Viva Brighton Issue #68 October 2018

CURATOR’S CITY
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THE PALMY DAYS OF GEORGE IV:
PALM TREES IN THE ROYAL PAVILION
The splendid Saloon, a formal
state room at the centre of the
Royal Pavilion, has reopened
after a restoration that took
the best part of 16 years. It all
started with a palm: in 2002,
following some water damage,
one of the silver palm leaves
on the ceiling in the south
apse was discovered. This was
part of Robert Jones’ original
scheme from 1823. A decision
was made to secure the original
leaf and complete the full
design, from which the idea
of a complete restoration of
the room arose. If you look
carefully, you can make out the
original, slightly darker leaf.
The room boasts other palm
trees and leaves, including
particularly charming three-dimensional
ones, carved from
wood and covered in gold and
silver, on the long pilasters
flanking the doors and windows.
Two-headed snakes coil
around their trunks, looking
exotic and slightly disturbing.
Palms and their leaves are
often associated with the sun
god Apollo, as his mother was
supposed to have given birth
whilst clinging to a palm tree.
The sun is the dominant theme
in the Saloon, a room that both
captures and radiates light.
Alongside dragons and bells,
palm trees are the most conspicuous
motifs in the Pavilion.
In the galleries adjoining the
Saloon we see them as supporting
columns, highly stylised,
in white and gold. The most
curious ones, also created by
Jones, are in the Red Drawing
Room, again in the shape
of ornamented supporting
and engaged columns. Here
outsized bamboo trunks morph
into palm trees, undergoing a
subtle change from a muted
ochre colour to a realistic
green. In his account books
Jones charges for ‘painting in
imitation of Bamboo 14 trees
with their gradations of color
from the ground upwards to
their foliage, which is finished
A pilaster from the Saloon. Photo by Alexandra Loske
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