Regency Architecture

Regency architecture covers the classical buildings built in Britain in the early 19th century, taking its name from the regency of George, Prince of Wales, from 1811 to 1820, though the style extends somewhat before and after those dates. It is the late phase of Georgian architecture, marked by white stucco facades, black painted front doors framed by columns, wrought iron balconies and bow windows, expressed in the terraces and crescents of city centers and in detached villas in the suburbs. Building slowed during the Napoleonic Wars but boomed after the victory at Waterloo in 1815, producing most of the surviving Regency streetscape, and the period also took up Gothic, Greek and Indian revival forms alongside its neoclassical mainstream. John Nash's Regent Street and Cumberland Terrace in London and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton are its best known works, and the spa towns of Cheltenham, Bath and Royal Leamington Spa preserve entire Regency streets.