User:Ruskinmonkey/St Peter's Regent Square

St Peter's, Regent Square, was an Anglican church in Regent Square, London. It was built to a Greek revival design by William Inwood and his  son Henry William Inwood between 1822 and 1826. It was damaged by bombing in the Second World War, and the last remains were demolished  in 1967.

History
The church was built with on the east side of the square between 1822 and 1826, before any of the houses had been constructed. The cost, of about £16,000 was met by a grant from the commisioners for building new churches under the act of 1818. The architects were William Inwood and his son Henry William Inwood. It was one of the three neo-classical churches they built together, all in the parish of St Pancras, the others being St Pancras New Church and the Camden Chapel (later All Souls), Camden Town. It was designed to accomodate 1,832 worshippers.

It was rectangular in plan with a flat ceiling and tall round-headed windows. The sanctuary took the form of a recess between two vestries, with a single east window flanked by Ionic columns. There were galleries on three sides, supported by Ionic columns. The Gentleman's Magazine noted that several variations of the order had been used. The writer found this excessively pedantic.

According to an article in the Penny Cyclopedia of 1837,  the portico of the church used an Ionic order  "met with by Mr. Inwood among some fragments on the banks of the Ilissus, near Athens, in which the eye of the volute is remarkably large, and carved into a rosette."

The west front, facing the square, had  a six-columned Ionic portico the full width of the church. An entablature ran all the way round the building. Just behind the western portico a circular tower rose above the roof in two stages. There was also a pediment over the projecting central section of the east end, flanked by the lower vestries.

The church was damaged by bombing in the Second World War and the nave was partly demolished soon after, but the portico survived until 1967.