When you live in a city something stops you from visiting its’ most famous tourist attractions – the amazing sights that can provide a place with its iconic landscape and economy. I’m not sure if its something to do with feeling that because its all so close you think you’ll get round to doing it one day, or maybe you feel because you live somewhere you don’t want to be a tourist there at the same time, or your local landmarks feel tired or gauche even? I lived in London for over 15 years but I have never been on the London Eye, nor have I visited Tate Modern, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey. I have however been up the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, been round the Collosseum and stood under the Parthenon, because when you go to another country for some reason it’s allowed! I’m not sure why this is the case but I really regret not visiting the capital’s more celebrated attractions while I was within taxi distance – I mean they must be famous for a reason right? Same as the Brighton Pavilion, surely the most well known building in the area and therefore not to be ignored just because I have moved up the road from it.

When I was younger The Royal Pavilion Brighton (to give it its’ proper name) seemed completely unreal. To a young girl it was astounding that such a beautiful building could exist and because I never asked anyone about it I sometimes I believed that it didn’t. If not a figment of my imagination then an exotic palace that surely no one could live in, certainly no one could be allowed in. I burned to go inside. Well it seems my younger thoughts weren’t too far from the truth, it was indeed an exotic palace that no one lived in anymore but as I found out this week you are most certainly allowed in! My early curiosity was about to satisfied.

Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed, the warm and still rooms told a beautiful tale of royal opulence, flamboyance and overindulgence. I won’t give you a history lesson here as you can find out everything you need to about it on the website but maybe in keeping with Brighton’s reputation it seemed it was kept as a bit of a party house for the odd naughty weekend by the sea! It won’t take you very long to go round and there is an audio tour if you want more information about the individual pieces as each room is stuffed full of amazing objects and furniture, a visit is worth it for the one-ton dragon chandelier alone! Even Baby was quietened and entranced by the magical glittering quality of the interiors. Plus, how often do you get to hang around Queen Victoria’s holiday bedroom?

The Pavilion is also surrounded by pretty gardens and tea rooms and just across the way is the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery which is also worth a visit, it’s also free which might explain why it was a lot busier! There is a fantastic new Egyptian exhibition and a wonderful pottery collection full of oddities. But most interesting of all is a series of Brighton History rooms that examine the city through the ages representing everything from saucy postcards, the fishing community, gay pride and wartime – including a moving diary written by a local boy in the run up to VE Day.

So, phew, I can tick off the Pavilion box and I if you have lived in Brighton for many years and never been then I urge you to do it too. I have a few more boxes to tick I think – so next time I have a day in London I am going to ride a big, red open-topped double-decker tour bus around before queuing outside Madame Tussauds and then going see the Changing of The Guard, I mean that’s ok now because I don’t live there anymore right?