The Quadrant, Regent Street

Built between 1818 and 1820, the Quadrant was one of the most impressive features of the 'Royal Mile' designed by the architect John Nash to link Carlton House with Regent's Park. This print shows the Quadrant, which connected Lower Regent Street with Regent Street proper, shortly after its completion. It was the only part of the street actually built by Nash himself, a testament to how important he deemed it.

In this coloured print after a work by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd, the County Fire Office can be seen on the right. People mingle by the colonnades as the Household Cavalry troops down the centre of Regent Street. A couple in a gig speed through the junction before it gets blocked by the parade. Other horses and carts are also depicted but none of these details detract from the focus of the print: the Quadrant stretching into the distance.

The colonnades shown here, intended as a covered walkway, were removed in October 1848. In addition to offering protection from the rain, the colonnades also provided a screen for insalubrious activities, such as prostitution and gambling. In response to their destruction, one London writer woefully declared that 'one of the most striking features of modern London has been cut off its face, and a great public injury committed.'

The topographical draughtsman and drawing master Thomas Hosmer Shepherd prepared a series of street views for Rudolph Ackermann's 'Repository of the Arts', together with his older brother George in 1813. Shepherd was later commissioned by Jones and Co. to produce a series of views of London's newest buildings, streets and squares. After 1842 he was a regular contributor to the Illustrated London News.