Brighton Car HireCar Hire Home > Car Hire UK >Car Hire Brighton > Best Locations
Best Locations
Royal Pavilion
Situated in middle of the main thoroughfare of Old Steine in Brighton is the exotic extravaganza, the Royal Pavilion. One of England’s most loved buildings, it always gets a bucketful of votes in any survey.
The Royal pavilion is open to visitors daily: June-Sept 10am-6pm; Oct-May 10am-5pm and the ticket costs about £5.20.
Originally a conventional farmhouse, it was transformed into something more regal in 1787 by the fun-loving Prince of Wales and for a couple of decades the prince's south-coast pied-à-terre was a Palladian villa, with mildly oriental embellishments. Shortly after becoming Prince Regent, George commissioned John Nash, architect of London's Regent Street, to build an extraordinary confection of slender minarets, twirling domes, pagodas, balconies and miscellaneous motifs imported from India and China and supported on an innovative cast-iron frame, creating an exterior profile that defines a genre of its own - Oriental-Gothic. However, Queen Victoria did not approve of George's taste in architecture and shifted the royal seaside residence to the Isle of Wight taking along valuable fittings back to Buckingham and Kensington palaces and selling the building to the town.
The pavilion then came into numerous uses like that of a tearoom, hospital, concert hall, radar station, ration office etc. But it has now been restored.
Inside the pavilion the exuberant Regency exotica has been enhanced by return of the objects that Victoria took. The Long Gallery is a restrained passage which leads to the Banqueting Room- a highlight of the pavilion containing ornate splendor and dominated by a one-ton chandelier hung from the jaws of a massive dragon cowering in a plantain tree. There is a huge kitchen fitted with modern appliances and iron columns disguised as palm trees reaching out to the high ceiling.
Nearby is the stunning Music Room, the first sight of which reduced George to tears of joy. It has a huge dome lined with more than 26,000 individually gilded scales and hung with exquisite umbrella-like glass lamps. The famous cast-iron staircase with its bamboo-look banisters take you into Victoria’s bedroom which is sober and was seldomly used. North gallery is where the King’s portrait hangs along with a series of satirical cartoons. More notable, though, is the South Gallery , decorated in sky blue with trompe l'oeil bamboo trellises and a carpet which appears to be strewn with flowers
Rest of the town
’Lanes’- narrow, pedestrianized thoroughfares tucked between the pavilion and the seafront are the core of the old fishing village from which Brighton evolved. Long-established antiques shops, designer outlets and a concentration of bars, pubs and restaurants generate a lively and intimate atmosphere in this part of town. North Laine is spread north of North Street along Kensington, Sydney, Gardner and Bond streets. It gives a Bohemian feel with its hub along pedestranized Kensington Gardens. Here the shops sell second hand records, clothes etc and also are present earthy coffee shops and downbeat cafés.
Most of the seafront is a mix of shops, entertainment complexes and hotels ranging from the impressively pompous plasterwork of the Grand - scene of the IRA's attempted assassination of the Conservative cabinet in October 1984 - to the green-glass monstrosity on the seaward side of the Lanes. The Palace Pier gives an insight of the tackier side of Brighton where fun and money making are big, from the cacophonous Palace of Fun to the Pleasure Dome, and from the state-of-the-art video games to the fairground rides and karaoke sessions at the end of the pier.
The west Pier is superior in comparison. Built in 1866, half a mile west along the seafront the Pier was damaged in World War II and then fell into disrepair, but is being restored its former glory.
The Sea Life Centre is one of the best marine life displays of its kind and is present on Marine Parade, across the road from the Palace Pier. A transparent tunnel passes through a huge aquarium. This constitutes a walk along the bottom of the sea with sharks and rays gliding overhead. The Sea Life centre is open daily from 10am-5pm and costs about £5.50.
Also present is the Volks Electric Railway- the first electric train in the country and its antiquated locomotives. This runs eastward towards the Marina and the nudist beach, usually the preserve of just a few thick-skinned souls. Tourists can visit from April to mid-september and the ticket costs £1.60 return.
Sign up to our blog and tell your stories to friends, and millions of travellers accross the world. Click here..."
Click here...