A Princely Extravagance: England’s Taj Mahal by The Sea

A Princely Extravagance: England’s Taj Mahal by the Sea

By Mr Ghaz, April 10, 2010

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A Princely Extravagance: England’s Taj Mahal by the Sea

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A Fairy-Tale Palace of pinnacles, domes, and minarets has been astonishing visitors to the English seaside resort of Brighton for more than 160 years. The Royal Pavilion was the brainchild of the wild and extravagant Prince of Wales, later to become King George IV. Admirers call it an architectural delight; critics say it could have inspired Disneyland.

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Today the Royal Pavilion gives no hint of its modest beginnings as a farmhouse where the 24-year-old prince and his secret bride, the twice-widowed Mrs. Fitzherbert, played at living the simple life.

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Fashionable friends from London came to visit the prince, and soon Brighton, once a little fishing village, became one of the most popular resorts in Europe. The prince’s opulent lifestyle demanded something grander than a farmhouse.

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For the next 35 years-from 1786, when he first moved in, until 1821-the house was designed and redesigned by several of England’s leading architects. The various stages of refurbishment cost more than $750,000-an amount that would be astronomical in today’s terms. In the end the prince’s subjects reviled him for the extravagance.

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The House of Debt

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The history of the pavilion’s transformations is a record of imagination, skills, and bankruptcy. Several contractors were ruined when the prince ran out of money.