
Cobbett’s Wey DFAS
January
2010
Lecture
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