REGENT’S PARK 
91 
Although the planting and levelling began in 1812, 
the buildings rose up slowly. Of the villas in the Park 
only two were built in 1820, the rent demanded for the 
ground being extremely high. But two or three years 
later the whole thing was more or less as it is now, so far 
as the general outline and buildings are concerned. The 
cost by May 1826 was ^1,533,582, and the estimated 
probable revenue ^36,330. The Prince Regent took 
the greatest interest in the proceedings, and Nash’s design 
included a site for a palace for him, though even con¬ 
temporary writers condemned the suggestion, as the 
situation was damp— u the soil was clay, . . . and the view 
bad.” It was only natural that the Park should hence¬ 
forth become the Regent’s, and not Marylebone Park, 
and the “ new street” to connect it with Carlton House 
be called Regent Street. 
It is difficult to judge Regent’s Park with an un¬ 
prejudiced eye. The exaggerated praise it called forth 
when just completed is only equalled by the unmeasured 
censure of the next generation. Of the houses which sur¬ 
round it the following are two descriptions. The first, in 
1855, calls them “ highly-embellished terraces of houses, 
in which the Doric and Ionic, the Corinthian, and even 
the Tuscan orders have been employed with ornate effect, 
aided by architectural sculpture.” Fifty years later the 
same houses are summed up with very different epithets: 
“ Most of the ugly terraces which surround it exhibit 
all the worst follies of the Grecian architectural mania 
which disgraced the beginning of this century ” ! It 
may not be a style which commends itself to modern 
taste, but one thing is certain, that having embarked on 
classical architecture it was best to stick to it and com¬ 
plete the whole. It is as much a bit of history, and as 
