Visiting Brighton's Pavilion
Introducing The Restored Music Room At The Palace Of King George IV
If you are travelling to Brighton England, visit the Chinese inspired Music Room in the Royal Pavilion which is completely restored after fire and storm.
King George IV and music
King George IV was passionate about Italian opera and Handel’s works. The King’s band played for guests in the Music Room and the King performed airs on the pianoforte. Rossini, the Italian composer, performed for King George IV at Brighton in 1823.
The Music Room at Brighton
The Music Room’s architecture contrasted the Baroque and Italian music with Chinese inspired red and gold painted walls and decorated chandeliers. The chief decorator, Frederick Crace - with a French artist called Lambelet – adapted 'The South Gate of the City of Ting-Hai' from William Alexander’s Views of China (1805) for the wall canvases. Musicians and the King’s guests were illuminated by nine lotus-shaped chandeliers hanging in the Music Room.
The dragon was another motif in the Chinese decorative scheme with carved and silvered dragons supporting the window draperies and painted dragons on the wall canvases. The ceiling draws inspiration (and height with an optical illusion) from the Brighton beach emblem of cockle-shells.
Queen Victoria’s sale of Royal Pavilion to Brighton
In The Craces, Royal Decorators 1768-1899 - edited by Megan Aldrich in 1990 - it is argued that between the decision of Queen Victoria to sell the palace and the town of Brighton purchasing the Royal Pavilion in 1850 that “the Music Room stripped of its beautiful Chinese paintings and the whole place dismantled and disfigured, as though its doom had been fixed” (p.167).
In 1864, original chandeliers and canvases for the Music Room were returned by Queen Victoria. As the ceiling had remained intact, the Music Room received Regency restoration.
Arson attack on Royal Pavilion Brighton in 1975
Fire severely damaged the Music Room on 2 November 1975 with one of the wall canvases destroyed. Craftsmanship over the next decade restored the Music Room. Textiles including the window draperies and the Axminster carpet and some of the fittings removed by Queen Victoria were reproduced.
The Great Storm damages the Music Room at Brighton Royal Pavilion
Stormy weather on the evening of 15/16 October 1987 brought another challenge to the integrity of the Music Room when a stone ball on top of one of the minarets became loose and fell through the Music Room ceiling and into the new hand knotted carpet. Today, the Music Room is restored fully to the Crane scheme.
Restored Music Room at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion
The ground floor Music Room has shown great resilience to threats from fire and storm. As one feature of the restoration and conservation projects at The Royal Pavilion, Brighton – the Music Room’s tenacity demands your viewing on a visit to the seaside palace at Brighton, England.
