Turner returns to Brighton

There have been lots of exciting goings on in the Cultural Quarter this month as a couple of weeks ago the Royal Pavilion launched their new exhibition Charlotte, the Forgotten Princess. This fascinating exhibit depicts the life and tragic death of the Prince Regent's daughter. When the princess died in childbirth at just 21, the public reaction was similar to news of Princess Diana's death and yet oddly now she is all but forgotten. As a fellow Charlotte the fact that really interested me was that Princess Charlotte would have become Queen instead of Victoria which would have given us the Charlottian era. Which I think as a certain ring to it!

After learning all about Princess Charlotte take a stroll across the gardens and visit the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery which also has an exciting new piece to view. A Turner watercolour entitled Brighthelmstone will go on display in the museum on Saturday 31st March and this is the first time the painting has been on public display in 100 years.

As you may have guessed by the name, the artwork depicts Brighton from the sea and includes the Royal Pavilion. The painting will be at the museum until 22nd April, then it will become the star attraction at a new exhibition at the Royal Pavilion next year.

So make sure you pop down to the cultural quarter soon to catch these exciting new additions.

Charlotte

February's Flickr winner's blog!

Greetings LoveBrighton blogger readers!

We have announced the winner of February’s Flickr competition, and she has written a fabulous blog for us! The theme for February was ‘I Love You, I LoveBrighton’, and our lucky winner received vouchers to spend at the romantic Riddle & Finns!

Here’s ladolcevita2012's winning photo and what she had to say about it:

"Hi guys,

Now that I have won the competition, this made me very happy for many reasons, not only for the cool prize which I look forward to receive :-) but also because I moved to Brighton recently from Italy (easily understandable by my nickname that I am Italian :-)) and it was love at first sight with this city.

It was the same love with which I looked at Brighton, when I took that picture, and I think that this made it special and the selected picture as a symbol of February as the lovers month.

In my shoot, there were not only the romantic characters of that Sunday afternoon and their hug; I was also there hugging the town, a stranger who was walking around with her eyes full of curiosity and enthusiasm, trying to steal with her camera, moments, smiles, streets and everything that makes this city such a special little gem. I feel at home in Brighton.

I don't need to say more… :-) xxxx"


So remember, if you’ve got great photos of Brighton & Hove, get sharing and start loving: www.flickr.com/groups/lovebrighton

‘till next time,

Siobhan :)

Step into the Garden of Eden

The joy of staying in a hotel with themed rooms is that you can try a different one each time, but when a hotel becomes well established, such as Sea Spray in Kemp Town, it must be difficult keeping the themes fresh. However the good news is that they have recently unveiled a brand new room - The Garden of Eden.


If you have a special anniversary or simply fancy a treat then this is the room to book, it comes complete with its own lounge and even more excitingly a walled garden with a hot tub for two! The owners have anticipated the fact that you won't want to leave the room as breakfast is served to you in the suite's private dining area. Very cosy!

To find out more about Sea Spray go to www.seaspraybrighton.co.uk or check out their video:



Charlotte

From visitor to resident

A year or so ago we launched our Greeter scheme, where enthusiastic residents meet visitors to the city & show them what they love about Brighton & Hove. Each Greet lasts approximately 2 hours and best of all its completely free. It's a great opportunity to get a personal view of the city, and even if you think the know the place you are bound to learn something new.



As with all of our services we ask visitors who do a greet if they have any feedback or suggestions on how we could improve the service. Yesterday we received some feedback that had us all smiling, I won't retype the whole glowing review but here is a little segment:

Chris was excellent and it was great to look around the city with someone who knows so much and in such a relaxed, friendly way. I sent a thank you to Chris, so hope he got it because we really did have a lovely afternoon and will definitely be coming back to Brighton and, as I mentioned, even live there in the future.

Greets can either be pre-booked through the website at www.visitbrighton.com/greeters or you can just turn up and join one of the instagreets which run most weekends and for the whole week from the 10-18th March in celebration of English Tourism Week. To find out if an Instagreet is taking place during your visit either contact us through the website or follow us on Twitter.

We can't guarantee that a Greet will make you want to move to Brighton but we think it's safe to say that you'll have fun, learn something new and discover a new side to the city.

Charlotte