Brighton

On Friday morning we left Bath and got the bus to Stonehenge. It has changed since the last time I went because the bus drops you off at the Museum, gift shop and cafe which is a 5 minute drive away from Stonehenge. Then you can either catch a shuttle bus to the attraction or you can walk. The group decided to walk which took about half an hour but it was across nice fields. We had plenty of time there just to enjoy and listen to the audio guide. It was interesting that the rocks were transported there by ship. I can't imagine the ship being able to support that weight.

Then we walked back aswell and looked in the gift shop. The bus to Brighton left at 2pm. After a three hour trip, I checked into the hotel then a group of us went for a walk to Brighton Pier and had fish and chips.

 

Yesterday morning on the schedule was The Royal Pavilion.  

There were a large number of school groups there, particularly French school kids. The security was pretty strict - no photos, no writing anything, and everyone with a backpack had to wear it on their front.

The Pavilion is interesting because the exterior has an Indian style, but the interior resembles Chinese culture. The inside was designed by John Nash, commissioned by George IV, who wanted the incorporation of Chinese motifs such as dragons, snakes, pictures of Emperors and the colours red and gold. Also the stair banisters have been created to mimic bamboo. 

The Banqueting Room was very impressive, particularly the 30 feet chandelier which weighs one ton. Also Queen Victoria stayed there a few times so there was a section with the bedroom she stayed in. At the end of the tour was a 'Jane Austen by the Sea' exhibition which contained letter correspondence between Jane and her sister Cassandra, a copy of some pages from her last unfinished novel  'Sanditon' and some Regency costumes. It is unknown whether she ever went to Brighton but the city is mentioned in her novels.

 

After having lunch in the gardens, the group met at 2:00 to head over to Brunswick Square to meet up with Curator Nick Tyson. He is currently managing the project of restoring one of the Regency townhouses into a heritage centre and museum which will focus on the architecture and social history of Brighton between the 1780s and 1840s.

 

 

He gave us a history of Brighton and the Square in particular, which was designed by young architect Charles Busby. Then he gave us a tour of the rooms inside which are in the process of being restored and transformed. This is the dining room:

 

They tried to replicate the colour as much as possible to the original colour it would have been.

Also we got taken down to the basement which were the servants' quarters.

We went back to the Regency Townhouse this morning to do a plastering workshop. First Nick talked about lime plaster (putty lime and hydrolic lime) and how to make it by mixing sand and other aggregates.

The putty lime is applied to the wall like a cement to bind everything together. He also talked about Plaster of Paris which was a gypsum based plaster. On the table he had various examples of ornamentation.

 

He went through the technique of creating casts of ornamentations using tools such as an eclipse tool (below) and moulds. 

 

Now they use silicon moulds but in those days they used gelatin moulds. Then we had a go at plastering a wall using a hawk and a trowel, under the guidance of one of the volunteers Paul. It was a bit tricky at first. This is the wall that we plastered onto.

 

 

The plaster is combined with horse hair (you can the hair on the mantelpiece). 

Some of the people got to create their own ornament out of plaster using a silicon mould but I didn't because there wasn't time.

Then we got lunch and got on the bus to leave Brighton.