*the history of “Park Crescent” – London W1

Last week under a temperamental wintery London sky, my London Shoes legged it over to the northern end of Great Portland Street in London’s west end district – for the specific purpose of visiting a stunningly laid out looking street full of houses with noble looking frontages.

However – not all is as it may seem – as this particular London Shoes blog article will convey, as it tells the story of:- **PARK CRESCENT** – LONDON W1

Park Crescent is a spectacular looking London street, right nearby to Gt. Portland Street tube station (the Metropolitan Line / Hammersmith & City Line on a standard tube map). The street is also just across the other side of the Marylebone Road at the far southern tip of Regents Park – and the BBC HQ at Portland Place is just a simple 3min walk away.

Park Crescent was designed by ‘John Nash’ (1752-1835) an English architect of the Georgian and Regency periods – his most instantly recognisable London works being ‘Regent Street’ / ‘Marble Arch’ / ‘Buckingham Palace…..and ‘Park Crescent’ – plus loads of stuff outside of London – the Royal Pavilion-Brighton being just one example.

Most of Nash’s buildings/streets were funded by the then Prince Regent ‘George’ (son of King George III) who went on the become King George VI.

Park Crescent was built between the years 1812 to 1821 – and was originally designed to be laid out as a ‘Circus’ ie a circular street development.

However – the reason why Park Crescent took so long to build was because its designer ‘John Nash’ ran out of money to fund the project. This situation was not helped by the ‘Napoleonic Wars’ which had a massive and unexpected detrimental impact on the financing of the Park Crescent project – causing the original builder to go bankrupt, having only completed 6 houses.

Park Crescent was originally going to be named ‘Regent Circus’ (in tribute to the Prince Regent).

The front of its elegant, terraced houses was built in what’s now referred to as ‘Stucco’ style – a construction material mainly used as a decorative coating for exterior walls/interior ceilings and grand frontages. It is extremely durable and weather resistant, and it looks attractive too, so was the ideal material for the exterior of London’s more posh mansion type properties.

There were said to be 67 luxurious Regency style stucco frontage residential houses when the Crescent was eventually completed in 1821.

The Park Cresent properties were looked after by the ‘Crown Estate’ who paid for their maintenance and upkeep.

Because of their appearance and obviously their location in the fashionable Marylebone district – the Park Crescent properties were very much in demand and attracted some notable celeb residents – for example ’Henry Brooks Adams’ the son of ‘Charles Francis Adams’ the Abraham Lincoln appointed American Ambassador to the UK throughout the US Civil War years. Henry accompanied his father in London and worked as his private secretary. His time in London very much influenced him and he became one of the world’s top journalists and also an author of many historic novels/literature.

Another original resident of Park Crescent was ‘Dame Mary Susan Etherington’ who’s stage name was ‘Marie Tempest’ – an English singer and actress, who became a famous soprano in Victorian operas and Edwardian musical productions. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and the rest of the world.

Also, another long-time resident at Park Cresent was ‘Charles Wheatstone’ a top inventor of his time in the science of acoustics and electric technology – that helped develop telegraphy communication technology and also musical instruments.

Generally, only the very wealthy and their families were attracted to make their homes in Park Crescent – and that’s the way it stayed for a long time.

The Park Crescent residents also had their own private Garden outside the front of their houses. Originally, it was supposed to be the middle bit of the ‘Circus’ – but ended up being just a small semi-circular shaped garden – situated between Park Crescent and the busy Marylebone Road.

Today – the garden is officially logged as a historic garden in the Register of Parks & Gardens – and for one day of each year only, it is opened to the general public. Its original lodge houses and even the iron railings surrounding the garden, are Grade II Listed protected, as it is the old Victorian ‘cattle trough’ across the road from no.14 Park Crescent.

However – come WW2, life changed for Park Crescent – as it took a few massive hits from enemy bombers during the Blitz.

The devastation was so bad that there were serious proposals put forward to demolish the entire street and erect new and completely different styled housing – but, in the end that never happen.

What eventually happened though, was that throughout the early 1960’s, it was decided that the Park Crescent would remain it situ, but with completely redesigned/rebuilt interiors for both office and residential use – and there would also be a completely new replica frontage – a Regency style ‘façade’ of which behind it would sit newly structured interiors – this style of construction design being termed as ‘facadism’.

The new interior penthouses / luxury apartments / business offices – would sit behind the strict Regency styled façade – and protected further by being granted Grade 1 Listed status.

The transition of Park Crescent continued throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s with institutions such as Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the International Students House as examples, making the Crescent their bases.

By the end of the 1980’s and into the 1990’s Park Crescent returned to being a much sought after prestigious London address, with it’s high value exclusive residences – even though it was in the direct firing-line of the busy, noisy and polluted air of the Marylebone Road.

These days there are not so many institutions located there as there once was – it’s very much a residential location now – whose residents have access to high-end facilities including:- a gym / a spa / a 20 meter swimming pool / a cinema / 24-hour security and of course, their very own ‘private’ landscaped gardens across the road.

So – that’s Park Crescent for you – one of London’s most stunningly attractive looking streets that, on the face of it, just oozes Victorian architectural history and class – which of course, it does ……but the reality is – its current ‘façade’ and what sits behind it – is not really that old as it may first seem.

Now – having spent some time pounding the Marylebone pavements in the bitter cold, with a little bit of rain – I was in need of some liquid refreshment and a bag of pork scratchings, and just across the road from Gt. Portland Street tube station I stumbled upon ‘The Albany’ pub – a Victorian era building that has been a pub since 1898.

The Albany still retains its Victorian style interior décor with many of its original features/ fixtures & fittings still in situ – and so it was the ideal place for my London Shoes to park up for a hour to warm up and have a quick ‘cheeky’ one, before heading back home.

Hope you enjoyed my London Shoes little Park Crescent story and its accompanying photos.

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