Blog 13 – Brighton Beach Memories

Blog 13 – Brighton Beach Memories

You might think you’ve got Brighton sussed
A town built on weekends of lust
With hipsters and greens
Mods, rockers and queens
The odd bit of new agey crust

Yet bold ideas are key to this place:
Its royal palace once deemed a disgrace
But a prince with a vision
Ignored all derision
The result? An iconic ace

This city gets under your nails
Its freedom puts wind in your sails
Be creative, be a freak
Brighton loves what’s unique
By contrast elsewhere simply pales.

https://www.visitbrighton.com/blog/blog-post/2015/11/a-brighton-poem-b39

We have been introduced to several British comedians through various local television shows. The BBC likes to put teams of two comedians each on air to discuss trivia and current events. We are particularly fans of 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown, which is a hybridization of this format with an existing game show. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Out_of_10_Cats_Does_Countdown  It is through this program that we were introduced to comedian, storyteller, musician, and animal lover; Bill Bailey. https://billbailey.co.uk/  After seeing him on the show, we said: “… wonder if we could see him in person, he seems pretty interesting”. The answer was ‘yes’. Bill Bailey’s tour would be stopping in Brighton, a UK city that we had not been to before. Off we went.

Brighton is 46 miles from London, about two hours of walking and taking the over-ground train from our house. Easy enough. Brighton has a pebble beach bordering the English Channel. So different from our place and routines in London. Walking down the street from the train station you can see the water of the ocean, such a treat. The beach area and pier could almost remind you of Atlantic City, but the beach is longer and not all the shops sell t-shirts – and most are still in business. It could remind you of Santa Monica, but there is plenty of room for parking and wide walking and biking lanes. Could it remind you of Brighton Beach New York? I do not know, I have not been there – so, maybe. But it is here in the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton

We have said before that we are not ‘beach people’. Sitting in the sand, with a cold drink, and a good book is attractive to me for about 15 minutes – then it is time to do something – not being a strong swimmer, it needs to be something on land. But we are fans of water and waves, fresh air and a little sunshine. There was plenty to do in Brighton. We never even made it to the end of the beach area. We walked as far as the little huts in Hove and then back over to the Pier. After that we went to the ‘Lanes’ area of old streets, old shops, old pubs and an amazing number of jewelry stores. https://www.ringjewellery.co.uk/blog/the-lanes-brighton  We don’t need any jewelry, but the displays of both new and antique rings and necklaces brought out the magpie in me. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for Bill Bailey.

The last day we started by having breakfast and taking a short walk at the beach. Then we were off to see the Royal Pavilion which was built by King George IV before he became king. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Pavilion While much of the interior of the building is in disrepair, the restored rooms are spectacular. The outside is something of an Indian design, although the tour says that people from India would not recognize it as such, and the inside is mostly Chinese. The last royal to live there was Queen Victoria who found it too small for her family and thought it too far from the beach. She removed most decorations from the pavilion in anticipation of its destruction – but it was not leveled for new development and the city of Brighton bought it. While some items have gone on to Buckingham and Windsor palaces, some were returned to Brighton for the building’s restoration. We, of course, spent a lot of time there; they have a tea room on the second floor, so no need to leave for drinks or snacks.

A walk through the palace gardens, a quick look at the art museum’s gift shop and it was time to go back through the Lanes to our hotel and pick up the suitcases to head back to the train. As the poem I started this entry with suggests, Brighton is many things; the bachelor party and bridal shower groups all found the fun and drink they were looking for, the Fringe Festival was in full swing so other folks found what they were looking for; we were looking for some British humor, some water, some walking, some sea air – we found what we were looking for too.