Regent's Crescent

Contemporary, prime apartments and villas sit behind a newly built John Nash heritage façade

One of the magnificent Grade I listed crescent facades which were designed by John Nash and characterise Regent’s Park is reconstructed using some traditional techniques. Behind it sits a very different building, a new contemporary design provides residences and amenities to an exacting standard for the prime market. During construction an eighteenth century, subterranean ice house was discovered in the grounds, one of only a handful which remain in the country today. The Ice House will be open to the public on one day each year.

Client: PCW Planning and Development
Location: London
Size: 76 units, 16,800 sqm
Cost: £180m
Status: Complete

The development returns the street to its original residential use, from office use, and comprises sixty eight new apartments and nine mews houses to the rear. Due to bomb damage sustained during WWII, retaining the Grade I listed facade was not viable so following extensive consultation and research, it was demolished and rebuilt, the only Grade I listed facade to be rebuilt in the UK.

The new facade is greatly improved with all of the previously lost front doors reinstated and brought back into active use along with many of the original features which were lost in the post-war rebuild. Chimney stacks are reformed to complete the townscape statement of the crescent, returning it to its former grandeur. Internally, the generous 19th century floor heights allowed for an adjustment to the floor level proposals with an additional storey inserted across the development.

There were many complexities and challenges to both the design and construction. The curved site is bounded on three sides by busy roads, including the central London artery of Marylebone Road. A further challenge for this complex project involved mitigating the effects of vibration from the four London Underground lines that pass beneath the site. This required early engagement with specialist manufacturers of isolating dampers, and rigorous detailing of all junctions. As a result of the Ice House discovery, the new mews houses are constructed as a steel bridge to float over the it in order to preserve it.  

Interiors are in collaboration with Millier.