page_title: John Nash (architect)
section_title: Architect to the Prince Regent
hierarchical_section_title: John Nash (architect) / Biography / Architect to the Prince Regent
caption_attribution_description: English: Bust of British architect John Nash (1752-1835) at one of his creations, the All Souls Church in London. Svenska: Byst av den brittiske arkitekten John Nash, 1752–1835, vid en av hans byggnader, All Souls Church i London.
context_page_description: John Nash was one of the foremost British architects of the Regency and Georgian eras, during which he was responsible for the design, in the neoclassical and picturesque styles, of many important areas of London. His designs were financed by the Prince Regent, and by the era's most successful property developer, James Burton, with whose son Decimus Burton he collaborated extensively.
  Nash's best-known solo designs are the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, Marble Arch, and Buckingham Palace; his best known collaboration with James Burton is Regent Street; and his best-known collaborations with Decimus Burton are Regent's Park and its terraces and Carlton House Terrace. The majority of his buildings, including those to the design of which the Burtons did not contribute, were built by the company of James Burton.
context_section_description: Nash was a dedicated Whig and was a friend of Charles James Fox through whom Nash probably came to the attention of the Prince Regent (later King George IV). In 1806 Nash was appointed architect to the Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases. From 1810 Nash would take very few private commissions and for the rest of his career he would largely work for the Prince. His employment by the Prince Regent enabled Nash to embark upon a number of grand architectural projects.
  His first major commissions in (1809–1826) from the Prince were Regent Street and the development of an area then known as Marylebone Park. With the Regent's backing, Nash created a master plan for the area, put into effect from 1818 onwards, which stretched from St James's northwards and included Regent Street, Regent's Park (1809–1832) and its neighbouring streets, terraces and crescents of elegant town houses and villas. Nash did not design all the buildings himself. In some instances, these were left in the hands of other architects such as James Pennethorne and the young Decimus Burton.
  Nash went on to re-landscape St. James's Park (1814–1827), reshaping the formal canal into the present lake, and giving the park its present form. A characteristic of Nash's plan for Regent Street was that it followed an irregular path linking Portland Place to the north with Carlton House, London (replaced by Nash's Carlton House Terrace (1827–1833)) to the south. At the northern end of Portland Place Nash designed Park Crescent, London (1812) & (1819–1821), this opens into Nash's Park Square, London (1823–24), this only has terraces on the east and west, the north opens into Regent's Park.
  The terraces that Nash designed around Regent's park though conforming to the earlier form of appearing as a single building, as developed by John Wood, the Elder, are unlike earlier examples set in gardens and are not orthogonal in their placing to each other. This was part of Nash's development of planning, this found it is most extreme example when he set out Park Village East and Park Village West (1823–34) to the north-east of Regent's Park, here a mixture of detached villas, semi-detached houses, both symmetrical and assymmetrical in their design are set out in private gardens railed off from the street, the roads loop and the buildings are both classical and gothic in style. No two buildings were the same, and or even in line with their neighbours. The park Villages can be seen as the prototype for the Victorian suburbs.
  Nash was employed by the Prince from 1815 to develop his Marine Pavilion in Brighton, originally designed by Henry Holland. By 1822 Nash had finished his work on the Marine Pavilion, which was now transformed into the Royal Pavilion. The exterior was based on Mughal architecture, giving the building its exotic form, the Chinoiserie style interiors are largely the work of Frederick Crace.
  Nash was also a director of the Regent's Canal Company set up in 1812 to provide a canal link from west London to the River Thames in the east. Nash's masterplan provided for the canal to run around the northern edge of Regent's Park; as with other projects, he left its execution to one of his assistants, in this case James Morgan. The first phase of the Regent's Canal was completed in 1816 and finally completed in 1820.
  Together with Robert Smirke and Sir John Soane, he became an official architect to the Office of Works in 1813, (the appointment ended in 1832) at a salary of £500 per annum, following the death in September of that year of James Wyatt, this marked the high point in his professional life. As part of Nash's new position he was invited to advise the Parliamentary Commissioners on the building of new churches from 1818 onwards. Nash produced ten church designs, each estimated to cost around £10,000 with seating for 2000 people, the style of the buildings were both classical and gothic. In the end Nash only built two churches for the Commission, the classical All Souls Church, Langham Place (1822–24) terminating the northern end of Regent Street, an
caption: A bust of John Nash, in the portico, All Souls Langham Place
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