Only twelve of the houses, mostly in the two wings, were built by 1795, when a building depression resulting from the war with France brought construction to a stop. Work never resumed and eventually other buildings (including a factory known as "Crescent Works") were erected on the site, in a street called "The Crescent", following the original curved layout. The Crescent ran north of, and roughly parallel to, the present Cambridge Street, the concave side facing northwards from a hilltop, overlooking the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal (completed in August 1789), and the area now known as Ladywood, which was then countryside. A later canal wharf between The Crescent and the canal was named "Crescent Wharf", and the vista became filled with factories, workshops and warehouses.