Regency architecture

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.

[3] In 1810 there was a serious financial crisis, though the only major asset class not to lose value was houses, at least in London, mainly because the low level of recent building had created pent-up demand.

[4] After the decisive victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 ended the wars for good, there was a long financial boom amid greatly increased British self-confidence.

[5] Many buildings of the Regency style have a white painted stucco façade and an entryway to the main front door (usually coloured black) which is framed by two columns.

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.

Ashridge (to 1817), Belvoir Castle and Fonthill Abbey (to 1813, now demolished), were all by James Wyatt, whose late career specialized in extravagant Gothic houses.

[6] Brighton Pavilion (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.

Several of the least-spoiled of these are new resort towns, attempting to emulate the success of Bath, Somerset and Buxton, spas which had been extensively developed in the mid-century Georgian period and the 1780s respectively.