Viva Brighton Issue #48 February 2017

BITS AND BOBS
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SECRETS OF THE ROYAL PAVILION ESTATE:
BACKSTAIRS AT THE ROYAL PAVILION
It’s 1821. After nine years as Prince Regent,
George IV is now King. John Nash’s Royal
Pavilion at Brighton is almost finished and the
King is en route with his gentlemen-in-waiting
and pages. The Pavilion is a hive of activity -
most of the King’s servants came some days ago
to join the handful of caretaker staff in preparing
for his arrival. The long service corridor is
abuzz with bustling housemaids, brisk pages and
gliding footmen.
A pleasure palace it might have been, but it was
also a workplace, where royal servants worked,
ate and slept. The world ‘below stairs’ has
been the focus of my research at the Pavilion.
Many of the rooms where servants worked no
longer exist, so I have to rely on inventories,
memoirs and architectural drawings, housed in
the National Archives at Kew or in the Royal
Archive at Windsor.
Tucked away in the archives of the Pavilion itself,
however, is a gem of a drawing in pencil and ink.
It is by the architectural draughtsman Augustus
Charles Pugin, father of the better-known
architect AWN Pugin. Pugin senior worked for
publishers of illustrated books such as Rudolph
Ackermann. His watercolours of the Pavilion
interiors were used as the basis for the glorious
aquatints in John Nash’s Views of the Royal
Pavilion, of 1826.
Pugin’s drawing shows the Pavilion estate
around 1821. To the northwest (bottom left) is
William Porden’s magnificent Royal Stables and
Riding House, now the Dome and Corn Exchange.
Nash’s Pavilion is just above the centre.
On the right (south) is the domain of the Lord
Steward’s Department. The royal household
had three main departments; this was the one in
charge of catering.
The magnified detail shows the large number
of rooms used for storing, preparing or serving
food. As well as the usual larders, sculleries and
kitchens, there were cooler confectionery rooms,
where ice-creams, jellies and spectacular desserts
were made, and pastry rooms for baking pies and
cakes. Items for dressing the table, linen, silver
and other plate were stored and cleaned close to
the table-deckers’ room, where they would be
carefully laid out before the meal.
Each suite of rooms was also a separate subdepartment
of the Lord Steward’s realm, with
its own staff, and rules recorded in Household
Ordinances. Hierarchies were strictly observed.
From scullions and kitchen boys, to Gentlemen
of the Wine Cellar and Master Cooks, everyone
had a place and knew their place. Lower servants
ate in the Servants’ Hall and drank beer, upper
servants sat with the Steward and had wine. Thus
the layout of the Pavilion reflected the structure
and hierarchy of the royal household itself.
With the help of Pugin’s plan we can recreate the
backstairs spaces, and reinstate the servants who
worked there to their rightful place at the heart of
the Royal Pavilion. Tracy Anderson, Art Historian
and Researcher at the Royal Pavilion.
Servant Stories, from the 25th during opening
hours (free with admission, members free).
Find out about the real-life stories of the Pavilion’s
Royal Household, brought to life through the objects
they used and information from our archives.
brightonmuseums.org.uk
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