Every 5th November, the town of Lewes celebrates bonfire night in a vibrant event that has become internationally famous. But what connects this event with a Brighton pub? The Black Lion is a popular pub in The Lanes, the old … Continued
The great local event of the week has been the inaugural proceedings connected with the opening of the Sussex and Brighton Museum at the Royal Pavilion. The origin of this Museum, the nature of the building and the character of … Continued
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery celebrates its 150th birthday on Saturday 5 November. To celebrate, we’ve designed a treasure hunt that you can play using our new Brighton Museums smartphone app. Hidden in the Brighton Museum pages of the app … Continued
Update 28 October 2020: this article was originally written in 2011 and is now out of date. The Image Store is now known as our Digital Media Bank and we have a more open licensing policy than that described below. … Continued
Mysterious and eerie? A roundup of our Halloween entries in case you’ve missed any of these spooktacular tales… How is the Ghost? A letter from the Standford Estate enquiring about the Preston Manor ghost Beware the Wolfman! Lycanthropy in mythology Transcript of … Continued
The famous magician and escapologist, Harry Houdini (real name Erik Weisz) was born on 24th March, 1874. He died 31st October, 1926. To mark the occasion of his death we have an article from the Brighton & Hove Society describing Houdini’s performances … Continued
During our twitter Q&A with Paula Wrightson she produced a copy of a letter from the Standford Estate to Henry Roberts, director of Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in 1935, who lived at Preston Manor. We liked it so much … Continued
The execution of Peter Stumpf is graphically recounted in the woodcut above. After wolf attacks on travellers outside of Bedburg, near Cologne, a swordsman claims to have fought a werewolf, cutting off its paw in the process (top left of … Continued
Yesterday afternoon, our Preston Manor ghost expert Paula Wrightson gave a question and answer session on twitter. In the run up to Halloween and the spooky events taking place at the Manor, we wanted her take on the ghostly tales … Continued
If you followed yesterday’s Twitter Q&A with Paula Wrightson, you will have read that Paula mentioned that some photographs have been taken in Preston Manor which appear to show odd, possibly ghostly, phenomena. This is probably the most interesting example. … Continued
… Lee Ismail, Curator of Natural Sciences This is the second blog on mammal taxidermy. This time describing the processes of preparing a mammal as a posed mount rather than as a flat skin. [slideshow] The mammal used was a rabbit … Continued
On Thursday 27 October we’ll be holding a Twitter Q&A with Paula Wrightson, Learning Officer, from 1-2pm. In the run up to Halloween, the subject of this discussion will be ghosts. As she described in an earlier blog post, Paula … Continued
The Brighton and Hove International Exhibition opened on Monday 20 October 1889 in Hove on a site bounded by Holland Road, Rochester Gardens, Cromwell Road and the eastern boundary of the Sussex Cricket Ground. Covering three acres, it was constructed … Continued
The bewitching month of Halloween is upon us, a time when people relish the strange and macabre and delight in tales of ghosts and witches. Such tales are often entwined with folklore passed down among generations along with the amulets … Continued
Whether you believe in them or not, ghost stories abound at this time of year, and one of Brighton’s most dramatic concerns the spectre of Henry Solomon, the town’s first chief of police. He was murdered in March 1844 and … Continued
This is an image of London blighted by alcohol. The viewer’s eye is immediately caught by the figure in the foreground: a drunken mother who blithely lets her baby tumble from her arms. At her feet sits a half-naked, near … Continued
Who can resist a sweeping drift of cool blue-violet flowers glowing in the low autumn sunlight? Sadly, the Prince Regent knew nothing of ‘prairie planting’ but he did know a beautiful plant when he saw it! This month in the … Continued
`You might just as well say,’ added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, `that “I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I breathe”!’ – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Hazel … Continued
We hope that those attending the 1911 Museums Association conference enjoyed their surroundings. Then, as now, very few public venues could boast of being part of a former royal estate. But these opulent buildings may have disguised the fact that … Continued
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The Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust is a self-funding charity. We face a huge funding deficit from revenue lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we now need the urgent support of individuals and businesses to help us continue our work.
