The Quadrant, and Part of Regent Street

Regent Street was built after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 when a boom in building work began and was completed in 1823. At the lower end the Quadrant or quarter circle began, designed and built by John Nash himself, the Prince Regent's favourite architect.

It was a strategic solution to the problem of changing the axis of the street. With its superb colonnades consisting of one hundred and forty-five large columns it was the most spectacular section of the whole street and the most daring innovation. Nash had sufficent confidence in it to advance more than £60,000 of his own money to the bricklayers, plumbers, glaziers and other tradesmen he employed.