartments. The bed features six mattresses of- two straw two horsehair and two feathers which reflect the mattresses of the era.
The bed is located in a room over from the entrance hall which during George IV's time was a guest bedroom. Located directly above the Queen's bedroom is an attic where the Queen's most trusted dressers would have slept.
The wallpaper which adorns the walls of Queen Victoria's bedroom is a reproduction of an original paper which hung on the first floor of the Pavillion, it was later moved to Buckingham Palace where it still decorates the Yellow Drawing Room. Only small sections of the original remain at the Pavilion. The reprint is by the Allyson McDermott Collections. Before 2020 the walls were decorated with a hand painted paper by Gordon Grant in the 1980's.
The pieces of wallpaper which are kept in the archives are most likely spare panels which were never used or perhaps kept for parts for future restoration.
Citation
Loske , A. (2023) Why queen victoria sold the pavilion, Regency Society.
© QueenVictoriaRevival 2024
This article is the intellectual property of Queen Victoria Revival and should not be COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances unless permission is given by the author.