Regent Street

Regent-St.—is a splendid new street, named as the preceding [Regent Square], which extends from Pall-mall to Langham-place, Cavendish-square. It has many fine rows of houses, from the designs of Messrs. Nash, Soane, Repton, Abraham, Decimus Burton, and other eminent architects, besides Waterloo-place, a handsome square opposite the site of Carlton Palace, the Quadrant, a double row of shops under two quadrangular colonnades, the County, and other Fire Offices, Carlton Chambers, the Athenæum, and other Club Houses, two circusses, one in Piccadilly, and one in Oxford-street, &c., which may be found under their respective heads.

Regent Street, perhaps the most effective street in the metropolis, was designed and carried out by John Nash, architect (d. 1835), under an Act of Parliament obtained in 1813, 53 George III., c. 120. It was nearly all completed in 1820. The portion up to Piccadilly was finished in 1817. The street was intended as a communication from Carlton House to the Regent's Park, and commenced at St. Alban's Street, facing Carlton House, thence through St. James's Market across Piccadilly to Castle Street, where it formed a quadrant, to intersect with Swallow Street, and then, taking the line of Swallow Street (the site of which is about the centre of Regent Street), it crossed Oxford Street to Foley House, where it intersected with Portland Place. Foley House and grounds (the site of the Langham Hotel) were bought by Mr. Nash for £70,000, as part of the plan, but after again selling the ground, he changed the route and formed the present turn of Langham Place, instead of the straight line into Portland Place as was at first intended. All Souls Church was built by Nash as a termination to the view up Regent Street from Oxford Street. For this purpose the tower and spire are advanced forward to the centre line of the street, and they appear almost isolated from the church. Polytechnic Institution, erected 1838, from the designs of Mr. J. Thomson, architect, and enlarged in 1848 [which see]. Argyll Rooms, at the north corner of Argyll and Regent Streets, erected by Nash in 1816 for Joseph Welch. The large room was the best in London for sound, and was used for the Philharmonic and all other concerts of note until burnt down in 1834, when the present houses, Nos. 246, 248, 250, 252, and 254 Regent Street, were erected on the site. Argyll Place, formed at the time of making Regent Street, by taking down a house at the south-west end of Argyll Street, leading to Great Marlborough Street. County Fire Office [which see], erected on high ground, and, when viewed from Pall Mall, apparently terminating the lower part of Regent Street. The Quadrant was designed by Mr. Nash (on ground leased by him from the Commissioners), and originally consisted of two rows of shops, with bold projecting colonnades, removed in 1848. [See Quadrant.] Raleigh Club (No. 16), on the east side of the lower part of the street. Junior Constitutional Club, No. 14 (part of the same façade), late the Gallery of Illustration, was built by Mr. Nash for his own residence. He lived here until he retired from his profession. The gallery was decorated with copies of Raphael's paintings, to make which (with permission of the Pope) he had artists employed for four years at Rome. The Junior United Service Club, north corner of Charles Street and east side of Regent Street, was built by Sir Robert Smirke for the United Service Club, who sold it to the Junior United Service Club when they erected their present house in Pall Mall. The present elaborate edifice was built from the designs of Messrs. Nelson and Innes, architects, in 1857. Hanover Chapel, on the north-west side of Regent Street, was built (1823–1825) from the designs of C.R. Cockerell, R.A., and St. Philip's Chapel (1819–1820), on the south-west side, from the designs of G.S. Repton. St. James's Hall (No. 69) was erected in 1857 from the designs of Owen Jones.

In his designs for Regent Street Mr. Nash adopted the idea, previously practised with success by the brothers Adam, of uniting several dwellings into a single façade, so as to preserve a degree of continuity essential to architectural importance. The perishable nature of the brick and composition of which the houses in Regent Street are built gave rise to the following epigram:—

Augustus at Rome was for building renown'd,
For of marble he left what of brick he had found;
But is not our Nash, too, a very great master?—
He finds us all brick and he leaves us all plaster.¹

The last two lines are otherwise read:—

But is not our George, too, a very great master?
He finds London brick, and he leaves it all plaster.

Nash, it need hardly be remarked, was George IV.'s favourite architect. Considerable alterations have been made of late years in the appearance of the street by the rebuilding of several houses and the heightening of others.

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¹ Quarterly Review for June 1826.