Regent’s Park tube station is a London Underground station near to Regent’s Park, located on Marylebone Road between the two arms of Park Crescent.
The station was opened on 10 March 1906 by the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (BS&WR); In the original parliamentary authority for the construction of the BS&WR no station was allowed at Regent’s Park. Permission was granted to add it to the already partially constructed line in 1904.
Because of this same rule and unlike most of the BS&WR’s other stations, Regent’s Park has no surface buildings and is accessed from a subway.
The station is served by lifts – there is also a staircase which can be used and which has 96 steps.
Great Portland Street station is within easy walking distance for interchanges to the Circle and Metropolitan lines.
Marylebone Park, later Regent’s Park, was formerly part of the manor of Marylebone, held by the nunnery of Barking.
In the 16th century, the land passed to the Crown and was enclosed as a deer park. During the 18th century the area was leased as farm land by the Duke of Portland, reverting to the Crown in 18 11. Prior to this date, John Fordyce, Surveyor-General of His Majesty’s Land Revenue, recognised the potential of the park and set up a competition for its development. Plans submitted were never used and in 1809, architects and surveyors of the Office of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenue were invited to put forward alternative proposals. Partly due to his acquaintance with the Prince Regent, John Nash’s design was chosen in 1811. Nash’sdesign included the park in a grand scheme to create a new processional route through London from CarIton House, north along Regent Street and Portland Place to Regent’s Park.
Regent’s Park and its buildings took seventeen years to construct. Work began in 1812 with Park Crescent, which due to financial problems, was not completed until 1822. Construction of Park Square followed between 1823-5. Development of the terraces began with Cornwall Terrace in 1821,
Kent Terrace being the last in 1827. The original intention shown by Nash’s plan of 1811, was for a more urban character, to create a “rus in urbe” effect. The forty villas shown on this plan were reduced to eight by 1827 and several of the terraces, the circuses and crescents were not built. One of the major losses was the Central Circus and Prince’s Palace or “Guignette”. By 1824, the Inner Circle was let as a nursery and later leasedby the Royal Botanic Society in 1839. St. Marylebone Parish Church (Thomas Hardwick) was built to the south of Marylebone Road between 1813-19. Nash’s design for Regent’s Park was subsequently amended, with the addition of York Gate enclosing the church in a magnificent vista.
To the east of York Gate, the Royal Academy of Music (1910) and Harley House (1904) occupy sites formerly taken up by two eighteenth century houses which were excluded from the Nash design. In 1826, a twenty-acre site on the north edge of the park was leased by the Zoological Society.
Another significant alteration was made to part of the park in 1864 by William A. Nesfield’s proposals for the “Avenue Gardens” in an area now
known as the southern section of the Broadwalk. The few recent additions to Regent’s Park include the London Central Mosque by Sir Frederick
Gibberd, Sir Denys Lasdun’s Royal College of Physicians and more recently three classical villas by Quinlan Terry.
Streets of the City of Westminster