Decorating Hanover Terrace

Hanover Terrace was designed by John Nash and built in 1822-1823 by John Mackell Aitkins, occupying a prominent position on the western perimeter of Regent's Park overlooking the boating lake. The terrace was named in honour of the House of Hanover, the reigning royal dynasty, and was conceived as one of the principal architectural showpieces of the park's western boundary. The terrace comprises 20 houses unified behind a facade of considerable architectural ambition, featuring a central portico of giant Doric columns, projecting end pavilions with paired pilasters, and a continuous frieze decorated with sculpted panels depicting classical subject matter. The polychromatic colour scheme, employing a blue-tinted coating on the recessed planes and a cream-tinted coating on the projecting architectural elements, is documented in early nineteenth-century views and descriptions, though the precise original hue has been the subject of scholarly debate. The Crown Estate's conservation programme has maintained the polychromatic treatment through successive redecoration campaigns, using spectrophotometric analysis of early paint layers to calibrate the current colour specification. The terrace has housed a succession of distinguished residents, including the novelist Anthony Trollope, who lived at Number 39 during the 1870s, and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who occupied Number 10 from 1953 until his death in 1958. The terrace suffered limited bomb damage during the Second World War and was subsequently restored with relatively little loss of original fabric, making it one of the most authentic surviving elements of Nash's Regent's Park scheme.

The polychromatic painting of Hanover Terrace demands an exacting approach to colour specification, substrate preparation, and coating application that distinguishes it from the standard monochrome treatment of the other Nash terraces. The colour scheme employs two distinct tints of silicate mineral paint: a warm cream for the projecting architectural elements (columns, pilasters, window surrounds, cornices, and rustication) and a recessive blue-grey for the flat wall surfaces behind the architectural order. The precise hue specification is derived from spectrophotometric analysis of early paint layers, cross-referenced with historical views and documentary descriptions, and is controlled by the Crown Estate's approved palette. The technical challenge lies in achieving clean, precise colour separation along the complex three-dimensional junctions between projecting and recessed surfaces, requiring careful masking and skilled brush application rather than spray techniques. Before any coating, the standard stucco conservation protocol applies: removal of any modern impervious coatings, repair of defective stucco and Roman cement with compatible materials, and thorough surface preparation to ensure clean, dry, sound substrates. For the sculpted frieze panels, conservation cleaning using a combination of steam and micro-abrasive techniques is necessary to reveal the full sculptural modelling without damaging the Roman cement surface. Any repairs to the figurative panels must be carried out by a specialist sculpture conservator using Roman cement or a carefully matched NHL-based repair mortar, built up in thin layers and tooled to replicate the original surface texture. The silicate mineral paint system is applied in two coats per colour, with masking removed between colours to allow edge inspection and touch-up. Timber joinery, including the elaborate entrance doorcases, requires stripping, consolidation, and repainting in the traditional three-coat linseed oil and alkyd system, with the cream gloss colour matched to the projecting stucco elements for visual continuity. Cast iron balconettes and railings are maintained on the standard Crown Estate cyclical programme.