Royal Pavilion Admission Ticket Brighton

The Royal Pavilion: Brighton's seaside palace

The Royal Pavilion began as a modest seaside villa in the 1780s and was transformed between 1815 and 1823 into the fantasy palace you see today, created for a royal heir who loved Brighton's sea air and its lively social season. Its architects covered the building with onion domes, slender minarets and carved stone screens inspired by the palaces of India, a style never seen before on the English coast.

In 1850, the town of Brighton bought the palace, and it has belonged to the city ever since. Over two centuries it has served as a royal residence, a civic building and a military hospital. Is the Royal Pavilion worth visiting? It is Brighton's most famous landmark and one of the most unusual palaces in Britain, and even a short visit leaves a strong impression.

Inside the palace: the staterooms and the great kitchen

The interiors are as surprising as the outside. In the banqueting room, a chandelier weighing about a tonne hangs from the claws of a silvered dragon beneath a ceiling painted as a palm tree. The music room glows with red and gold walls, painted landscapes and lotus-shaped lamps, and it has been carefully restored after damage by fire and storm in the late twentieth century. The recently restored saloon shows the palace's original colours and silk hangings.

The great kitchen is one of the highlights for many visitors: a lofty, light room with cast-iron columns topped with copper palm leaves and long rows of copper pans, where dishes for lavish banquets were prepared. Upstairs, historic bedrooms show a quieter side of palace life, with simpler furnishings and views over the gardens.

A First World War hospital and the Pavilion gardens

Between 1914 and 1916, the Royal Pavilion became a military hospital for wounded Indian soldiers who had fought on the Western Front. Kitchens were organised so that each faith could cook its own food, and separate spaces were set aside for prayer. A permanent exhibition inside tells this moving story through photographs and objects, and it is an essential part of the visit.

Around the palace, the Pavilion gardens have been restored to the informal planting of the early nineteenth century, with winding paths, shrubs and flower beds. They are free to wander and a lovely place to sit after your visit. Next door stand the city museum and the former stables, now a concert hall with a great dome, so the whole area forms Brighton's historic cultural quarter.

Planning your visit: opening hours and how to get there

Royal Pavilion opening hours are usually from mid-morning to late afternoon, with the last entry about 45 minutes before closing. Allow one and a half to two hours. There is no passenger lift, so visitors who cannot use the stairs can watch a video of the upper floor in the audio-visual room. Some manual wheelchairs are available on request on arrival.

How to get to the Royal Pavilion? It stands in the heart of Brighton, about 10 minutes on foot from Brighton railway station and a few minutes from the seafront and the Palace Pier. Combine your visit with the narrow lanes of the old town and the colourful streets of the North Laine, or a flight on the Brighton i360 for a bird's-eye view of the domes.