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Ever wondered how long it takes to decorate the Royal Pavilion for Christmas?
Watch the process with the time-lapse video below in just over two minutes.
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We can assure you that it takes a bit longer in real time.
This is a legacy story from an earlier version of our website. It may contain some formatting issues and broken links.
These players from the Brighton & Hove Albion football team were photographed by the Brighton & Hove Herald newspaper on 11 December 1937. They are at Hove railway station, the nearest station to the Goldstone Ground, the club’s home at the time.
The Dubarry Perfumery Company building can be seen in the background. Dubarry’s would move away from Hove in the 1960s, and the company was eventually liquidated in 1982, but the building and its distinctive mosaic panels with Art Deco lettering can still be seen today.
You can learn more about the history of the Dubarry building at Judy Middleton’s Hove History in the Past.
You can download a hi-res version of the image for free from our Digital Media Bank.
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Back in the summer we hosted Portslade based artists Blast Theory in Brighton Museum.
With the support of the University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Lab, they spent three days testing an experimental new smartphone app named GIFT, to create virtual ‘gifts’ for friends based on our collections.
Blast Theory have recently released a video which shows how the app was used in Brighton Museum.
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Blast Theory have also released an album of photos from the project on Flickr, and you can learn more about the project on their website.
While GIFT is still a prototype, I hope to having further chats with Blast Theory in the New Year about how this might develop, and whether this could find a home in Brighton Museum.
Kevin Bacon, Digital Manager
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One of the highlights of our year has been opening the restored Royal Pavilion Saloon to the public.
The restoration work took many years, and the talents of skilled creators outside of our team. The video below by Humphries Weaving shows how the silks were created.
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Blogger and Visitor Services Officer Naomi Daw has also recently published a blog post about the ‘riot of colour’ that can be found in the decorative design of the room.
The best way to learn more is to visit, where you can not only see the Saloon in its glittering glory, but can also view a temporary exhibition about the restoration process.
You can even whet your appetite online with these interactive 360 views of the room.
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The Snowman recently dropped into the Royal Pavilion Estate to take a tour around our museums.
First he popped into Brighton Museum to see our exhibition that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Raymond Briggs’ classic picture book, He then came to see the Christmas decorations at the Royal Pavilion, and even found time to hug a small child on the way.
Next time the Snowman spots the Royal Pavilion while walking in the air, we hope he comes back to see us again.
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We’re very sad to say goodbye to Gilding Conservator Norman Stevens who is retiring from the Royal Pavilion after 39 years.
Norman at work on the Jaipur Gate
Norman has been a hugely important member of staff working on a range of conservation projects through the building and has been involved in some of the most significant events in recent Pavilion history.
We talked to Norman about his time working at the palace, his memories and what he plans to do next.
Norman joined the Royal Pavilion in 1979 when he was 29 years old. He’d trained through an apprenticeship as a decorative painter and had worked for a variety of companies before being employed to restore the Music Room after a disastrous arson attack in 1975 caused extensive damage.
“There was a team of us who worked on the room for ten years,” recalls Norman. “When it was discovered that I knew how to gild I ended up doing that and my three year contract was renewed and renewed.
“The room had just been finished when the hurricane of 1987 happened. We were devastated.”
The hurricane had dislodged a huge stone minaret from the Pavilion which crashed through the music room roof and made a huge crater on the floor causing huge damage.
For Norman, it meant another 18 months working on the room before it was finished. Since those days, Norman has worked on major restoration of the ceiling in the Banqueting Room and more recently the Saloon which has been restored to the splendour of the 1823 original design. He has also worked throughout the building conserving the delicate structure and ornamentation for future generations.
His skills have grown over the years as he worked on the building with its many design features. He is highly skilled in specialist conservation skills such as cleaning, restoring, plastering, fine carving as well as painting and gilding.
He says he has loved his time working in the Royal Pavilion.
“I have a passion for the building which has just kept me interested. I’ve always said I’ve been the luckiest person to have a job I love, reasonably paid and I’ve been left alone to get on with it. It’s a really good thing to be trained at something and be able to do it well. I’ve also been really lucky that I’ve been encouraged to extend and improve my skills over the years as part of my job.”
Norman’s last project to restore the Saloon to its 1823 design has lasted around eleven years. The work was finally unveiled in September this year and was admired by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they visited in October.
Part of Norman’s role involved hand-applying platinum motifs throughout the room for two years involved long days, often on a scaffold.
Applying the platinum leaves
“It wasn’t boring though they were long days,” said Norman. “I’m so focused on the work and seeing how well and quickly I could get it done. I worked with my colleague Ann Sowden, who was very quick at it. We would chat and I’d set myself the challenge to see if I could do it quicker than Ann. And there was always someone coming in to say hello or you’d need to take a call to break up the day.”
Norman, 68 plans to spend his retirement with his wife Alison and his daughter Sarah. He aims to take lots of long country walks, sort out the attic and do some sketching. Before he goes though he has one more task to do.
“I’m aiming to write a list of all the things I haven’t managed to do,” he said. “That’s my regret – there are so many things I wanted to do still. I’m going to leave it for the team to carry on the work.”
Caroline Sutton, Media & Press Officer
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The new Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery opens in January 2019.
As part of the research for the gallery, Grant Cox of ArtasMedia created several 2D digital stills reconstructions of the key archaeological sites in the Brighton area.
Whitehawk Causewayed Enclosure was built 5,600 years ago, 1,000 years before Stonehenge. It is the same size as eight football pitches.
Whitehawk Causewayed Enclosure
In 1856, workmen cut into a huge burial mound near Palmeira Square, Hove. Scientists dated the oak coffin found there, it is about 3,500 years old. They also found the Amber cup, the only known complete amber cup like it in the world.
Hove Barrow
You can view these and more when the gallery opens on 26 January 2019.
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Artists from our Museum Mentors have been studying Royal Pavilion & Museums’ unique collection of Victorian Christmas cards.
Museum Mentors is a collaborative and inclusive group of artists. Some are marginalised artists who benefit through support and mentoring. Access to the museums’ collections provides the group with rich opportunities for inspiration and creativity.
The 27 artists share a collective sense of creative passion bringing their own unique style, energy and ideas to the group. Each artist is inspired to express and represent visually, with the ultimate aim of connecting with an audience.
Members were particularly interested in the themes depicted. There seemed to be a genuine lack of the traditional imagery we all so easily associate with Christmas.
No Christmas trees, no baubles, no presents….most surprising of all….no Father Christmas. ‘That’s fine by me!’ said Simon.
Bird themes prove very popular
Group member Jon Hart explained that he enjoyed looking at the cards – he has completed three pieces of artwork inspired by his chosen cards,
“My favourite is the robins” he said.
Jon is a prolific painter. He worked on a community farm for around 15 years, involved in veg growing and wildlife conservation, his passion for nature most definitely reflected within his art.
Sharon shared ‘I really loved how all the cards are non traditional and very detailed, which made it more personal’.
By Sharon Elliot
Ann Ruane shared ‘A heart filled with warmth & joy is all I need at Christmas’.
The tinsel, glitz and the trappings does not suit us all.
Philip said
‘I chose a card, I like the sunset behind the clouds. I enjoy drawing landscapes and buildings. My favourite medium is coloured pencil, this year I introduced paint into my work. The first time in five years, I hadn’t used a brush for quite a long time.
I enjoy mixing both pencil and paint, I feel like I have discovered new skills, a new approach. I still feel like there’s a lot more to learn.’
Leslie wanted to make a book for her new nephew ‘Teddy’, choosing collage as her medium. ‘I like the crown, Sunny Crowns, Teddy will like that’.
The book includes an abundance of her signature flower motifs. Leslie has been creating repeat flower patterns since childhood, drawing and creating most definitely Leslie’s favourite activity.
Members were intrigued by the early print methods used for creating Christmas cards and other ephemera.
Printers constantly experimented with methods of reproducing illustrations, Three techniques were predominant: steel engraving, wood engraving, and lithography.
Steel engraving involves cutting a design into metal plate. The incised areas hold the ink which is transferred onto paper when it is run through a printing press.
Later in the Victorian period, wood engraving became the preferred medium for graphic reproductions. To make a wood engraving, a craftsman would copy the original drawing onto the face of the end grain of a block of boxwood. An engraver would cut into the block with a v-shaped tool, excising the areas that would not be printed. All ready for the inking process.
Chromolithography began to be employed to print color images in the 1850s. An image would be drawn with a grease pencil or greasy ink onto a flat, porous surface such a stone or a metal plate. The image would be affixed to the plate with an acid bath. The plate would be coated with an ink mixture which adhered only to the greasy portion of the surface, sitting atop the flat surface of the printing plate. Typically, individual colors in the illustration would need their own plates.
The group will be selling their designs as printed greeting cards, all at their usual Christmas Card stall during December.
Run as a not-for-profit the proceeds from the card sale will go towards the group resources.
The Christmas card sale will be held every Thursday and Friday during December 2018 in the Brighton Museum Foyer between 2-4pm.
We wish you all a very joyful Christmas time.
Debbie Bennett, Museum Mentors
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As part of our celebration of Christmas at the Royal Pavilion we are showcasing a new display of Victorian Christmas cards developed by Marcus Bagshaw. Following his post last week, Marcus gives readers a further insight into the development of the Christmas card in the Victorian period, inspired by those he has worked with from Royal Pavilion & Museums’ collections.
The Victorian Christmas card has proved to be a fascinating subject to work on, and has unearthed some real curiosities. But how did the Victorian Christmas Card originate?
It all began with an illustration by J.C. Horsley in 1843 depicting a group of people making merry, and was first put on sale in 1846, but the idea of buying and sending Christmas cards did not immediately catch on.
One of the reasons why the first Christmas card was not an immediate success was because it was lithographed and hand coloured thereby forcing the cost to a shilling which was very expensive for the time. Mass production and therefore lower costs where not possible until colour printing was developed by George Baxter and his followers in the 1850s and 1860s.
Commercial production of Christmas cards was eventually made feasible by the introduction of the Penny-Post in 1840. Before then it was the recipient who bore the cost, which not surprisingly was a deterrent to sending messages of good wishes at Christmas.
Although the reduction in the cost of sending mail, and the advances in colour printing were all important factors in the development of Christmas card production, the main reason behind it was that the producers of the already established Valentine cards saw the rich market potential in Christmas card manufacture.
Early designs which make up the display look distinctly unseasonal to us, but proved to be very popular with the Victorians.
Humour was often evident in Victorian Christmas cards but not always of a kind that we can appreciate today.
Religious themes were surprisingly uncommon. Designs using the cross normally associated with Easter show us how the Victorians mixed up their religious festivals.
Flowers were a very popular motif largely driven by the Victorians interest in the ‘language of flowers’ – the symbolic meanings of particular flowers, quite apart from their decorative value.
Other popular imagery with no Christmas associations whatsoever included seascapes, snowless landscapes, birds and animals, and bizarrely, smoking and writing utensils which seem totally out of place with our usual concept of Christmas imagery!
These distinctly unseasonal images would eventually be replaced by designs heavily influenced by the popularity of Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’ published in 1842; the illustration ‘Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle’ showing Queen Victoria and her family gathered round the Christmas tree at Windsor Castle which appeared in the Illustrated London News in December 1848; and Clement Clarke Moore’s immortal poem ‘The Night Before Christmas’ published in 1823, later picked up by political cartoonist Thomas Nast who drew on Moore’s poem to create the first likeness of Santa Claus which appeared in Harpers Weekly in 1881.
All of these were contributory factors that shaped the image of Christmas in the minds of Victorian’s and generations to come.
Royal Pavilion & Museums have many other examples of strange, early Christmas cards from Victorian era. You can view and download these from our Digital Media Bank.
Marcus Baghsaw, Visitor Services Officer
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With this year’s Remembrance Sunday marking 100 years since the signing of the armistice that ended WW1, there has been fresh attention on the Royal Pavilion’s use as an Indian military hospital.
Even though it’s been several years since I worked on the creation of the Indian hospital gallery, I’ve recently spent a lot of time responding to this interest.
Lord Asthon of Hyde in the Indian Military Hospital gallery. Courtesy DCMS
On 18 October, I gave a tour of the Pavilion to Lord Ashton of Hyde, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. This visit also took in the Chattri memorial and the Keep. He commented that, ‘it has been fascinating to learn more about the Royal Pavilion and Brighton during the war and its role in preserving the stories of Indian soldiers.’
Later that month, a wreath laying ceremony took place at the Pavilion’s Indian Gate, lead by the Chattri Memorial Group. This was one of several events held throughout the UK to mark the contribution made by Indian soldiers to the First World War, including a major Interfaith Remembrance event I attended at the Neasden Temple in London.
Khadi poppy and event programme
The temple is an extraordinarily beautiful building, but one quiet highlight for me was the discovery that the British Legion have commissioned a limited edition poppy for 2018 made from khadi. This is a type of hand-woven cotton fabric popularised by Mahatma Gandhi, who encouraged its production as a means of making India more self-sufficient during the struggle for independence.
There has also been renewed media interest in this story, including an interview with me by Meridian TV as part of a WW1 heritage event I spoke at in Brighton Dome.
For people like me, who have spent considerable time over the years promoting a story about the First World War, there is a question abouot what happens next. After four years of centenary events, will people now leave the subject alone? Has our understanding of the war changed with the anniversary?
For Royal Pavilion & Museums, this will continue to be part of our public offer. Our Remember War Stories display continues in Brighton Museum until 13 January 2019, and our portrait of Brighton born Victoria Cross winner Ernest Beal can be seen until the same date. Even once these works have been withdrawn, our Indian hospital gallery is a permanent display, and we offer a wide range of online resources, including downloadable images relating to WW1, stories on our blog, and a version of our WW1 themed audio tour that you can listen to on your mobile phone, wherever you are.
I am also aware that there has been particular interest in the story of the Pavilion’s use as a WW1 hospital ever since we opened the permanent gallery in 2010, and the Brighton and Hove Black History and Chattri Memorial groups had been promoting awareness of this episode in Brighton’s history many years before us.
What has really persuaded me that this story will not fade away is a small reminder of the emotional value this holds for some people. A couple of weeks ago I was fixing the digital interactive in the gallery and noticed that someone had left three plastic poppies in the gallery. Tied together with plastic covered wire, I don’t know whether the poppies were manufactured in this form or self-assembled as a sort of makeshift miniature wreath. Nor do I know who left them there.
All I can reasonably assume is that whoever left it there feels a clear emotional attachment to the story. For that reason alone, I believe we will be discussing and remembering this story for many years to come.
Kevin Bacon, Digital Manager
Update 28/11/18 — Since posting this story, I’ve discovered that the poppies were left by one of our front of house team. It’s interesting that while many people see that gallery as an exhibition space, others, such as my colleague, see it as more of a memorial site.