Regent's Park
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- For other meanings, see Regent's Park (disambiguation)
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the northern part of central London partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden.
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[edit] Description
The park has an outer ring road called the Outer Circle (4.3km) and an inner ring road called the Inner Circle, which contains the most carefully tended section of the park, Queen Mary's Gardens. Apart from two link roads between these two, the park is reserved for pedestrians. The south, east and most of the west sides of the park are lined with elegant white stucco terraces of houses designed by John Nash. Running through the northern end of the park is Regent's Canal which connects the Grand Union Canal to the former London Docks.
The 487 acre (2.0 km²) park is mainly open parkland which supports a wide range of facilities and amenities including gardens, a lake with a heronry, waterfowl and a boating area, sports pitches, and children's playgrounds. The north-east end of the park contains London Zoo. There are several public gardens with flowers and specimen plants, including Queen Mary's Gardens in the Inner Circle, in which the Open Air Theatre is located; the formal Italian Gardens and adjacent informal English Gardens in the south east corner of the park; and the gardens of St John's Lodge. Winfield House, the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, stands in private grounds in western section of the park. Nearby is the domed London Central Mosque, which is a highly visible landmark from parts of the park.
Located on the outside of the southern portion of the Inner Circle is Regent's College, a consortium of institutes of higher education and home of London Business School (LBS), as well as the European Business School London, British American College London (BACL) and Webster Graduate School among others.
Immediately to the north of Regent's Park is Primrose Hill a park with fine views of Westminster and the City. Primrose Hill is a Royal Park and and belongs to the Sovereign along with all the other Royal Parks of the Crown Estate. It is maintained by the Royal Parks Agency with some peripheral imput from both Camden and Westminister Council.
The supposition that Primrose Hill is owned and maintained by the Corporation of London is an error that has been the subject of successful Crown litigation in both in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
[edit] History
The land, which was formerly known as Marylebone Park had been Crown property for many centuries, and had been leased to the Dukes of Portland as a hunting ground. When the lease expired in 1811 the Prince Regent (later King George IV) commissioned architect John Nash to create a masterplan for the area. Nash originally envisaged a palace for the Prince and a number of grand detached villas for his friends, but when this was put into action from 1818 onwards, the palace and most of the villas were dropped. However, most of the proposed terraces of houses around the fringes of the park were built. Nash did not complete all the detailed designs himself; in some instances, completion was left in the hands of other architects such as the young Decimus Burton. The Regent Park scheme was integrated with other schemes built for the Prince Regent by Nash, including Regent Street and Carlton House Terrace in a grand sweep of town planning stretching from St. James's Park to Parliament Hill. The park was first opened to the general public in 1845, initially for two days a week.
Queen Mary's Gardens in the Inner Circle were created in the 1930s, bringing that part of the park into use by the general public for the first time. The site had originally been used as a plant nursery and had later been leased to the Royal Botanic Society. In 1982 an IRA terrorist attack took place in the park; a bomb was detonated at the bandstand, killing seven soldiers (see Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings). The sports pitches, which had been relaid with inadequate drainage after the Second World War, were relaid between 2002 and 2004, and in 2005 a new sports pavilion was constructed.
On 7 July 2006 the Park held an event for people to remember the events of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Members of the public placed mosaic tiles on to seven purple petals. Later bereaved family members laid yellow tiles in the centre to finish the mosiac.
[edit] Sports
A large variety of sports are played in the park including Tennis, Netball, Athletics, Cricket, Softball, Rounders, Football, Hockey, Rugby and Ultimate Frisbee In addition, there are three playgrounds for children each with an attendant, and there is boating on the main lake.
The Park was scheduled to play a significant role in the 2012 Summer Olympics, hosting the baseball and softball, but those sports have been dropped from Olympic program with effect from 2012. However the cycling road race will still cut through Regent's Park.[1] The Park also plays host to London Camanachd who have regular shinty scrimmages there.
[edit] The Villas
Eight villas were built in the park. There follows a list of their names as shown on Christopher and John Greenwood's map of London (second edition, 1830) [2], with details of their subsequent fates:
Close to the western edge of the park
- Marquis of Hertford's Villa: rebuilt as Winfield House in the 1930s and now the American Ambassador's residence.
- Grove House: still a private residence.
- Hanover Lodge: as of 2005 under restoration for renewed use as a private residence.
- Albany Cottage: demolished. Site now occupied by London Central Mosque.
Around the Inner Circle
- St. John's Lodge: still a private residence, but part of its garden is now a public garden. This is an arrangement with the Lodge's owners who have allowed the main portion of their garden to be enjoyed by the public.
- The Holme: still a private residence. Along with Hanover Lodge (currently under extensive refurbishment) St. John's Lodge and The Holme are in the same family ownership. A residential history of St. John's Lodge, The Holme and Hanover Lodge is to be published by the owners in 2007 along with some aspects of the litigation history surrounding these properties, including the IRA bombing of the nearby bandstand on Holme Green.
- South Villa: Site of George Bishop's Observatory[3] (IAU code 969), erected in 1836 near the house and equipped with a 7-inch Dolland refractor. Hind, Vogel, Marth, Talmage, Pogson, and Dawes observed there. The observatory closed when Bishop died in 1861, and the instruments and dome were moved to Meadowbank, Twickenham in 1863. Twickenham Observatory closed in 1877 and the instruments were given to the Royal Observatory of Naples (Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte). The South Villa is now replaced by Regent's College, now one of the two largest groups of buildings in the park alongside London Zoo.
Close to the eastern edge of the park
- Sir H. Taylor's Villa: demolished; site now part of the open parkland.
In 1832 Holford House, the largest of the villas at that time, was built north of Hertford House where Finchley Road/Avenue Road met Regent's Park. In 1856 it became Regent's Park College (which subsequently moved to Oxford in 1927). In 1944 Holford House was destroyed to a great extent when a bomb was dropped on it during World War II, and it was demolished in 1948.
Between 1988 and 2004 six new villas were built by the Crown Estate at the north western edge of the park, between the Outer Circle and the Regent's Canal. They were designed by Quinlan Terry in a variety of traditional styles and named accordingly: the Corinthian, Gothick, Ionic, Regency, Tuscan and Veneto villas. [4]
[edit] More Attractions
Park Crescent's breathtaking facades by John Nash have been preserved, although the interiors were rebuilt as offices in the 1960s.
[edit] Transport
[edit] Nearest Tube
- Regent's Park (currently closed for renovation work, due to be completed in June 2007)
- Baker Street
- Great Portland Street
[edit] Nearest Railway
[edit] Other Regent's Parks
There are also Regent's Parks in a number of other cities. Regent's Park College is a Permanent Private Hall at the University of Oxford (it had been located in Holford House in Regent's Park from 1856 to 1927). Regent Park is also the name of a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, known as the first major social housing project in Canada.
[edit] External links
- The Regent's Park, official website
- Regent's Park in Literature and Music, a bibliography
