Brighton

The skyline of the Royal Pavilion

We went to Brighton to see the excellent "From Sickert to Gertler" exhibition at the Brighton Museum and to do this walk published in Walk magazine (Winter 2006). The walk begins at the station and you soon follow the first of several "twittens" (narrow lanes) to descend down to the 14th century church of St Nicholas.



Shortly after this you arrive at one of Brighton's most famous buildings - St Michael and All Angels. This wonderful Victorian church has a surprising story. The original church, to the right in the photo, was built in 1861-62 by GF Bodley and features stained glass by Morris and Burne-Jones.


However, it was soon found to be too small and William Burges designed the much larger church you see today, which embodies the original church as the south aisle. It was not completed until 1893, after his death.

This is the pair of Morris windows in the Lady Chapel. The one on the right features the Three Marys. We were delighted when the parish priest came over to talk to us and point out other interesting features of this lovely church: the patterned ceiling painted by Webb and the amusing miserichords in the choir stalls.


From here we walked through the fine late Georgian and early Victorian houses of the Montpellier district - and were put very much in mind of Bristol, which shares a district of the same name.

We saw the Western Pavilion, a sort of echo of the Brighton Pavilion, built by the developer Amon Wilds in 1832.



And then followed Montpellier Road, with these fantastic villas with their Ionic pilasters, down to the sea.


We now walked along the sea front, past the bandstand, with a nice little cafe underneath and the ruined east Pier in the background.



Gradually it became even more traditionally sea-sidey as we passed the Pier. Then we headed inland to soon reach the Pavilion. The park in front of it was quite crowded, as it was inside.



This fantastic pleasure dome, built by George IV when he was Prince Regent, contains in the Banqueting Hall and Theatre two of the most ornately decorated rooms you are ever likely to see. We laughed out loud.

The museum is nearby and the exhibition of paintings from the collection of Bobby and Natalie Burton at Boxted House was excellent. Bobby Burton's father, Robert Burton was a very accomplished painter, although hitherto unknown to us. The rooms of the exhibition corresponded to rooms in the house, with walls of more or less the same colour - a nice touch.

Almost opposite is the charming old court building.



And just up the road is the splendid Jubilee Library, with a nicely animated square in front of it.



Distance: 3 or 4 miles.

Conditions: hot, sunny..

Rating: four stars.