Having been created Prince Regent on 5th February 1811, George Prince of Wales has decided this summer to end his relationship with the devout Catholic, Maria Fitzherbert. He plans to turn his Marine Pavilion (which Maria will never visit again for the rest of the Prince's life) into a Palace fit for a future king.
In 1815, the Prince Regent employed John Nash to turn Marine Pavilion into the Palace of his dreams. Trade routes to India were safe after Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated by the Duke of Wellington's forces at the Battle of Waterloo. (Napoleon abdicated soon after this defeat and was exiled to the island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, where he died in 1821). The Prince Regent could now demonstrate British supremacy by building a Palace with an exterior heavily influenced by Indian architecture. Many people have commented on the similarities between Brighton's Royal Pavilion and the Taj Mahal near Agra in the north east of India. The exterior of the Royal Pavilion paints a romantic image with its domes, cubes, minarets and spires.
The Prince Regent employed Frederick Crace and Robert Jones to give the extravagant interior of his Palace a "Chinese look". Generous use is made of bamboo in the Pavilion furniture and the decoration of the walls.
It was natural that as well as inviting his friends to rich feasts in the banqueting room, the Prince Regent also wanted to show his Palace to members of his family. The Prince's mother made three visits between 1814 and 1817.
On 15th January 1817, the Prince held a banquet, the menu of which lists 112 dishes, including 36 entrées. This menu is available as a postcard or tea-towel from the Royal Pavilion Souvenir Shop in Pavilion Buildings. It is written completely in French, which shows that although the British had scored a recent victory on the battle-field, they still regarded French cuisine to be superior to English cooking.
1817 also saw the death of Princess Charlotte (aged 21), the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick's only daughter, after the birth of her stillborn child, which meant that when the Prince Regent became King George IV, his heir would be his brother - William IV. Queen Victoria, who followed William, could expect a long reign!
By 1818, the main structure of the Royal Pavilion, as we recognise it today, was finished. There were even new exterior gas lights, which were to be replaced by electric ones in 1883 by the inventor Magnus Volk, designer of the world's first electric railway, which runs from just east of Palace Pier to Brighton Marina (and originally to the coastal village of Rottingdean).
