All Souls Church, Langham Place, designed by John Nash (1752–1835), was a key feature in his redesign of London’s West End, commissioned under George IV (1762–1830). Positioned at the north end of Regent Street, the church functioned as an architectural terminus within a planned urban axis. Its distinctive form — a circular Ionic portico topped by a tapering spire — responded to the constraints of the site and reflects the eclecticism of the Regency period (1811–1837). Built in Bath stone, it was one of the few ecclesiastical buildings Nash designed and, unlike most Commissioners’ Churches funded after the Church Building Act of 1818, avoided standardised Neo-Gothic or Grecian models in favour of a scenographic solution.
The design draws on Nash’s training under Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) and shows a stronger intellectual affinity with William Chambers (1723–1796), particularly in the use of spatial variation and theatrical classical form. The circular portico may suggest familiarity with Bramante’s Tempietto (1502), admired for its centralised design. This formal language aligns with picturesque theory, especially the ideas of Uvedale Price (1747–1829) and Richard Payne Knight (1750–1824), who advocated for irregularity, variety, and composed visual progression in both architecture and landscape.
The spatial arrangement of All Souls appears to reflect visual strategies familiar from Italian art. Such conventions were well known among British elites shaped by the Grand Tour (c. 1740–1790), which promoted interest in classical ruins and idealised urban forms. Nash likely encountered these traditions through the engravings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) and through architectural theory, including Marc-Antoine Laugier’s (1713–1769) emphasis on essential form and Quatremère de Quincy’s (1755–1849) view of classical architecture as symbolically and historically structured. The visual coherence of the building also suggests familiarity with the work of Charles-Louis Clérisseau (1721–1820), whose picturesque renderings of antique architecture circulated widely in Britain and helped shape idealised images of the classical past.
