Amazon Property are undertaking the main launch of The Park Crescent, London’s only Royal crescent, designed by renowned architect John Nash (1752-1835), transformed to provide 20 two to four bedroom ultra prime residences. The developmentincludes lateral, mezzanine and duplex apartments with 5-star hotel style concierge, fronting onto eight acres of magnificent private resident’s gardens and the 410 acres of Regent’s Park.
Amazon Property observe that the world’s finest homes are set apart by their provenance, uniqueness, quality and location. London has many streets and avenues, a small collection of squares and just a few crescents; yet it has only one Royal crescent: The Park Crescent. This absolute rareity sets this residential development clearly apart from any other.
The Park Crescenttraces its Royal origins back to 1811 when Prince George, Prince of Wales, was made Prince Regent and Acting Head of State due to the illness of his father King George III. The Prince Regent wanted his own palace and commissioned John Nash to create a masterplan for a Royal residence, surrounded by parkland, complete with a circus of grand townhouses providing palatial homes for the family and friends of the Regent, located on the Crown Estate lands of Regent’s Park (originally the hunting chase of King Henry VIII).
The Prince Regent felt that his family and friends would want their homes looking directly onto the parkland and his palace so the final design was for a grand Royal crescent with cream stucco façade and tall sash windows, overlooking private gardens and the park. The Royal crescent was built by Henry Peto between 1812-1820. In 1820, the Prince Regent became King George IV and moved into Buckingham Palace, so his planned Regent’s palace was shelved; however the Royal crescent was completed and now as The Park Crescent forms one of London’s finest residential developments.
The completed Royal crescent immediately became London’s most sought after address, home to exiled Royals, aristocrats, Ambassadors, business tycoons and high society. ResidentsincludedLord Joseph Lister, pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who lived there in the 1830s; General Sir George Ashe, Commander of the British Bengal Army, who lived there between 1820-1832; Count Joseph-Napoleon Bonaparte and family (brother of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte) who lived therebetween 1832-1840; actress Dame Marie Tempest, lived there between 1899-1902 and Sir Charles Wheatstone, inventor of the electric telegraph, who lived there between 1850-1875. One of London’s prestigious Blue Plaques on the façade of The Park Crescent highlights that it was also the home of Charles Francis Adams, Abraham Lincoln’s American Ambassador to London (son of US President John Quincy Adams) who lived there from 1863 to 1866. During this time part of the Royal crescent served as the US Ambassador’s official residence. Charles Adams returned to the US in 1869, but the family continued to use the Royal crescent as homeand Charle’s son, the US historian Henry Brooks Adams, used the property as his London residencebetween 1878 – 1908.
Between 1918 and the 1930s many of the crescent’s townhouses were converted into apartments. During WWII the crescent was damaged during the Blitz, but was carefully restored and rebuilt during the 1960s to exactly mirror the original Nash design. During the latter half of the 20th century, many of the properties in the crescent became office premises.
Then in 2013, Amazon Property purchased The Park Crescent and had the exciting and bold vision to carefully convert and meticulously restore the Royal crescent back into its original role as one of London’s most prestigious residential addresses. Due to the historically important, iconic and rare Nash architecture the restoration of the Royal crescent has taken several years of careful planning and highly skilled construction and restoration work to materialise. It has required outstanding craftsmanship, fine attention to detail and materials of the finest quality, sourced from around the world.
Behind the building’s retained classical Nash facade, newly built residences have been created which combine illustrious history with large lateral living spaces, generous ceiling heights and state of the art specification and technology.
Each residence within The Park Crescent has its own character and distinctive features, ranging from 1,429 sqft (133 sqm) up to 4,127 sqft (383 sqm) in size with ceilings up to 3.8 metres high. Each apartment has spacious double or triple volume reception room overlooking the private gardens & Regent’s Park. Features include full height doors, sash windows, generous ceiling heights and solid Oak flooring laid in bespoke designs.
The individually designed handmade kitchens have Calacatta Michelangelo marble and granite worktops and panels, high gloss lacquered Oak soft close cupboards and drawers and a full range of integrated appliances. The master bedroom suites have spacious interiors; walk in dressing rooms with bespoke joinery and finishes, and luxurious ensuite bathrooms.
Master bathroom features include Calacatta Michelangelo and Maron stone flooring and walls, lacquered Oak veneer panelling, bespoke marble double basins and fitted mirrored cabinets. There are free standing sculptural baths, walk in marble showers and polished chrome heated towel rails. Other apartment features include coffered ceilings with concealed lighting, stone entrance lobbies, under floor heating throughout, comfort cooling to living rooms and bedrooms and state-of-the-art security and Lutron home entertainment systems.The mezzanine and duplex residences provide some of the layout benefits of a house, with bedroom suites on one level and entertaining areason the other.
The Park Crescent residents will experience a world class concierge service and benefit from a 24 hour management service. Services include doormen, concierge for taxi/car hire, restaurant/theatre bookings, shopping delivery/services, dry cleaning/tailoring and car valet/servicing. Other facilities include access to a fleet of professional domestic staff providing services such as housekeeping, butler service, chauffeur and maintenance staff on hand 24/7.
The Park Crescent residents have direct views onto and access to their own eight acres of magnificent private resident’s only gardens. Known as Park Square and Park Crescent Gardens they form two of the grandest gardens in central London. Laid out by John Nash between 1811 and 1827, the sweeping lawns, gravel pathways, loggia, plantings and summer tennis court were designed to echo the gardens of Buckingham Palace. The plane trees in the gardens, planted in 1817, were to commemorate the allied victory at Waterloo two years earlier (what the exiled Bonaparte familywho lived in the Royal crescent thought of this has not been recorded).
The two gardens are connected by the Nursemaid’s Tunnel, a pedestrian underpass that connects them and allows families to promenade safely and directly through both gardens. The gardens contain a statue overlooking the Royal crescent that is by Sebastian Gahagan and is of Queen Victoria’s father – HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent &Strathearn– which was installed in 1824.
The first phase release of The Park Crescent was successfully sold, most off plan, using marketing material and computer generated images. Now this highly anticipated project is nearing build completion and Amazon Property are undertaking the main launch of The Park Crescent,which will take place around a VIP launch event on the 6th October 2016, in conjunction with the world-renowned Frieze London Art Exhibition.
The centrepiece of the main launch will be a new previously unseen flagship four bedroom show residence, created and designed by award winning design luxury design house 1508, whose team is formed from designers from design-led brands Candy & Candy, Heatherwick and Clapham Taylor. Alongside this, the main launch will showcase other previously unseen residences dressed by design houses Oliver Burns, DH Liberty and Taylor Howes.
Charles Gourgey, Director at Amazon Property said: “Luxury property is always defined by its provenance, uniqueness and location. London has many streets, a smaller collection of squares yet it has only one Royal crescent: The Park Crescent. This absolute rareity combined with the exacting quality of the residences, sets this development clearly apart from any other and positions it as one of London’s finest residential developments.”
Chris Lanitis, Director at Amazon Property said: “We successfully launched and sold the first phase of The Park Crescent on an off plan basis. Now that this highly anticipated residential development is nearing build completion we are undertaking the main launch in October to co-incide with the world renowned Frieze London Art Exhibition. The previously unseen newly dressed show residences will showcase artwork and form a ‘mini-Frieze’ showcase for the development. When we launch, visitors will have the opportunity to be the first to get an insight into the quality, unrivalled lateral living space and sweeping park views provided by these newly finished residences.”
