Park Crescent | |
---|---|
Type | Protected architecture |
Location | south of Regent's Park. |
Built | 1812-1821 |
Architect | John Nash |
Architectural style(s) | Regency architecture |
Owner | Crown Estate |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | 98, Portland Place W1 8-14, Park Crescent W1 1-6, Park Crescent W1 |
Designated | 5 February 1970 [1] |
Reference no. | 1225956 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | Numbers 18 to 26 (including the former Number 27) |
Designated | 10 September 1954 [2] |
Reference no. | 1225959 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | East Lodge in Corner of Crescent Gardens |
Designated | 5 February 1970 [3] |
Reference no. | 1225957 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | West Lodge in Corner of Crescent Gardens |
Designated | 5 February 1970 [4] |
Reference no. | 1225960 |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Railings around Crescent Gardens |
Designated | 5 February 1970 [5] |
Reference no. | 1225961 |
Park Crescent is at the north end of Portland Place and south of Marylebone Road in London. The crescent consists of elegant stuccoed terraced houses by the architect John Nash, which form a semicircle. The crescent is part of Nash's and wider town-planning visions of Roman-inspired imperial West End approaches to Regent's Park. It was originally conceived as a circus (circle) to be named Regent's Circus but instead Park Square was built to the north. The only buildings on the Regent's Park side of the square are small garden buildings, enabling higher floors of the Park Crescent buildings to have a longer, green northern view.
It was built under the patronage of the Prince Regent. As the freeholder, the Crown Estate co-organises repairs, maintains the gardens and has a minor, overarching interest, entitled to lease renewal premiums and any agreed ground rents. [6]
Both terraces and the communal garden have statutory protection in the highest, rarest categories. This is Grade I listed status: on the National Heritage List for England and on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens (as part of Regent's Park). [1] [2] [7]
At an early stage, Nash proposed the construction of a "circus" (meaning a circular development), entailing another crescent to the north, but Park Square was constructed instead. Work on Park Crescent started in 1806, but in the difficult economic conditions of the Napoleonic Wars, the builder Charles Mayor went bankrupt after six houses had been built. It was completed only in 1819 to 1821. [8] Famous residents in the nineteenth century included Lord Lister, who, prior to his elevation to the peerage was created a baronet, of Park Crescent in the Parish of St Marylebone in the County of Middlesex. [9]
The interiors of the buildings have been completely rebuilt. After the Second World War, Park Crescent was in poor condition (as were other Nash terraces near Regent's Park). The Gorell Report on the future of the Regent's Park terraces recommended that the facades of Park Crescent should be saved. [10] In an example of facadism, they were restored in the 1960s, when the leases came up for renewal, and they are protected as grade I listed buildings. However, behind the curve of the crescent, the Crown Estate built new structures, sometimes for office rather than residential use. As a result of the listed status of the facade, interior features which are visible from the street, such as light fittings, have to respect the Regency design of the facade. The complex has been fully rebuilt according to the design of Nash's original facade, replacing the 1960s restoration, which has been regarded as botched. [11]
The Crescent has housed institutions such as International Students House, London and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. [6] However, there has been a trend back to residential use. Many of the houses are now converted into expensive flats. [12]
The semicircle is divided into two halves by Portland Place. Between the arms of the crescent is a private garden, which is recognised as being of historic interest. (The Register of Parks and Gardens entry for Regent's Park was amended in November 2008 to include Park Crescent and Park Square). [13]
The garden is opened each year as part of the London Open Garden Squares Weekend, an initiative of the London Parks & Gardens Trust.
The east and west lodges of the garden facing the Marylebone Road are listed Grade II. [3] [4] The railings around the garden are also listed Grade II, as is the cattle trough opposite No. 14 Park Crescent. [5] [14]
Just inside the garden railings, facing the top of Portland Place, is a bronze statue of Queen Victoria's father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. [15] Sculpted by Sebastian Gahagan and installed in January 1824, the statue is seven feet two inches tall and represents the Duke in his Field Marshal's uniform, over which he wears his ducal dress and the regalia of the Order of the Garter. [16]
There are mews behind the crescent; Park Crescent Mews East and West.
John Nash was one of the foremost British architects of the Georgian and Regency eras, during which he was responsible for the design, in the neoclassical and picturesque styles, of many important areas of London. His designs were financed by the Prince Regent and by the era's most successful property developer, James Burton. Nash also collaborated extensively with Burton's son, Decimus Burton.
Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place in St James's at the southern end, through Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, to All Souls Church. From there Langham Place and Portland Place continue the route to Regent's Park.
Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station.
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies 410 acres (170 ha) of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden. In addition to its large central parkland and ornamental lake, it contains various structures and organizations both public and private, generally on its periphery, including Regent's University and London Zoo.
The Duke of York Column is a monument in London, England, to Prince Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III. The designer was Benjamin Dean Wyatt. It is sited where a purposefully wide endpoint of Regent Street, known as Waterloo Place and Gardens, meets The Mall, between the two terraces of Carlton House Terrace and their tree-lined squares. The three very wide flights of steps down to The Mall adjoining are known as the Duke of York Steps. The column was completed in December 1832, and the statue of the Duke of York, by Sir Richard Westmacott, was raised on 10 April 1834.
Cumberland Terrace is a neoclassical terrace on the eastern side of Regent's Park in the London Borough of Camden, completed in 1826. It is a Grade I listed building.
PHC was a co-educational independent day and boarding school for students aged 11 to 18 in Preston near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England.
Chester Terrace is one of the neo-classical terraces in Regent's Park, London. The terrace has the longest unbroken facade in Regent's Park, of about 280 metres (920 ft). It takes its name from one of the titles of George IV before he became king, Earl of Chester. It now lies within the London Borough of Camden.
There are 24 Grade I listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Amon Henry Wilds was an English architect. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in residential construction and development in early 19th-century Brighton, which until then had been a small but increasingly fashionable seaside resort on the East Sussex coast. In the 1820s, when Wilds, his father Amon Wilds and Charles Busby were at their most active, nearly 4,000 new houses were built, along with many hotels, churches and venues for socialising; most of these still survive, giving Brighton a distinctive Regency-era character, and many are listed buildings.
Park Square is a large garden square or private appendix to Regent's Park in London and is split from a further green, the long northern side of Park Crescent, by Marylebone Road and (single-entrance) Regent's Park tube station. It consists of two facing rows of large, very classically formed, stuccoed, terraced houses with decorative lower floor balconies and a colonnade of consecutive porticos by architect John Nash, and was built in 1823–24. Alike, shorter-length terraces flank its corners at right angles, equally Grade I listed buildings: Ulster Terrace, Ulster Place, St Andrew's Place and Albany Terrace.
Park Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The horseshoe-shaped, three-part terrace of 48 houses was designed and built by one of Brighton's most important architects, Amon Henry Wilds; by the time work started in 1849 he had 35 years' experience in the town. Wilds used the Italianate style rather than his more common Regency motifs. Three houses were replaced after the Second World War because of bomb damage, and another was the scene of one of Brighton's notorious "trunk murders" of the 1930s. The three parts of the terrace, which encircle a private garden formerly a pleasure ground and cricket pitch, have been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance.
Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London. Named after the 3rd Duke of Portland, the unusually wide street is home to the BBC's headquarters Broadcasting House, the Chinese and Polish embassies, the Royal Institute of British Architects and numerous residential mansion blocks.
York Terrace overlooks the south side of Regent's Park in Marylebone, City of Westminster, London, England. York Terrace West is a Grade I listed building. York Terrace East contains Grade II listed buildings. 1–18 York Terrace East is listed at Grade I.
Bulstrode Street is a street in Marylebone in the City of Westminster that runs from Welbeck Street in the east to Thayer Street in the west. It is crossed only by Marylebone Lane.
As of February 2001, there were 1,124 listed buildings with Grade II status in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The total at 2009 was similar. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
The statue of the Duke of Kent is a sculpture located in Park Crescent, just south of Regent's Park and at the northern end of Portland Place in Central London. It is on land owned by the Crown Estate in the City of Westminster and was designed by the Irish artist Sebastian Gahagan. It commemorates Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of George III and brother of George IV and William IV, as well as the father of the future Queen Victoria. Installed in January 1824, the statue stands 7 feet 2 inches high, depicting the Duke in his Field Marshal's uniform and wearing the regalia of the Order of the Garter.