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C W Cobbett's Wey DFAS is grateful for the support offered by The Farnham Herald. Please click on their logo below to visit their website. |
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The London Architecture of John Nash Cobbett’s Wey Decorative and Fine Arts Society began the New Year with a fascinating lecture on “The London Architecture of John Nash”. As usual, the evening started with wine which gave members the opportunity to socialise. Chairman Maggie Johnston warmly welcomed everyone, including new members, before introducing the lecturer, Hilary Williams. Hilary is Art History Education Officer for the British Museum, so was able to give the Society a detailed and informative insight into the way in which John Nash transformed Regency London. His vision was to redesign and cover redbrick London with the stucco we see today, on a par with all the architecture of Napoleon. Unfortunately Nash had only a vague grasp of finance and soon was declared bankrupt. He moved to Wales, where he built Carnarvon Jail and was very successful. In 1806 he returned to London. Timing is everything and in 1811 various royal leases came back to the crown, including Regent’s Park, then known as Marylebone Park. The Prince Regent was a visionary, who wanted to transform London and in 1811 he asked three architects, including Nash, for ideas on developing the farmland called Marylebone Park and the surrounding areas. Nash's ambitious plans included a "garden city", with villas, terraced houses, crescents, a canal, and lakes. The prime focus of the development was Regent’s Street, to enable the Prince Regent to drive directly from the park to his home at Carlton House in the Mall. Nash said that it would divide the aristocracy on the west side from the “mean mechanics” on the east, meaning Soho. Carlton House was a magnificent house and when it was demolished fifty years later the portico was recycled and used as the front of the National Gallery. Nash also built No 2 Carlton House Terrace, where the Foreign Secretary is lucky enough to have his residence. In the mid eighteenth century London was called “the capital of the world”. Nash built Regent Street with a fabulous view north from Carlton House. He designed it to be a lively centre with shops and promenades above them. Alas, the colonnade began to be used as a public convenience and so was pulled down. This collection of buildings gives a wonderful impression of what London would have looked like in Nash’s time. He was so busy that he employed other architects to help transform the area. Regent Street cost £1,535,688 to develop. This was a public project and he was castigated for not handling public funds properly! There have always been rumours that John Nash’s wife was the mistress of the Prince Regent and certainly he enthusiastically threw his support (and more importantly, his money), behind Nash's scheme. For the next 23 years until his death, Nash laboured to create his vision. Nash transformed Buckingham House into a palace, for which Parliament agreed to a budget of £150,000, but the King pressed for £450,000 as a more realistic figure. Nash retained the main block but doubled its size by adding a new suite of rooms on the garden side facing west. Faced with mellow Bath stone, the external style reflected the French neo-classical influence favoured by George IV. The remodelled rooms are the State and semi-State Rooms, which remain virtually unchanged since Nash's time. The north and south wings of Buckingham House were demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale with a triumphal arch - the Marble Arch - as the centrepiece of an enlarged courtyard, to commemorate the British victories at Trafalgar and Waterloo. By 1829 the costs had escalated to nearly half a million pounds. Nash's extravagance cost him his job, and on the death of George IV in 1830, his younger brother William IV took on Edward Blore to finish the work. Some of Nash’s work includes Chester Terrace, with a gorgeous Athenaeum arch to Cumberland Terrace, the longest continuous terrace in the United Kingdom. Interestingly, the back of the buildings are of London stock brick and are not finished well. It is still possible to explore Nash’s London - just sit upstairs on the No 15 bus to Regent’s Park and gaze up at the wonderful architecture which is his enduring monument. CWDFAS is a member of NADFAS |
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CWDFAS is a member of NADFAS |
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