WELCOME TO ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 1/1B:

REVIVALISM TO MODERNISM
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tutorials: DO THIS VIA LEARN
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Tutorials start in week 2
Exam results due at end of January

AH1 Tutorial Arrangements (Semester 2)

Please note that AH1 tutorials will run as normal this semester. For those of you
who were enrolled in AH1 (ARHI08005) and AH1A (ARHI08001), you may
remain in the same tutorial slot as last semester. However, if you wish to move
groups because of a timetable clash, please contact the Course Organiser.
Those who are new to the course (taking AH1B), please go to the 'Users and
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left of the LEARN page. Then click on 'Groups'. Here you will find 10
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spread across the week. Select a group that fits with your timetable.
Times and locations are given in each instance. Each group can hold a
maximum of 14 members.
Architectural Design students (ARCH08005): this semester you too will need
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of tutorial groups marked K to R designated 'architects only'. Please enrol
yourself in one of these groups. DO NOT enrol in any of the groups marked A to
J. If you encounter any difficulty, please contact Prof. Ian Campbell
(i.campbell-1@ed.ac.uk).
For all students: please remember that tutorials do not commence until the
beginning of Week 2. Check group information for locations.

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 1, 1B
Revivalism to Modernism
LECTURE 31/1

London and Edinburgh in the Early Nineteenth Century:

The Monumental, the Modern & the Picturesque

Early 19th century - Britain:

Great imperial power
Leading industrial nation
Constitutional/national issues - effectively resolved
Good place to introduce some important themes for
Architectural History 1B, as well as continuation of some of
Themes of last semester:
Industrialisation & Architecture
Modernity and development of new building types
Modern city planning
Local and national identity
The Picturesque and the city

Thomas Shepherd:
Metropolitan Improvements, 1827-30
London & its Environs in the Nineteenth Century, 1829-31
Modern Athens! Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century, 1829-31

John Nash, 1752 - 1835

Contemporary and rival to Soane
Major architect in Regency London
Semi-official position as architect to
Prince Regent
Responsible for 1st major urban remodeling
of London
Major figure in developing Picturesque
for the city

Very successful country house practice

Early contact with main protagonists in
Picturesque controversy
Partnership with Humphry Repton, c1795-c1802
More direct response to Picturesque than Soane

William Henry Playfair, 1789-1857

Son of James Playfair, advanced neoclassical architect
Born in London but moved back to Edinburgh after his fathers
early death
Brought up by uncle - John Playfair, famous astronomer
Trained under William Stark (1770-1813)
Very well connected in Edinburgh and was the dominant figure in
the first half of the nineteenth century
Architect of the Athens of the North

John Nash and the Regent Street, Regent Park development

c.1810 - decision to develop Marlybone Park area, west of the city
Taken over by Department of Woods and Forests National and Royal project
Various architects consulted; main rivals to Nash produced
design, which was more urban and builder like, than the
enchanting rural plan which their lordships adopted (James Elmes)
Nash design embraced all the beauties of landscape design

John Nash, Plan of Regents Park, from Shepherds Metropolitan

Improvements, 1829

 Nash believed wealthy landowners would prefer park to urban layout

Designed a series (50) villas for park, carefully screened by planting
Some urban aspects - but quickly removed, partly under the influence
of the Prime minister (Robert Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool)
Prince Regent - great supporter. Intended to have pavilion in park
Work started on the planting and layout. Finished 1816
Regents Canal finished 1820
Take up of sites very slow and few villas
actually built
by 1841 - public Park and Zoological
gardens
South Villa

John Nash, Plan of Regents Park, from Shepherds Metropolitan

Improvements, 1829

 Urban development of the park restricted to the edges

Regents Park Circuit is now recognised as one of
Nashs greatest achievements
Circuit creates a scenographic and pictorial montage of great
variety and, in that sense, relates to the picturesque

Park Crescent, 1812

Earliest terrace
Formal transition between
Regent street and the
Park itself

John Nash, Park Crescent, 1812-22

John Nash, York Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

All entrances on opposite side of building
No divisions between gardens
Both aspects enhance sense of palace in park

John Nash, Hanover Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

John Nash, Hanover Terrace and Sussex Place, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)
Note contrast between the two terraces

John Nash, Ulster Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

John Nash, Junction of Ulster Terrace and Park Square West, 1821-30

John Nash, Cambridge Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

Decimus Burton, Coliseum, 1823-27 - Panorama of London

John Nash, Chester Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

Monumental Corinthian order
Use of Triumphal Arches

John Nash, Cumberland Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

John Nash, Cumberland Terrace, 1821-30 (Shepherd, 1827)

Designed to face Regents pavilion in Park
Exemplifies the scenographic nature of the Park Circuit
Sham pediment

Regent Street
Londons Royal Mile - Carlton House to
Regents Park
Rivalry with Napoleons Paris
Route partly dictated by what land was available
and what was economically viable
Runs between Soho in east and grander areas to west
These practical concerns allied to Nashs sense of
Urban Picturesque - Variety, Surprise, Incident all
mark progress of street
Changes of direction at Piccadilly, Oxford Circus and
Langholm Place

Regent Street
First Section - formal, classical architecture:
Waterloo Place: Houses
Beyond vicinity of Carlton House - great mix of
Types and styles: hotel, club, offices, housing, church
That variety - and modernity - of typology was
typical of rest of street

John Nash
Upper Regent Street looking
towards Carlton House
(Shepherd 1827)

John Nash
Waterloo Place looking
from Carlton House to
Upper Regent Street
(Shepherd 1827)

John Nash
Commercial premises in
Upper Regent Street
(Shepherd 1827)

Visual termination of first section is

Axial and formal.

Provided by County Fire Office (1819)

Design based on design attributed to

Inigo Jones for Old Somerset House

View of Regent Street Quadrant

View of Quadrant, 1852

Regent Street
Next section of the street no major eye-catcher buildings
Along this section - variety in architecture, including
treatment of corners to provide interest along way
Next change of direction - Oxford Circus
At this point, steeple of All Souls Langham Place

John Nash, Quadrant & Vigo Street Corner c1822 (Shepherd, 1827)

Regent Street
Final planning problem:
Junction of Portland Place and Langham Place
Solution - building which acts as eye-catcher but also
reconciles the awkward junction of the two streets and
facilitates movement from one to the other
All Souls Church, 1822-25
Design solution which brings together urban and
landscape design

John Nash
All Souls
Langham Place
1822

James Craig, Plan of 1st New Town of Edinburgh, 1767

Edinburgh in early 19th Century

Urban Picturesque
Contrast of town and country and importance of landscape
Sense of identity
Relationship with London
Influence of Nash
Appreciation of city as totality

Kirkwoods Plan of Edinburgh, 1821

1834 Plan of Edinburgh

Thomas Hamilton, Royal High School, 1825-29

Archibald Elliot, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, 1815

John Nash Waterloo Place, London, 1815

W H Playfair, Plan of New Town to Leith, 1819

Importance of Stark
Practicality in terms of feuing
Practical concerns with markets and influence of Nash
Irregularity in geometric scheme, achieved by collision of geometries

W H Playfair, Regent Terrace, Calton Hill, Edinburgh, 1819

W H Playfair, Royal Terrace, Calton Hill, Edinburgh, 1819

James Gillespie Graham, Moray Estate, Edinburgh, 1822

James Gillespie Graham, Moray Estate, Edinburgh, 1822

Moray Place

Thomas Shepherd, View of St Bernards Well, 1829

The idea of Edinburgh as Athens

Hugh William Williams - The Athenian Acropolis, c.1817

Hugh William Williams, Edinburgh from Arthurs Seat, c.1820

Thomas Shepherd, Edinburgh from Blackhall, 1829

W H Playfair & C R Cockerell, National Monument

1819

George Meikle Kemp, Calton Hill as Acropolis, c.1830

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arnold, Dana

Re-presenting the metropolis: architecture, urban experience and social life

in London, 1800-1840, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2000 {3}

Arnold, Dana

Rural Urbanism: London landscapes in the early nineteenth century,

Manchester University Press, 2005 {3}

Crook, J. Mordaunt

Londons Arcadia:John Nash & the planning of Regents Park, London,

Soane Museum (annual Soane lecture 2000), c2001 {1}

Lowrey, John

From Caesarea to Athens: Greek Revival Edinburgh and the question of

Scottish identity within the unionist state, Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians, vol. 60, No. 2 (June 2001), pp. 136-157 {1}

Reed, Peter

Form and context: a study of Georgian Edinburgh, in Thomas A Markus

(ed) Order in space and society, Edinburgh, Mainstream, 1982, pp.115-154{1}

Shepherd, Thomas

London and its environs in the nineteenth century, London, 1829 {2}

Shepherd, Thomas

Metropolitan Improvements: or, London in the nineteenth century, London

1829 (There is a modern reprint of this in the Art & Architecture Library) {2}

Shepherd, Thomas

Modern Athens! Or Edinburgh in the nineteenth century, London, 1829 {2}

Youngson, A. J.

The making of classical Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1966 (later

editions available) {2}