Regency architecture encompasses classical buildings built in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

during the

Regency era The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. George III of the United Kingdom, King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 18 ...

in the early 19th century when

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

was Prince Regent, and also to earlier and later buildings following the same style. The period coincides with the Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States and the French

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

. Regency style is also applied to interior design and

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

of the period, typified by elegant furniture and vertically striped wallpaper, and to styles of clothing; for men, as typified by the dandy Beau Brummell and for women the

Empire silhouette Empire silhouette, Empire line, Empire waist or just Empire is a style in clothing in which the dress has a fitted bodice ending just below the bust, giving a high-waisted appearance, and a gathered skirt which is long and loosely fitting but ski ...

. The style is strictly the late phase of Georgian architecture, and follows closely on from the

neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

of the preceding years, which continued to be produced throughout the period. The Georgian period takes its name from the four Kings George of the period 1714–1830, including King George IV. The

British Regency The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, ...

strictly lasted only from 1811 to 1820, but the term is applied to architecture more widely, both before 1811 and after 1820; the next reign, of

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

from 1830 to 1837, has not been given its own stylistic descriptor. Regency architecture is especially distinctive in its houses, and also marked by an increase in the use of a range of eclectic Revival styles, from Gothic through Greek to Indian, as alternatives to the main neoclassical stream. The opening years of the style were marked by greatly reduced levels of building because of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, which saw government spending on building eliminated, shortages of imported timber, and high taxes on other building materials. In 1810 there was a serious financial crisis, though the only major

asset class In finance, an asset class is a group of financial instruments that have similar financial characteristics and behave similarly in the marketplace. We can often break these instruments into those having to do with real assets and those havin ...

not to lose value was houses, at least in London, mainly because the low level of recent building had created pent-up demand. After the decisive victory at the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

in 1815 ended the wars for good, there was a long financial boom amid greatly increased British self-confidence. Most Regency architecture comes from this period.

Houses

Many buildings of the Regency style have a white painted stucco facade and an entryway to the main front door (usually coloured black) which is framed by two columns. In town centres the dominance of the

terraced house 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 ...

continued, and

crescents 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 ...

were especially popular. Elegant

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

balconies A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

and bow windows came into

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

as part of this style. Further out of town the suburban "villa" detached house was popular in a range of sizes. Whereas most earlier Georgian housing for the middle classes had little ornament, the Regency period brought modest architectural pretensions to a much wider range of buildings, in a relaxed and confident application of the classical tradition as filtered through

Palladianism 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 ...

. For large

country houses An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

a range of

picturesque Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year ...

styles were available, and the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

was gathering strength, with many architects able to turn to different styles as their patron required. Ashridge (to 1817),

Belvoir Castle Belvoir Castle ( ) is a faux historic castle and stately home in Leicestershire, England, situated west of the town of Grantham and northeast of Melton Mowbray. The Castle was first built immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 an ...

and

Fonthill Abbey Fonthill Abbey—also known as Beckford's Folly—was a large Gothic Revival country house built between 1796 and 1813 at Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Thomas Beckford and architect James Wyatt. It was b ...

(to 1813, now demolished), were all by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

, whose late career specialized in extravagant Gothic houses.

Sezincote House Sezincote House (pronounced ''seas in coat'') is the centre of a country estate in the civil parish of Sezincote, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. The house was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, built in 1805, and is a notable exam ...

(1805), designed by

Samuel Pepys Cockerell Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1753–1827) was an English architect. He was a son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the elder brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezinc ...

, is a Neo-Mughal country house for a "

nabob A nabob is a conspicuously wealthy man deriving his fortune in the east, especially in India during the 18th century with the privately held East India Company. Etymology ''Nabob'' is an Anglo-Indian term that came to English from Urdu, poss ...

" returned from

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

Brighton Pavilion The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Prin ...

(to 1822) by John Nash, the seaside home of the Prince Regent, is Indian on the exterior, but the interiors include attempts at a Chinese style by

Frederick Crace Frederick Crace (1779 – 18 September 1859) was an English interior decorator, who worked for George IV when Prince of Wales, for whom he created the chinoiserie interiors of the Brighton Pavilion. Crace was also a collector of maps and top ...

Churches

Until the Church Building Act of 1818, church building had been at a very low ebb for over 50 years. The Act allocated some public money for new churches required to reflect changes in population, and a commission to allocate it. Building of

Commissioners' church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplie ...

es gathered pace in the 1820s, and continued until the 1850s. The early churches, falling into the Regency period, show a high proportion of

buildings, along with the classically inspired. Strict

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

buildings were mixed with those continuing the modified

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and Roman Neoclassical traditions.

Public buildings

The period saw a great increase in public buildings, at both the national and local level. In London, three bridges were built over the Thames between 1813 and 1819:

Vauxhall Bridge Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, i ...

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at t ...

and

Southwark Bridge Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the Thames bridges in Lond ...

, all privately financed by toll charges. Shops began to be included systematically into newly planned developments, and the covered

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

of shops was introduced, with the

Burlington Arcade Burlington Arcade is a covered shopping arcade in London, England, United Kingdom. It is long, parallel to and east of Bond Street from Piccadilly through to Burlington Gardens. It is one of the precursors of the mid-19th-century European sh ...

in London (1815–19) the earliest.

Leading architects

John Nash was the architect most associated with the Regency style; he was fully in tune with the commercial requirements of developers and designed the Regency terraces of

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 ...

and Regent Street in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He had many pupils who disseminated his style, or in the case of Pugin rebelled against it. In

itself there are many streets in the style in the areas around Victoria, Pimlico,

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

and other central districts.

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the R ...

was more individualistic, one of a number of European experimenters in Neoclassicism, but details from his inventive buildings were often picked up by other architects. The public buildings of

George Dance the Younger George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist. The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists an ...

, City Architect of London from 1768, were precursors of the Regency style, though he designed little himself after 1798. Robert Smirke could produce both classical (

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

) and Gothic designs, and also mainly worked on public buildings. With Nash and Soane he was one of the Board of Works' architects during the peak Regency period. A large commission of the period was the expansion of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

for the king, which eventually cost over a million pounds, over three times the original budget. Smirke, Nash, Soane and

Jeffry Wyatville Sir Jeffry Wyatville (3 August 1766 – 18 February 1840) was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatville ...

were invited to tender, Wyatville winning the competition. He was a prolific designer, mostly for country houses, new-built or refurbished, able to work in a variety of styles. His uncle

was a leading architect of the previous generation, and James' sons

Benjamin Dean Wyatt Benjamin Dean Wyatt (1775–1852) was an English architect, part of the Wyatt family. Early life He was the son and pupil of the architect James Wyatt, and the brother of Matthew Cotes Wyatt. Before setting up as an architect in 1809, he joine ...

and

Philip Wyatt Philip William Wyatt (5 March 1785 – 1835) was an English architect and member of the Wyatt family. He was the youngest son of the architect James Wyatt and his wife Rachel (Lunn) Wyatt, and a nephew of Samuel Wyatt, cousin to Sir Jeffry Wyatvil ...

were also successful architects in the period.

Locations

Apart from London, a number of English towns hold especial concentrations of Regency architecture. Several of the least-spoiled of these are new resort towns, attempting to emulate the success of Bath, Somerset and

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.spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

s which had been extensively developed in the mid-century Georgian period and the 1780s respectively. Brighton and other coastal resorts had become fashionable, and other towns that greatly expanded were Royal Leamington Spa in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, the

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

suburb of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, and Cheltenham, "perhaps the most complete surviving Regency town". Excellent examples of Regency properties dominate

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

in East Sussex; in particular in its

Kemp Town Kemp Town Estate, also known as Kemp Town, is a 19th-century Regency architecture residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and ...

and Brunswick (Hove) estates.Norwich, 630–631 File:The west curve of Park Crescent, London - geograph.org.uk - 1524047.jpg, Park Crescent, London Image:regency Cheltenham.jpg, Regency houses, now municipal buildings in Cheltenham Image:The Parade -Leamington Spa - Warwickshire 13a2008.jpg, The Parade, Royal Leamington Spa Image:SP3266 Lansdowne Crescent, Leamington Spa.jpg, Lansdowne Crescent, Royal Leamington Spa File:59-Wellington-Road-Edgbaston.jpg, Suburban "villa" in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

, a suburb of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, 1820s File:Regency villas, Barton Terrace, Dawlish - geograph.org.uk - 1359775.jpg, Smaller

semi-detached A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced hou ...

villas with Gothic details, Dawlish

Notes

References

* Esher, Lionel, ''The Glory of the English House'', 1991, Barrie and Jenkins, *

Jenkins, Simon Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 20 ...

(1999), ''England's Thousand Best Churches'', 1999, Allen Lane, *

(2003), ''England's Thousand Best Houses'', 2003, Allen Lane, * Musson, Jeremy, ''How to Read a Country House'', 2005, Ebury Press, * John Julius Norwich, ''The Architecture of Southern England'', Macmillan, London, 1985, *

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

. ''The Englishness of English Art'', Penguin, 1964 edn. * Strong, Roy: ''The Spirit of Britain'', 1999, Hutchison, London, * Sir John Summerson, ''Georgian London,'' (1945), 1988 revised edition, Barrie & Jenkins, . (Also see revised edition, edited by

Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840' ...

, 2003)

External links

Regency Society
a

Brighton & Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and ...

group promoting preservation of Regency architecture * {{DEFAULTSORT:Regency Architecture A01 British architectural styles Georgian architecture