The Royal Pavilion, Brighton: A Regency Palace of Colour and Sensation

by Alexandra Loske

Overview

The first in-depth study since the 1980s of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, a building that is often considered the most impressive architectural expression of the Romantic imagination and that has become a hallmark of Regency style
 
Created between 1787 and 1823 by George IV, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton is perhaps the most daring and enchanting example of a building that expresses the European fascination with what in the early nineteenth century was considered the “Orient,” in particular China and India. The building, with its Indian-inspired exterior, was the work of the renowned architect John Nash, who with the contributions of several other gifted and inventive architects, artists, and designers, created a building that draws you in, takes you on a journey, and plays with your senses.
 
Featuring new photography, this lavishly illustrated book will provide a fresh look at the sumptuous Chinoiserie interiors of the Royal Pavilion and their enduring appeal. Drawing on recent research, conservation projects, and the unprecedented loan exhibition A Prince’s Treasure: From Buckingham Palace to the Royal Pavilion (2019–22), this book celebrates the colours and sensual beauty of these interiors while situating the Royal Pavilion in the context of the time of its creation and development under royal ownership, from its beginning in the wake of the French Revolution, through its transformation and extension during and just after the Napoleonic Wars, to its fate and legacy in the early Victorian era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300266665
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	06/24/2025
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 10.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr Alexandra Loske is a British-German art historian, writer, and curator with a particular interest in late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-century European art and architecture, specialising in the history of colour. She has been working at the University of Sussex since 1999, where she also studied art history and completed an AHRC-funded DPhil in 2014. The subject of her doctoral thesis was the use of colour and the application of colour theory in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. Since 2014 Alexandra has been a curator at the Royal Pavilion. Since 2022 she has been the curator of the Royal Pavilion and Historic Properties at Brighton & Hove Museums.

Editorial Reviews

A welcome addition to the literature on what is perhaps the most marvellous of all British buildings.”—John Goodall, Country Life

“Reveals the glittering splendour of Brighton’s Royal Pavilion.”—Phil Hewitt, Hastings & St Leonards Observer

“With vivid imagery and refined illustrations, you’ll be captivated by the extraordinary details of a building like no other.”—Lorna Fairey, Homes & Antiques

“If the text is well-informed, then the excellent illustrations add to the overall grandeur of this book, highlighting many incredible exterior and interior details. . . Impressive throughout.”—David Brown, Best of British

“Alexandra Loske’s beautifully written, magisterial work on the Royal Pavilion at Brighton is itself a pleasure palace: deeply learned but also enchanting to read; not just on the flights of dragons, the eye-popping colour and the mutations of design, but more illuminatingly on contemporary taste in the Regency; how the fantasy by the sea was received and how this most delirious of projects was the creation of a British culture, far from insular but drunk on what is imagined to be oriental passions.”—Sir Simon Schama

From the Publisher