A crescent is an architectural structure where a number of houses, normally

terraced houses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

, are laid out in an arc to form a

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

shape. A famous historic crescent is the

Royal Crescent The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping Crescent (architecture), crescent in the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is a ...

in Bath,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Examples

The following are examples of architectural crescents: *

Adelaide Crescent Adelaide Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in Hove, part of the English city and seaside resort of Brighton and Hove. Conceived as an ambitious attempt to rival the large, high-class Kemp Town estate east of Brighton, the c ...

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, England * Bofills båge, Stockholm, Sweden, by architect

Ricardo Bofill Ricardo Bofill Leví (; 5 December 1939 – 14 January 2022) was a Spanish architect from Catalonia. He founded Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963 and developed it into a leading international architectural and urban design practice. ...

Buxton Crescent Buxton Crescent is a Grade-I-listed building in the town of Buxton, Derbyshire, England. It owes much to the Royal Crescent in Bath, but has been described by the Royal Institution of British Architects as "more richly decorated and altogether m ...

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, England *

The Crescent, Limerick The Crescent ( ga, An Corrán) is a street in Limerick, Ireland and is one of the highlights of Georgian Limerick. The area takes its name from the shape of the terraced buildings on both sides. The two sides combined give the street a distin ...

, Ireland, double Georgian style crescent * The Crescent,

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town in the Borough of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. Scarborough is located on the North Sea coastline. Historic counties of England, Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10 ...

, England *

Lansdown Crescent, Bath Lansdown Crescent is a well-known example of Georgian architecture in Bath, Somerset, England, designed by John Palmer and constructed by a variety of builders between 1789 and 1793. The buildings have a clear view over central Bath, being sit ...

, England *

Marino Crescent Marino Crescent () is a Georgian Dublin, Georgian crescent of 26 houses at the junction of Marino, Dublin, Marino, Fairview and Clontarf in Dublin 3, Ireland. It is the only Georgian crescent in Dublin. History The crescent was built by Charle ...

, Dublin, Ireland developed by Charles Ffolliott * Park Circus, Glasgow, Scotland *

Park Crescent, Brighton Park Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The horseshoe-shaped, three-part terrace of 48 houses was designed and built by one of Bright ...

, England *

Park Town, Oxford Park Town is a small residential area in central North Oxford, a suburb of Oxford, England. It was one of the earliest planned suburban developments in the area and most of the houses are Grade II listed. History Samuel Lipscomb Seckham (182 ...

, England *Plaça Manuel Malagrida,

Olot Olot () is the capital city of the ''comarca'' of Garrotxa, in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. The city is known for its natural landscape, including four volcanoes scattered around the city center. The municipality is part of the Zon ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, Spain *

Royal Crescent, Brighton Royal Crescent is a crescent-shaped terrace of houses on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the late 18th and early 19th century as a speculative development on the open cliffs east of Brighton by ...

, England *

Somerset Place Somerset Place is a former plantation near Creswell in Washington County, North Carolina, along the northern shore of Lake Phelps, and now a State Historic Site that belongs to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. ...

, Bath, England *

The Crescent, Wisbech The Crescent consists of rows of terraced houses and religious buildings laid out as a circus in the town of Wisbech, England. Initiated by the developer Joseph Medworth and built between 1794 and c1815, it is a rare examples of a Georgian ci ...

Isle of Ely The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county. Etymology Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures that ...

, England * Wellington Crescent, Ramsgate, England * Tontine Crescent, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

References

House types Types of streets {{struct-type-stub