John Nash was an eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English architect. His efforts are largely credited for the layout of London during the Regency period. Though born into the middling classes, Nash was able to attain a solid education in architecture and design from architect Robert Taylor. His early career was stalled when he came into an inheritance and retired to his family's homeland of Wales. However, he made poor investments of his fortune and declared bankruptcy when he was thirty-one. His dire financial situation dictated a return to his career as an architect.

At first, Nash specialized in designing country houses. After almost a decade of such work, he had amassed enough funds to begin a new start in London. Within a year, however, he moved to Ireland, where he designed a number of large manor homes and castles. By 1810 he had attracted the attention of the Prince Regent (later King George IV, who was succeeded by his niece, Queen Victoria). The prince commissioned Nash to develop an area known as Marylebone Park. This was a true planned community, and Nash, along with a team of hand-selected assistants and other architects, designed what became Regent's Street, Regent's Park, and neighboring streets. Next, the Prince Regent hired Nash to design his Ocean Pavillion Palace in nearby Brighton, which was re-named the Royal Pavillion. It still stands today.

Nash also served as a director of the Regent's Canal Company, founded in 1812 to provide a canal link from west London to the River Thames. At this point, commissions for Nash's work poured in. He remodeled Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace, as well as the designs for the Royal Mews and Marble Arch near the palace. At the time, his update to Buckingham House was considered, according to one of his contemporaries, as "the most notorious architectural failure of its time." He is also responsible for the design and layout of the famous Trafalgar Square, St. James's Park, and Haymarket Theatre.

His personal life was also busy, though he did not marry until his mid-forties to a woman much younger than herself. Known to history as Mary Anne, she was possibly one of the Prince Regent's mistresses. It is possible that the Prince or his people introduced the couple. According to his contemporaries, once Nash was financially successful and married, he became proud and snobbish. Today, however, Nash is renowned as the architect who transformed London into a modern city.

Image: John Nash.