Hanover Terrace Garden

Previously known as Marylebone Park Regent's Park formed part of the royal hunting chase appropriated by Henry VIII in 1538 and remained so until 1646, and later used as farmland. At the end of the Civil War it had been sold by Cromwell to John Spencer but reverted to the Crown at the Restoration and was subsequently leased to various noblemen, finally the Duke of Portland, whose lease was due to revert to the Crown in 1811. John Fordyce, appointed Surveyor General of His Majesty's Land Revenue in 1794 was authorised to produce a plan for the area of Marylebone Park and various architects competed for the tender. On Fordyce's death the offices of Land Revenue were combined with those of Woods and Forests and the architects of the two departments were asked to produce plans. John Nash (1752-1835), who was official architect to the Commission of Woods and Forest and a friend of the Prince Regent, designed the layout of the park as it is today as part of his grand plan for London that was approved by the Treasury in October 1811. His plan had an avenue stretching from Marylebone via Portland Place and Regent Street to Carlton House Terrace and Gardens (q.v.), and included the 400-acre park was to be surrounded by palatial terraces and villas.

Hanover Terrace consists of a terrace of 20 houses arranged as one group with 3 porticoes linked by a continuous loggia overlooking the front garden and Regent's Park (q.v.) The land was leased from the Commissioner of Woods and Forests by John Mackell Aitkens who built Hanover Terrace in 1822-3. Being one of the finer and more expensive buildings with a ground rent of £440 Aitkens had to produce Mr Alexander Birnie as guarantor to stand surety for £10,000. Each house had a small private rear garden and mews. In front of the houses, between the driveway and the street, there was a long narrow strip of front garden 12m deep facing onto Regent's Park. Drawings for the proposals for the terrace show the garden design schematically with no detailed information on the actual layout or planting, but an engraving by Thomas Higham of c.1830 shows more detail, including Cedar, deciduous and coniferous trees. The cast-iron railings were erected by at least 1826 since a letter of 18 September of that year in the records of the Crown Estate Paving Commission concerns painting them. Maintenance of the garden was contracted out by the Commission and average expenditure was around £12 a year, excluding the costs for the contractor.

Today the front garden consists of lawn with shrubs along the railings, mature and semi-mature trees and 2 circular rose beds set into the lawn. The trees include Atlantic Cedar, common ash, copper beech, Norway maple and Liquidambar; a Katsura tree was planted to commemorate Patricia Flower, Crown Estate Paving Commissioner 1959-2004. Shrubs are Prunus varieties, holly and laburnum. There are cast iron railings to the street and along the north-east boundary, with brick wall on the south-west boundary. The entrance is via driveways at both corners of the property where there are cast iron bollards. Among famous people associated with Hanover Terrace are H G Wells, who died at No. 13 in 1946 and Ralph Vaughan Williams. who died at No. 10 in 1958. The architect Anthony Salvin lived at No. 11, a pupil of John Nash and contemporary of William Collins.