Sunday, August 27, 2006
Brighton. Beach, Pier. Marina. Birthday Part 2.
Brighton is brash and noisy and full of fun.
It has been so since The Prince Regent discovered the town and built himself a palace.
And once the railway had reached the town he was followed by hordes of visitors from London.
It became the playground of the working man.
The Royal Pavilion stands in a sort of oriental splendour close to the sea front. It is a wondrous sight and we have promised ourselves that one day we would go inside. But, as with many attractions on one's own doorstep, we tend to keep putting it off.
And so it was on my birthday; there had been a thought to go to the Palace - but the sunshine and the sea proved to be greater attractions.
I see that the pier is now called Brighton Pier.
I think we shall always call it the Palace Pier, the name it had to distinguish it from the West Pier.
The Palace Pier was always the more popular of the two and boasted many attractions ever since Victorian times.
The West Pier is no more - other than a crumpled pile of twisted metal stuck out to sea. It had fallen into disrepair and money was slowly being raised for renovation.
It was damaged first by storm and then finally by fire.
Now I am older I can see the attraction of the seaside deck chair.
The pebbly beach is not so comfortable to sit on and is a long way down!
Sandy beaches are nice and good to play on, but I love the pebbles for their varied shapes and colours.
We bought fish and chips from one of the beach side shops and sat almost on the beach, watching the world go by.
After my birthday lunch, we walked on the pier.
This is the view looking West.
The beach is crowded.
In the distance can be seen some of the supports for the lost West Pier.
The Brighton Corporation has invested money in the pier of late. It is cleaner and seems less run down than I remember.
There was a history trail round the pier, with small boards showing pictures and explaining facts from the pier's past.
We also noticed that deck chairs could be used for free on the pier.
It was also free to stick your head in a number of funny Brighton Pier pictures for a photograph.
In Victorian and Edwardian times and into the 1920s, people paid a photographer to produce an amusing holiday snap to take home for friends to see.
Nowadays we ask strangers to take a snap using our digital cameras to be shown to friends on a web site.
Our ancestors just could never have conceived of these modern times.
I wish I had thought to sweep my dark hair out of sight for this mermaid snapshot.
This is the view looking East towards the Marina and the white chalk cliffs beyond.
The Marina is a fairly new facility. It is a lively modern (and expensive place) to live.
There are shops and bars and cafes - and above all there are boats.
There are boats to buy of many types, from little yachts to huge luxury cruisers - the most expensive we saw was nearly half a million pounds.
People have their boats berthed here and spend their days just mucking around in boats.
But, as you see from the picture above, it is not just leisure boats that are tied up in the Marina; there are fishing boats too, keeping the old Brighton fishing traditions alive.
After our stroll round the Marina in the sunshine, we stopped at one of the many waterside cafes for some refreshment.
The atmosphere felt very south of France, so it was apt that we were at the Cafe Rouge.
It has been so since The Prince Regent discovered the town and built himself a palace.
And once the railway had reached the town he was followed by hordes of visitors from London.
It became the playground of the working man.
The Royal Pavilion stands in a sort of oriental splendour close to the sea front. It is a wondrous sight and we have promised ourselves that one day we would go inside. But, as with many attractions on one's own doorstep, we tend to keep putting it off.
And so it was on my birthday; there had been a thought to go to the Palace - but the sunshine and the sea proved to be greater attractions.
I see that the pier is now called Brighton Pier.
I think we shall always call it the Palace Pier, the name it had to distinguish it from the West Pier.
The Palace Pier was always the more popular of the two and boasted many attractions ever since Victorian times.
The West Pier is no more - other than a crumpled pile of twisted metal stuck out to sea. It had fallen into disrepair and money was slowly being raised for renovation.
It was damaged first by storm and then finally by fire.
Now I am older I can see the attraction of the seaside deck chair.
The pebbly beach is not so comfortable to sit on and is a long way down!
Sandy beaches are nice and good to play on, but I love the pebbles for their varied shapes and colours.
We bought fish and chips from one of the beach side shops and sat almost on the beach, watching the world go by.
After my birthday lunch, we walked on the pier.
This is the view looking West.
The beach is crowded.
In the distance can be seen some of the supports for the lost West Pier.
The Brighton Corporation has invested money in the pier of late. It is cleaner and seems less run down than I remember.
There was a history trail round the pier, with small boards showing pictures and explaining facts from the pier's past.
We also noticed that deck chairs could be used for free on the pier.
It was also free to stick your head in a number of funny Brighton Pier pictures for a photograph.
In Victorian and Edwardian times and into the 1920s, people paid a photographer to produce an amusing holiday snap to take home for friends to see.
Nowadays we ask strangers to take a snap using our digital cameras to be shown to friends on a web site.
Our ancestors just could never have conceived of these modern times.
I wish I had thought to sweep my dark hair out of sight for this mermaid snapshot.
This is the view looking East towards the Marina and the white chalk cliffs beyond.
The Marina is a fairly new facility. It is a lively modern (and expensive place) to live.
There are shops and bars and cafes - and above all there are boats.
There are boats to buy of many types, from little yachts to huge luxury cruisers - the most expensive we saw was nearly half a million pounds.
People have their boats berthed here and spend their days just mucking around in boats.
But, as you see from the picture above, it is not just leisure boats that are tied up in the Marina; there are fishing boats too, keeping the old Brighton fishing traditions alive.
After our stroll round the Marina in the sunshine, we stopped at one of the many waterside cafes for some refreshment.
The atmosphere felt very south of France, so it was apt that we were at the Cafe Rouge.
