Royal Pavilion, The, Brighton, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest:   

Gardens surrounding the Royal Pavilion, re-created during the 1980s and early 1990s, originally designed for King George IV by John Nash and laid out between about 1816 and 1825 during construction of the Pavilion.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The Royal Pavilion estate lies adjacent to the west side of the Steine, Brighton's main, central thoroughfare, and some 300 metres inland from the seafront. Its 3.3 hectares are bounded on the Steine by a composition-stone balustrade. This was designed by the Superintendent of Parks, Captain B H MacLaren, in 1921 and constructed several metres inside the line of the 18th century boundary to allow for the Steine to be widened. Several of the elm trees formerly growing inside the estate survive now as street trees in the Steine's pavement. The boundary balustrade replaced 19th century iron railings on top of a bank, which in turn replaced the 18th century estate wall and shrubbery. A section of the railings survive as the estate boundary at the south end of the Pavilion in Palace Place.

The estate boundary to the south consists of largely 20th century office buildings which replaced William IV's dormitories and Nash's kitchen court with its water tower, both demolished in the 19th century. The present estate boundary and its shrubbery, several metres inside that of the 19th century line, was probably established in the early 20th century.

To the west, the estate is bounded by a low wall and a wide belt of dense shrubbery which screens the gardens from New Road. Although the plant content has changed, the shrubbery is a surviving feature of Nash's layout. New Road was constructed and opened within the first decade of the 19th century, replacing the length of East Street which ran immediately past the main entrance front of the Pavilion and which the Prince had received permission to close.

On the north side, the gardens are enclosed by the Corn Exchange, the Dome and the Museum, which form part of the estate of the Royal Pavilion.

The eastern lawns are level and lie some 0.5 to 0.8 metres below the pavement level of the Steine. The ground rises across the site towards New Road in a series of gentle undulations. Even when newly constructed, the setting of the Pavilion and its estate was, as now, enclosed within the built-up centre of the town.

REFERENCES used by English Heritage

J Nash, Views of the Royal Pavilion (1826)

Victoria History of the County of Sussex VII, (1940), pp 249-251

D Stroud, Humphry Repton (1962), pp 105, 138, 145

Country Life, 175 (26 April 1964), pp 1152-1154

I Nairn and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Sussex (1965), pp 438-443C Musgrave, Life in Brighton (1970), pp 93-97, 123-143, 157-171

J Morley, The Making of the Royal Pavilion (1984), pp 31-40, 49-65, 67-76

M Batey, Regency Gardens (1985), pp 59-71

The Royal Pavilion, guidebook, (Brighton Borough Council 1995)

Garden History 24, no 1 (1996), pp 45-53

Maps

Anon, Brighton in 1779 (Brighton Reference Library)

[The following items are all held in the Royal Pavilion Archive.]

J Nash, Plan of the Royal Pavilion Estate, (from Views of the Royal Pavilion, 1826)

J Marchant, Brighton from an Actual Survey, 1808

Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and Grounds Belonging Thereto, 1849

Pike & Imvey, Brighton from the Latest Survey, 1867

Description written: July 1998

Edited: March 2000