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04 · Classical & Gothic Revivals

Regency

c. 1810–1840

British urban elegance: creamy painted stucco terraces, bow windows, and lacy iron balconies.

Look for

Stucco wall Bay window Wrought-iron balcony
Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England: an example of Regency architecture
Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England. Photo: Qmin, CC BY-SA 3.0
Park Crescent, London, England
Park Crescent London, England · Spudgun67, CC BY-SA 4.0
Cumberland Terrace, London, England
Cumberland Terrace London, England · Elisa.rolle, CC BY-SA 4.0
Carlton House Terrace, London, England
Carlton House Terrace London, England · Dhowes9, CC BY-SA 3.0
Athenaeum Club, London, England
Athenaeum Club London, England · Anthony O'Neil, CC BY-SA 2.0

what it is

Regency is the British style of the early 19th century, named for the years 1811-1820 when the future George IV ruled as Prince Regent; builders used it both before and after those years. Town houses are faced in stucco (smooth plaster over brick) painted white or cream, often scored with lines to look like stone blocks. Fronts have bow windows (curved bays), balconies and verandas of wrought or cast iron, and front doors framed by a pair of columns. Houses were built as terraces and crescents designed as one long facade, and as detached villas in the suburbs.

John Nash designed the stucco terraces around Regent's Park in London, including Park Crescent (begun 1806, finished 1819-1821). In Brighton, Nash rebuilt the Royal Pavilion for the Prince Regent (1815-1822) with onion domes and minarets based on the Mughal architecture of India. Cheltenham is often described as the most complete surviving Regency town and has John Forbes's Pittville Pump Room (1825-1830), with an Ionic colonnade and dome.

how to spot one

Stucco wall A wall coated with stucco, a plaster of cement or lime, sand and water, finished smooth or textured. It is common on Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Bay window A window projecting from the main wall, usually with three angled sides or a curved front. It adds light and floor space and is common on Italianate, Queen Anne and other Victorian houses. Wrought-iron balcony A balcony with a railing of wrought (hammered) or cast (molded) iron, often worked into scrolls and leaves. It is common in New Orleans's French Quarter and in Spanish Colonial towns.

Also look for

Sash windowSymmetrical facadePilasterBalustrade

history

Regency design grew out of late Georgian classicism. Building slowed during the Napoleonic Wars and increased after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The Prince Regent was Nash's main patron. In 1810 Nash proposed Regent Street to link Marylebone Park, now Regent's Park, with the prince's London residence at Carlton House, and Parliament approved the plan in the New Street Act of 1813. Working with the developer James Burton, Nash built the street between 1817 and 1825, with a colonnade of cast-iron columns along its curved section, the Quadrant.

Developers built the same stuccoed terraces and crescents in spa and seaside towns, including Brighton's Kemp Town and Brunswick estates, Leamington Spa, Cheltenham and Tunbridge Wells, and in Newcastle upon Tyne. After Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, Italianate and Gothic Revival designs gradually replaced the style. Most of Nash's buildings on Regent Street were demolished and rebuilt between 1895 and 1927, when their leases expired, but his street plan survives, along with All Souls Church and the Regent's Park terraces.

where to find it

The Regent's Park terraces in London, Brighton's crescents and Royal Pavilion, and Cheltenham.

architects

John Nash

easy to confuse with

Royal Crescent, an example of Georgian Georgian Disciplined brick symmetry: sash windows in even rows, a paneled door with a fan shaped window above, and quiet classical trim. Massachusetts State House, an example of Federal Federal Refined American Georgian: oval fanlights over doors, slender proportions, and delicate garland ornament. Panthéon, an example of Neoclassical Neoclassical Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls.