Visit to Royal Pavilion, Brighton

Display model of Brighton Pavilion, next to the tea room

03.01.20 A few days before April and I are due to fly back to Singapore, my brother and sister-in-law phone to say they need to visit Brighton that week on a work errand. Would we like to accompany them? They know of our previous blog entry on Brighton Pavilion last year (see below) and are as curious as us to see how far April's sketch corresponds to waking physical reality. We jump at the chance, and so early that Friday morning we drive through the thin New Year's traffic to a car park quite close to the seafront and walk for ten minutes or so through the picturesque streets. The Pavilion itself is tucked amongst other pubs and restaurants, but has an impressive garden to the rear where we eventually get to sit and take some souvenir pictures. 

It takes us about an hour to walk round the interior and absorb some of the antiquated extravagance. Maybe the opulence reflected for its owner that interior sense of joy known to us all at times. We stop for tea and cake at the end of our tour, and luckily there is a model of the building on display in the next room. An external photo of the Pavilion is not possible due to the tightly-knit surrounding structures, so I take a picture of this instead. When we get home, we agree that her sketch is in good correspondence. Later, I am struck by how April's drawing has a foreground, whereas now the area is fully developed. The adjacent version of the building seems to conflate aspects from both past (the grassy foreground) and present (April says she saw relatively modern cars driving around), and in so doing is somehow able to stand outside of time.