Hanover Terrace - Regent's Park, NW1 - geograph

Hanover Terrace overlooks

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

in City of Westminster, London, England. The terrace is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

It was designed by John Nash in 1822. It has a centre and two wing buildings, of the

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

, the

acroterion An acroterion, acroterium, or akroteria is an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the ''acroter'' or plinth, and mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style. An acroterion placed at ...

, above which statues and other sculptural decorations of

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

are erected. The centre building is crowned by a well proportioned

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

, the tympanum of which is embellished with statues and figures. The style of architecture employed by the artist is

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

. The capitals are well proportioned in design, and well executed, but the entablature is weak in profile for the height of the building. The stories of the mansions are lofty, and the domestic arrangement of the various rooms convenient. The situation of this

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

is near the northwestern extremity of the western branch of the park's lake. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the Nash buildings around the park, including Hanover Terrace, fell into what one newspaper called "a sad state of neglect … caused by bombing and the ravages of time"."The Glory of John Nash's London", ''The Sphere'', 13 September 1952, p. 395 An official report commented "there is not a single terrace which does not give the impression of hopeless dereliction". Restoration work followed in the early 1950s. The terrace was mainly occupied by government departments, during and after the war, but by 1957, the freeholder of the terrace, the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

, had adopted the policy of returning it, and the other Nash terraces, to private residential use, as recommended ten years earlier in the report of a government committee on the post-war future of the terraces."Nash Houses Turned Down As a New "Whitehall", ''Illustrated London News'', 26 April 1947, p. 423 There are three blue plaques on houses in the terrace: one at no.10 for Ralph Vaughan Williams, one at no.11 for

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country h ...

, and one at no.13 for

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhoo ...

, the soldier Sir Alexander Bryce, the dancer Adeline Genée, the shipowner and philanthropist Richard Green, the MP Samuel Gurney, the shipping and aviation magnate Sir Samuel Instone, the publisher Thomas Longman, the missionary Irene Petrie, the racecourse owner

Mirabel Topham Mirabel Topham (15 August 1891 – 28 May 1980) was chairman and managing director of Topham Ltd for 36 years to 1973 and owner of Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England, where the Grand National horse steeplechase is held. She was one of the ...

, the artist Feliks Topolski, the playwright Harold Pinter, the historian Lady Antonia Fraser and the architect

Sir Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...

."Hanover Terrace"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Retrieved 22 September 2021

References

: {{coord, 51.52805, N, 0.16307, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Regent's Park Houses in the City of Westminster