1S47. 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



381 



thoroughfare, from the New-road, Marylebone, through the handsome 

 cul de sac, Porllaiid-iilace to St. James's-park, is not only a work of great 

 sauilary welfare to that portion of the metropolis, and has opened a neces- 

 sary thoroughfare from Westminster to the wealthy district of Marylebone, 

 hut is one of the greatest architectural improvements that have taken place 

 in the metropolis between the reigns of Charles II. and George IV. The 

 great sewer alone that extends from Portland-place to Whitehall, and 

 purifies, by its various branches, a portion of the metropolis equal in 

 extent to many a city, would have done honour to the names of Agrippa 

 and Cato the Censor. 



The expense of purchasing the ground and properly, and interests upon 

 it, was enormous ; but the calculations of the architect, and the powerful 

 support he received from his royal patron, enabled him to accomplish, after 

 many and annoying obstructions, this vast undertaking. When the plan 

 for the street and the sewer was completed, the ground was oB'ered to 

 public bodies or individuals, under severe restrictions as to external design 

 and quality of materials, at heavier ground rents than had ever before been 

 paid for houses of retail business. Sites for public and private buildings 

 were taken, as the speculators or builders required ; and as fast as por- 

 tions of the main street were finished, and became connected with lateral 

 streets, they were opened to the public. 



Nash did not compel any of the lessees to employ him as their archi- 

 tect, but left every one to make their own choice, reserving to himself and 

 the commissioners for carrying the works into execution a riglit of reject- 

 ing such plans as did not accord with the intended style of the street. 

 From this cause arises the pleasing variety that distinguishes Regent-street 

 from the monotony of many of its more opulent northern neighbours. 

 Instead of single houses, it consists of many fine rows of houses, some of 

 which would not disgrace a palace or royal residence, and might be taken 

 for such did not the subdivisions of the shops or offices show their applica- 

 tion. Hany of these, as Waterloo-place, the Quadrant that leads from it 

 to Regent-street, the mansion that he built for himself on its eastern side 

 and some of the best connected series of houses, and the two Circusses, 

 that connect the great crossings of Piccadilly and Oxford street by a con- 

 tinuation of the main street to Langham-place, are from the designs of 

 Nash. Some of these, to hasten the completion of the work, he undertook 

 himself as a building speculator, which neither amended his fortune nor 

 increased his comforts; but Nash was a bold, enterprising man, and had a 

 spirit not easily daunted by difficulties. The other architects who princi- 

 pally contributed to this great undertaking were Soane, who will be men- 

 tioned hereafter, C. R. Cockerel), the younger Repton, Decimus Burton, the 

 two Smirkes, and the elder Abraham, who being happily in the land of the 

 living, their works do not come into this portion of our history, which will 

 close with the works of our respected predecessors. 



Nash's other great work, the Refent's-park, shows the talent of this 

 eminent artist to great advantage. The arrangement of the roads, canal, 

 lake, and plantations, which were all finished and in a growing state before 

 scarcely a house was erected, exhibits the power of Nash's mind in grasp- 

 ing a whole, and his taste as a landscape artist to great advantage. So 

 little did he care about the minor details of his art, that he either knew 

 not or contemned the differences between the schools of Greece and Rome; 

 for once, when engaged in a conference with him, relative to the galleries 

 of the Society of lirilish Artists, which he built from my designs, he 

 inquired why I spoke disparagingly in the " Annals of the Fine Arts," 

 of his architectural taste, — he was asked if he really preferred the mean 

 and meagre capitals that he had employed in the exterior of his own house 

 in Dover-street, and in the porticoes of Waterloo-place, over those of 

 the Ilissus? He replied, that an Ionic was an Ionic, and he did not 

 care which his draughtsmen used. But it is remarkable that he ever 

 after employed the latter, as may be seen in the before-mentioned two 

 Circusses, and some of the more northern buildings of this street. 



This beautiful and highly-deiorated park bears testimony to the liberal- 

 ity of Nash's great patron, who not only dedicated this portion of the 

 crown lands, previously known as Marylebonepark, to the public, but 

 presented the magnificent royal library of his father to the British Museum, 

 and avSplendid collection of casts from some of the finest antique statues 

 in Rome to the Royal Academy, for the use and benefit of the British 

 public. The Regent's-park is bounded on the south by the New-road, 

 from which it has five entrances, two between the east and west sides of 

 Park-square, opposite Park-crescent, Portland-place ; one between Ulster- 

 terrace and York terrace ; one opposite Marylebone church, called York- 

 gale ; and another opposite Baker-street, between Cornwall-terrace and 

 Clarence-terrace ; — on the west by a new road leading to Lisson-grove ; 



on the north by Primrose-hill ; and on the west by streets reaching to tba 

 Hampsteadroad. The Regent's-canal encircles nearly the northern half, 

 carried through a beautifully-planted valley. In the centre is a circular 

 road, called the Ring, within which are the beautiful gardens of the 

 London Botanical Society. 



The principal terrace s and buildings that surround or stand within the 

 park are chiefly from the designs of Nash himself, and two or three by 

 living architects ; but the limits of this work do not permit more than a 

 brief mention of some of the best, which are — York-gale and terrace ; 

 Sussex and Clarence terraces, named alter two of the prince regent'? 

 brothers ; Cornwall-terrace, named after the second tille of the heir- 

 apparent to the British throne ; Hanover-terrace, after the reigning family ; 

 the menagerie and gardens of the Zoological Society ; the royal hospital 

 of St. Katherine, removed from the site now occupied by the St. Kathe- 

 rine's docks; the Colosseum, a building more resembling the Pantheon of 

 Agrippa th an the gigantic structure whose name it assumes; the Diorama, 

 and the villas of the late Marquis of Hertford, Sir Herbert Taylor, Lady 

 Arbuthnot, and that of the late Mr. Burton, called the Holme, beautifully 

 overlooking the spacious lake, and a few others of less distinction. Of 

 Mr. Nash's other works, which are tolerably numerous, the limits fixed to 

 this concise history will not allow me even to name : many of them are 

 some extensive mansions and villas, town-halls, and similar buildings, 

 principally in Kent and Sussex, which are all marked by bis peculiar 

 taste, which was neitiier pure by nature nor refined by study. He was 

 rather a great building projector than a tasteful artist. His taste in land- 

 scape gardening, which combines the beauties of Kent and Brown, founded 

 upon the purest English models, was less artificial than those of Le Notre 

 and other masters of the French school, whose formalities are proverbial. 

 Nash lived to a Nestorian age, and, if unlike Wren in anything else, he 

 died, like him, neglected. 



A few works of some celebrity must be introduced rather parenthe- 

 tically, and more briefly than I could have wished. The Auction-mart at 

 the bottom of Bartholomew-lane, opposite the north-east coiner of the 

 Bank of England, occupies a situation too public for its slender pretensions 

 to either taste in design or skill in adaptation ; the staircase, which leads 

 from the hall to the numerous public auction-rooms in the upper stories, 

 is narrow, sleep, and dangerous to a fault— in that portion of a public 

 building which, above all others, ought to be capacious and easy of access. 

 It was erected from the designs of the late Mr. John Walters, who ob- 

 tained the honour of being selected from a numberof hiscotemporary archi- 

 tects, as the author of the best design submitted to a committee of auc- 

 tioneers. This architect also designed Stepney new church, situated at 

 the rear of the London-hospital, Mile-end. It is in the later Pointed 

 style, which appears more congenial to the architect's taste than those of 

 Greece and Rome, for it is altogether belter as a work of art than the 

 preceding. It has large transverse windows at each end, and smaller ones 

 of a similar character in the north and suulh sides. Being finished with 

 octagonal turrets and pinnacles at each end, without either tower or spire, 

 it bears a greater resemblance to a collegiate chapel than to a parish 

 church. The pulpit, galleries, altar-piece, roof, and pewings are of solid 

 oak, carved, moulded, and panelled ; resembling in durability of materials 

 the best works of our best church architects. It was erected in 1819, but 

 its amiable architect died young, and much lamented, before its comple- 

 tion. 



The ofiices of the Board of Control, Cannon-row, Westminster, built 

 originally for the Board of Ordnance, by the lale William Atkinson, Esq., 

 is an extensive building wilh two fronts, one facing the river Thames, and 

 the other next the before mentioned street. The Ionic portico of its prin- 

 cipal front is one of the best proportioned and most aptly applied in the 

 metropolis. It is four-columned, with a pediment after the best canon of 

 the order — that of the Ilissus. The entablature is continued on each side 

 of the portico, and terminates at the angle of the principal front. 



The late King William IV., although never aspiring to the title of a 

 connoisseur in art, yet showed a sound judgment in selecting for his chief 

 architect the late Jlr. JeflVey Wyatt, to enlarge and embellish the ancient 

 royal palace at Windsor, which had been patched by Wren, added to by 

 James Wyatt, and botched by Nash. Tlie additions made by VViHiam IV. 

 were extensive, judicious, and in good taste. He expressed his views to 

 his architect, and left him to complete them. He honoured him with 

 knighthood, and, to give him a distinction among the numerous family of 

 his name, he augmented his patronymic to Wyattville ; and Sir Jeffrey of 

 that name became distinguished by tlie favour of his sovereign, and by the 

 tasle be exhibited in his additions to M'indsor-castle. He completed the 



