How far does the Royal Pavilion reflect fashionable tastes of architecture, design, attitudes and way of life in the late 18th and early 19th century?

  The Royal Pavilion, standing in the centre of Brighton, was built over about 35 years by the Prince Regent of 1811, who would later become King George V1. It was influenced by a number of things, to an extent it reflected fashionable tastes in architecture, design, attitudes and way of life, but in some ways not.

   The very reason it was built in Brighton, does reflect way of life. In 1750, Dr Russel published a book: “Concerning the use of sea water in diseases of the glands”. He recommended immersion in the sea, particularly Brighthelmstone sea, which had no rivers but was near cliffs and had accommodation. This became popular with the rich aristocracy for a while. The Prince would visit The Duke of Cumberland originally. This would be following fashion, but the Prince Regent soon began setting his own fashion, from following fashion, as he had a disease of the glands and visited Brighton, bringing it back to popularity. The Prince is  the prime example of how the rich lived, they were used to traveling – they had a lot of money and time so often went traveling on what was known as the grand tour, to visit places of cultural interest perhaps what they had studied such as Egypt and Greece. So they would visit Brighton too, and so lots of entertainment was built for them for example racecourses, promenades, libraries. The Prince came to enjoy himself as much as for health reasons, as was the lifestyle of the rich, and the pavilion reflects this.

   The Duke of Cumberland was the first place the Prince stayed but then he rented a little farmhouse on the stein, at the place of the future Royal Pavilion. The farmhouse, though only a site, did reflect fashion of the time. Before the farmhouse was what is known as the period of Enlightenment. This was a very scientific and mathematical age, everything had to be tested and measured. It was very much influenced by the Greek ideas of balance, harmony and science, studied by the rich. This in turn lead on to Romanticism, a reaction to the enlightenment, It was about lack of rules, imagination, nature, dreams, exotic places and captured the imagination of many people including Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XIII, who went to stay in a little farm cottage to escape court formality for a simple life close to nature, as the Prince did. As well as this, artists such as Turner and Constable were inspired to paint moods, emotions, nature. This was the fashion which would affect the Royal Pavilion, both ideas would.

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   The farmhouse, in 1787, was later developed into the Marine Pavilion, a classical structure with columns and a domed rotunda. This was probably inspired by the Greeks and Romans, ultimately by Enlightenment, but still reflected the idea of being close to nature, as it opened up looking over the sea. It was neo-classical, displaying ionic columns and tall French windows, a replica of Ancient Greek temples and buildings. This had originally been popular but there was renewed interest after things like the discovery of Pompeii. The Marine Pavilion was following this fashion, the Classical design was very much ...

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