Royal Pavilion Garden plans

Possible new entrance

Plans to restore and safeguard the historic Royal Pavilion Garden are back on track. An updated bid of £214,500 for National Heritage Lottery funding was sent in earlier this week. This bid is for funding to prepare detailed plans and an application for a full grant of £3.3 million.

After a previous application was turned down earlier this year the council was encouraged to re-apply by the Heritage Lottery assessors who noted the heritage importance of the project, the need to improve the garden and praised the community involvement which backed the bid.

The plans include:

• Improving access to the gardens for people with disabilities and a installing a new 'Changing Places' toilet
• New lighting and a secure boundary to address vandalism and anti-social behaviour
• Conserving and restoring listed lamp posts and balustrade, flowerbeds, paths, lawns and improving recycling, lighting and seating
• Overhauling the entrances, installing new gates and signs
• Creating a new programme of events, activities and volunteering opportunities
• Improving interpretation with maps and information boards, audio tours and an archival research project.

The National Heritage Lottery Fund is expected to make a decision in November. If agreed, the council will aim to submit the full bid in March 2021 with work starting in January 2022.

Improving and protecting the Royal Pavilion Garden is a key part of the Royal Pavilion Estate project where the council and Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival are working together to reunify the estate and conserve its heritage.

Phase one of the project is underway. The Royal Pavilion Garden is part of phase two.

New bid for Pavilion Gardens conservation.

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BHCC are preparing to resubmit an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to develop plans for the improvement and conservation of the Royal Pavilion Garden and get it removed from the Heritage at Risk Register.

Last year, following a consultation launched which attracted more than 1,300 responses, a bid was submitted for £194,000 to develop conservation plans ready for a funding bid for £3.3 million. Unfortunately, the bid was unsuccessful.

However, the Heritage Lottery Fund encouraged the council to re-submit, highlighting work that should be undertaken in the meantime.  This includes:

• Carrying out an access audit
• Developing designs of what a new boundary and improved entrances might look like
• Providing evidence of how multi agency working will tackle anti-social behaviour
• Providing more details of an activity programme, interpretation strategy and volunteer roles and skills.

The estimated cost of this work is £25,000 which would be met from the Royal Pavilion and Museums core budgets.

Christmas at the Royal Pavilion

A royal collection for the Royal Pavilion.

While Buckingham Palace is being renovated over a period of 3 years a major collection of original Royal Pavilion decorative art and furniture will be returned on loan to the Royal Pavilion by the Royal Collection Trust. This will include porcelain pagodas originally placed in the Music Room, a Kylin Clock, an extraordinary extravaganza partly made in France and partly in England from Chinese and Japanese elements and the French designed Rock Clock from the Music Room. All the items were originally acquired by the Prince Regent, who later became King George IV, for his exotic Brighton residence.

George IV especially chose Chinese ceramics mounted in France and England with gilt-bronze mounts, Chinese export porcelain and furniture, and English and European furniture in exotic styles.

The contents of the Pavilion were moved to London by Queen Victoria in 1847, on the sale of the residence. The Royal Pavilion was sold to the Town of Brighton.

Corn Exchange development update

New glass roof sheds light on redevelopment project 

A new glass roof is now in place between the west wall of the Corn Exchange and the Studio Theatre. This will create a first floor circulation space and Gallery Bar with views into the Corn Exchange through reopened west windows.

More information and photos.

Pavilion Gardens peccadillo 2

The artificial grass just inside the Indian Gate was laid in Oct 2016 as an 'experiment'. It seems to have failed. It is losing its colour and beginning to look like worn carpet; even more unsuitable for a Grade II listed garden and one of the first things a visitor sees inside the main gate,

It should be replaced by a low, tough shrubbery surrounded by low railings. There is no shortage of other grassed areas in the gardens that are accessible to visitors.

See also: Pavilion Gardens peccadillo.

Day of Dance.

Morris groups from all around the south in Pavilion Gardens.

Brighton Morris

Rockhopper Morris from the Cotswolds

Berkshire Bedlam

Hunter's Moon from Eastbourne

Ditchling Morris 

Ditchling Morris

Long Man Morris, Eastbourne

Blackheath Morris

Cuckoo's Nest, Brighton

Knots of May from Lewes

Knots of May from Lewes

Pavilion Gardens public consultation.

BHCC is working on a plan to improve and enhance the popular garden and has launched a public consultation to find out what residents and visitors think.

Up until the 29 June the public will have the opportunity to comment on all aspects of the garden from planting, seating and walkways to attractions and events. Views are also being sought on how to tackle antisocial behaviour and whether a boundary should be created so that the garden can be secured at night.

The council is committed that the garden will remain free and accessible to all as one of the most important green spaces in the city. This survey will support its bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of Phase Two of the Royal Pavilion Estate project.

The results will also feed into the final draft of a conservation and management plan. Historic England recommended the council draw up the plan for the Grade II listed garden.

The Royal Pavilion Garden is one of the few remaining Regency gardens in the country and is considered one of the nation’s most significant outside spaces.

To take part online visit:
www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/royalpaviliongarden

For a paper copy call 03000 290902

More photos:-

Volunteering with the Royal Pavilion

 

The Royal Pavilion is currently looking for a volunteer to assist with the digitisation of the conservation archives held in the workshops in the Royal Pavilion. The work will involve cataloguing, documentation, digitisation, scanning, transcribing and other related collections work.

For further information & application form: Volunteer Opportunity: Royal Pavilion Archive Digitisation

Deadline for applications: Thursday 1st March 2018

Interviews to be held week of 5th March 2018

For queries call: 01273 292833

The Dome - new venues for 2019

The £21M redevelopment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre currently underway will provide space to hire for between 50 to 1700 people with new, state-of-the-art facilities. The work is also  restoring long-lost heritage features.

For a large scale conference,  company meeting or grand banquet 

contact brightondome.org/newvenues2019 to find out more.

A 'Royal Pavilion Estate' Trust.

A report to the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee this Thursday (25 January) recommends the decisions necessary to establish the city’s long-anticipated trust, bringing together the entire historic Royal Pavilion Estate. Previously the council had proposed a two stage process, creating an interim trust and then merging this with Brighton Dome & Festival. The new proposal recommends moving to a single charity in one stage to enable the benefits of joint working and the generation of additional income to support the service, to be felt sooner.

Under the proposal, the RPM would be led by the existing management team, supported by a new board consisting of the shadow board and the current trustees of Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Ltd. This would maintain the focus on providing professional standards of museum management in the service while allowing for innovation in working across the Royal Pavilion Estate and the city’s other museum sites. The trust would also build on the successful Royal Pavilion Estate project which is bringing together the city’s cultural heart by reconnecting the historic Grade 1 and Grade 2 listed buildings and landscape to create a reunified estate.

The new trust, yet to be named, will have a 25- year- contract which will secure the future of the RPM for the long term. Able to take full advantage of charitable giving, tax and rate relief benefits and access a range of fundraising and commercial development opportunities. Other trusts across the country have been very successful in increasing attendances and raising their own income.

Brighton & Hove is a leading tourist destination with the Royal Pavilion, museums, Brighton Dome venues and Brighton Festival among the most popular visitor attractions. More than 11 million people visited the city in 2016, and the Royal Pavilion Estate’s economic impact is around £62 million a year.

Update 29th Jan 2018

Plans to move the Royal Pavilion & Museums to a single new cultural Trust with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival have been  agreed by the Policy, Resources & Growth Committee. The move will take place on 1st July 2018.

An Introduction to the Royal Pavilion

Be transported back in time with an expert guide. Hear stories of King George IV’s impressive banquets, balls and concerts and learn more about the architecture and decorative interiors of the Royal Pavilion.

This event is running on selected dates between 20 January 2018 and 24 March 2018. It is next occurring on 20 January 2018 at 2:30 pm.

Upcoming Dates:
20 January 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
27 January 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
3 February 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
10 February 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
17 February 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
24 February 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
3 March 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
10 March 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
17 March 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm
24 March 2018 at 2:30 pm until 3:30 pm

Admission
£4.90 (plus Royal Pavilion admission).
You can buy tickets by telephoning the Events Booking line on 03000 290902 (Mon-Fri), in person at any of our venues, or you can buy tickets online. You can also email visitor.services@brighton-hove.gov.uk if you have any queries.

The Quaker Burial site. - 1

A Christmas Carol

Christmas 2107 at the Royal Pavilion

Experience a magical Christmas at the Royal Pavilion. The fires are lit, the candles are flickering, the spectacular Banqueting Room table is laid with after dinner treats and the building is transformed with festive decorations and glittering trees. Pavilion-inspired decorations including butterflies, birds and flowers bring sparkle, glamour and Christmas cheer for all the family. 

Drop-in activities and spotting  George the playful Cat on a family trail:

• 21- 30 November 2017 at 10:00 am until 4:30 pm.
• 1 - 5 December 2017 at 10:00 am until 4:30 pm

Activities at the weekends 2 & 3, 9 &10 & 16– 24 December

• Storytelling in the Music Room between 12-4pm (on the hour, lasting 25 minutes). Free with admission
• Make your own tree decorations, 12-4pm. Free with admission, drop-in.

(On 24 December activities will end at 2pm as the Palace closes at 2.30pm.)

Royal Pavilion Gardens

It comes as no surprise that the grade II listed Royal Pavilion Gardens have been put on the Heritage at Risk Register. It has been evident for several years that the Gardens are losing the battle with the sheer weight of people using them, and the seemingly growing antisocial night-time behaviour. 

Being on the register means that the specific issues facing the gardens can be openly identified and provides the opportunity for working with Historic England and others to find solutions, such as through a Conservation Management Plan. It also means that there are greater opportunities for access to funding for restoration and improvement schemes, particularly from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Large areas of grass alongside paths never recover

Low attractive fencing used effectively in some place

Some problems are easy to identify and the only alternative to ever- widening paths would seem to be the installation of fencing. This already seems to be effective in some parts of the Gardens. The fencing need not be purposed to prevent access to grassed areas but simply to discourage casual straying from the paths.

Litter

Overflowing bins

To cope with night-time anti-social behaviour the only option would seem to be making the perimeter secure and preventing entrance at night between times to be decided. Luckily the gardens are fairly well enclosed already and the amount of boundary fencing needed would not be prohibitive. Clearing the gardens at closing time would require an ongoing expenditure.

The council has appointed Blackboys-based landscape specialists Chris Blandford Associates to prepare a Conservation Plan and 10 year Management Plan for the garden. But there is no need to wait for their report before doing what is obvious.

Pavilion ice-rink for another 6 years

Ice skating on the Royal Pavilion east lawn has been given planning permission for the next six winters.  This year the rink organisers’ website says the attraction will be open from November 4 to January 14.

As well as the main rink, roughly 40m by 20m, permission also allows a beginners’ rink, restaurant, cafe, toilets, skate hire and associated plant and lighting.

This will be the eighth successive year the rink has been staged outside the Grade 1-listed Royal Pavilion.

Opening hours for skating allowed are 10am to 10.15pm. Up to 315 people are allowed on the rink at any one time. The café can be open from 10am to half past midnight.

Information about the rink’s operation, tickets and more is available at its website.

Royal Pavilion & Museums - a bumper summer

Between April and September the Royal Pavilion received more than 220,000 visits, up by 6% and on target to reach an estimated 325,000 this year.

The Royal Pavilion is a good general barometer of the local tourist economy and this year has seen a notable increase in the proportion of foreign visitors - 43% compared with 37% in 2016/17.

Visits to Brighton Museum also increased by 13,000, despite entry charges for non-residents. Between April and September there were 61,000 visits to the museum – a massive 27% increase on last year.

The increases are partly due to the weak pound attracting overseas visitors and some popular exhibitions, such as Jane Austen By The Sea at the Royal Pavilion  and Constable at Brighton Museum.

Preston Manor visits were 2,600 above target, with 11,768 through the doors of Brighton’s Edwardian mansion between April and September. Two-thirds of visits to Preston Manor are school groups and almost all the autumn sessions are fully booked.

Corn Exchange project - time lapse video.

Royal Pavilion & Museums - £2.8M successful bid

The Royal Pavilion & Museums (RPM) has successfully bid for nearly £2.8 million over four years (£689,507a year) from Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.

This offer is conditional on an agreed business case for invigorating the Booth, Hove Museum  and Preston Manor and bringing the collections across the city closer to communities, through digital and schools activities to exhibitions, events and outreach.

At the Booth Museum a new ‘evolution gallery’ will feature a specially commissioned replica of an ‘Iguanodon Mantellisaurus’ (a type of dinosaur) and the story of its local discoverer Gideon Mantell. From birds to butterflies, flora to fossils, the Booth’s Designated collection will evolve into an interactive science centre, to share the story of what it is to be human in the natural world.

The Booth will also build on its popular events programme to attract new audiences; it has hosted award-winning life drawing classes, promenade theatre, sell-out pub quizzes, acoustic gigs and taxidermy demonstrations that have shown the venue and collections in a new light.

Hove Museum’s profile will be developed as a ‘museum of making,’ encouraging and inspiring a wide audience to experience the Craft and Film & Media collections. Programming, exhibitions and activities will explore the processes and the people behind objects in the museum with a ‘Maker in Residence’ from the University of Brighton sharing the collections with visitors.

Collaboration with local film organisations such as the Brighton Youth Film Festival, Cine-City and Film Archive South East will explore new ways of using the spaces and collections at Hove Museum.

At Preston Manor, the emphasis will be on providing greater access to parts of this historic building, and revitalising the kitchen gardens. Improvements to the visitor experience will build a better understanding of the house, collections and those who lived and worked there.

On the Royal Pavilion Estate a series of exhibitions and displays will mark key milestones over the next four years such as the 200th anniversary of the Royal Pavilion’s creator, George IV’s, ascension to the throne, and the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings.

The restoration of the Royal Pavilion’s Saloon will be completed in 2018 and the funding will enable an accompanying display to showcase the ‘behind the scenes’ work of  a range of specialists involved, including carpet makers, silk weavers, upholsterers, decorative artists and historians.

The Arts Council has previously recognised RPM’s sector expertise in the use of digital programming and technology to engage audiences. During  2018-22 a digital publishing programme will promote exhibitions, events, and the unexpected stories behind the collections. RPM aims to reach a million sessions per year across their various websites by the end of the four year period