Royal Crescent (Holland Park)
Encyclopedia
Holland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
, west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England, consisting of two curved facing terraces in a crescent shape. The crescent
Crescent (architecture)
A crescent is an architectural structure where a number of houses, normally terraced houses, are laid out in an arc to form of a crescent shape. A famous historic crescent is the Royal Crescent in Bath, England.-See also:* Lansdown Crescent, Bath...
is located on the north side of Holland Park Avenue
Holland Park Avenue
Holland Park Avenue is a street located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London in England. The street runs from Notting Hill Gate in the east to the Holland Park Roundabout in the west, and forms a part of the old west road connecting London with Oxford and the west...
, west of Addison Avenue, and to the east of the Holland Park Roundabout.
Between the facing terraces is a landscaped communal garden with expansive lawns and numerous trees. The houses themselves are stucco fronted and are built on four floors, with porticoed entrances, above which are small first-floor balconies with iron railings. Each of the end houses have circular corners.
History
Designed in 1839, The Royal Crescent is one of the most architecturally interesting Nineteenth Century developments in Holland ParkHolland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
. Evidently inspired by its older namesake in Bath, it differs from the Bath crescent
Royal Crescent
The Royal Crescent is a residential road of 30 houses laid out in a crescent in the city of Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom and is a grade I...
in that it is not strictly a true crescent but rather two quadrant
Quadrant (architecture)
Quadrant in architecture refers to a curve in a wall or a vaulted ceiling. Generally considered to be an arc of 90 degrees - one quarter of a circle, or a half of the more commonly seen architectural feature - a crescent....
terraces each terminated by a circular bow in the Regency style, rising as a tower, a feature which would not have been found in the earlier classically inspired architecture of the 18th century which the design of the crescent seeks to emulate. The plan of the Royal Crescent was the design of the planner Robert Cantwell, and it was the need for the newly fashionable underground sewers which caused the crescent to be designed in two halves rather than any consideration for architectural aesthetics. On early maps it is marked as Norland Crescent.
The stucco fronted crescent is painted white, in the style of the many Nash terraces which can be seen elsewhere in London's smarter residential areas. Today many of these four storey houses have been converted to apartments, although a few remain as private houses. The Royal Crescent is listed Grade II*.
Notable residents
- John GawsworthJohn GawsworthJohn Gawsworth , a pseudonym of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong , was a British writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, both of poetry and of short stories. He also used the pseudonym Orpheus Scrannel...
(1912–1970), writer, poet and compiler of anthologies, grew up in Colville GardensColville GardensColville Gardens is a Victorian cul-de-sac street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, located north of Colville Terrace and east of the Portobello Market in Notting Hill, London, England...
and at number 40 Royal Crescent. He was crowned the king of RedondaRedondaRedonda is a very small, uninhabited Caribbean island which is part of Antigua and Barbuda, in the Leeward Islands, West Indies.This small island lies southwest of Antigua, in the waters between the islands of Nevis and Montserrat...
in 1947 and became known as King Juan I. His real name was Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong.
External links
- The Royal Crescent, Holland Park, at www.hollandparkliving.co.uk Retrieved February 20, 2010
- Holland Park Ave at Project Gutenberg Retrieved February 20, 2010