The Quadrant

Above is a beautiful etching of another perfect example of one of John Nash's "events". This rounded section of street is known as the Quadrant, and as one can see from the original plan on the Nash Page, it was originally to become a square, with a public building at its center. Nash tried to match the famed rue de Rivoli with the Quadran. As this famous street used glass covored arcades, the Quadrant has a covored section along the sides of the street. The Quadrant continues with the "round" theme used in other areas of the street, and employs the same neoclassical architecture as the rest of the street. This section of the street was designed, like the AllSouls Church, to be a unifying feature between two sections of street that were hidden from each other by a turn in path of the street. The Quadrant pulls this off by being a building that is quintesential Regent Street. It uses the same architecture as the rest of the street, It is very similar to the terraces found at either end of the street, and lastly it is a great "event" in the street. Instead of pedestrians noticing differences in the areas of the street, their eyes are drawn to the nearest event. In this case, the Quadrant serves to distract attention away from the street around it. It does this so well, that even as Regent Street changed around it, the Quadrant manages to be a successful "event" along the street, and helps to add a sense of cohesiveness to the southern half of the street.

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