Introduction to Regency Architecture

By Paul Reilly

With this book, author Paul Reilly had two ends in view. The first is to introduce the ever fewer examples of Regency buildings while they still exist. The second is to explain the historical role of Regency architecture, to show in what way it was a true descendant of the 18th century and in what way it broke new ground.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Braunfell Books
• Release date: Nov 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781839749421

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© Braunfell Books 2022, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

PREFACE 5

THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 6

THE PLATES 7

REGENCY ARCHITECTURE 10

SOME REGENCY ARCHITECTS 31

GEORGE DANCE (1741–1825) 32

HENRY HOLLAND (1746–1806) 33

JAMES WYATT (1746-1813) 34

JOHN NASH (1752-1835) 35

SIR JOHN SOANE (1753–1837) 36

SAMUEL PEPYS COCKERELL (1754–1827) 37

SIR JEFFREY WYATVILLE (1766–1840) 38

JOSEPH MICHAEL GANDY (1771–1843) 39

JOHN BUONAROTTI PAPWORTH (1775–1847) 40

WILLIAM WILKINS (1778–1839) 42

SIR ROBERT SMIRKE (1781–1867) 43

CHARLES R. COCKERELL (1788–1863) 44

GEORGE BASEVI (1794–1845) 45

DECIMUS BURTON (1800–1881) 46

AN INTRODUCTION INTO REGENCY ARCHITECTURE

BY

PAUL REILLY

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PREFACE

THIS SHORT ESSAY does not pretend to be more than an elementary survey of Regency architecture. Its purpose is to draw attention, by way of generalization rather than close examination, to the high lights of a brief but beautiful period of English building. I hope that the lay reader will learn enough from the text and the plates to value this fast-vanishing beauty and to protest energetically when he sees an example of Regency architecture threatened with destruction.

I must, of course, acknowledge my debt to Mr. John Summerson for his Georgian London (Pleiades Books) and his life of John Nash, Architect to King George IV (George Allen and Unwin Ltd), both of which I re-read before starting this present essay.

I should like to thank the Director and the Staff of the National Buildings Record for their courteous help in finding so many of the plates and also the Librarian of the Royal Institute of British Architects for lending for block-making copies of L. N. Cottingham’s Ornamental Metal Worker’s Directory, John Tallis’s London Street Views and John Nash’s The Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

Finally, I should like to acknowledge my lasting gratitude to my father, without whose impelling enthusiasms I might never have enjoyed the pleasures of architectural appreciation.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

Designs from THE ORNAMENTAL METAL WORKER’S DIRECTORY

by L. N. (Nottingham, 1824

From THE ROYAL PAVILION, BRIGHTON, by John Nash, 1824

Ramsgate and Broadstairs

Downing College, Cambridge

Regent Street from LONDON STREET VIEWS by John Tallis, 1838–40

THE PLATES

Chester Terrace, Regent’s Park

Cumberland Terrace, Regent’s Park

Carlton House Terrace, London

Park Crescent, Regent’s Park

Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park

Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London

Athenaeum Club, London

Piccadilly Circus, London

Victoria Square, London

Bedford Hotel, Brighton

Brunswick Terrace, Hove

Brunswick Square, Hove

Crown Street, Brighton

New Steyne, Brighton

Crown House, St. Leonards

Claremont Lodge, Cheltenham

Villas in Pittville, Cheltenham

Imperial Square, Cheltenham

Dix’s Field, Exeter

Lansdown Parade, Cheltenham

Rodney Road, Cheltenham

Munster Square, London

Downshire Hill, Hampstead

Villas in Montpellier, Cheltenham

Bath Road, Cheltenham

Alexander Place, South Kensington

Russell Square, Brighton

Edwardes Square, Kensington;

Cumberland Place, Southampton;

Dean Street, Brighton;

Munster Square, London

Adelaide Crescent, Hove

Triangle formed by Adelaide Street,

William IV Street and the Strand, London

St George’s Hospital, London

Cannon Place, Brighton

The Royal Pavilion, Brighton 66

Tea-shop in Brighton

Lewes Crescent, Kemp Town, Brighton

Pelham Crescent, South Kensington

Wolseley Terrace, Cheltenham

The Promenade, Cheltenham

Cumberland Terrace and Munster Square, London

Rodney House and Wolseley Terrace, Cheltenham