Situated in St. James’s Park Duck Island Cottage, surrounded by foliage is more visible at night when illuminated than by day. The first governor of Duck Island was created by Charles II for Charles de St. Denis, Seigneur de Saint Evremond, exiled from France introduced champagne to Britain, the Monarch’s favourite tipple.

[T]he King planned to transform St. James’s Park into a fashionable French style garden complete with a canal extending almost the entire length of the park, placing at one end a 100ft duck island. He was to continue his family’s practice of keeping birds here which would put fowl on the menu. He appointed Edward Storey as ‘Keeper of the King’s birds’ hence nearby Storey’s Gate and Birdcage Walk running the length of the park.

Originally built as a decoy the building was extended in the succeeding years eventually being re-built by William III as Duck Island Cottage.

To show that Monarchs were not without humour in 1733 Queen Caroline revived the post of Governor of Duck Island and presented it to the celebrated ‘thresher’ poet a certain Stephen Duck.

The gardens and lake over time became a stench of stagnant water and dense wilderness until the park was landscaped by John Nash to approximate what we see today. In 1837 the Ornithological Society of London was formed and successfully petitioned that a house for a bird-keeper be constructed on Duck Island, but after a short time the Society was wound up and little was done for Duck Island.

Sliding gently into obscurity and screened from view by shrubs the hut was lived in from 1900 to 1954 by bachelor bird-keeper Thomas Hinton. After his death and with damaged caused by wartime air raids the cottage was deemed unfit for human habitation.

Saved from demolition by the Royal Fine Art Commission it was eventually remodelled and given over to two spinster park keepers who lived there until 1980.

Since that time Duck Island Cottage has been carefully restored and is decorative features reinstated. It is now the temporary headquarters of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust in 1994.

A full account can be found here. Picture of Duck Island Cottage © Copyright Julian Osley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

A version of this post was published by CabbieBlog on 3rd April 2013

Every month CabbieBlog hopes to show you a little gem of a building which you might have passed without noticing and this one you pass very closely indeed.

Situated on the western side of Regent’s Park next to the dominant Central London Mosque this very English building was originally was known as West Gate, but this was soon changed to the more familiar Hanover Gate Lodge.

[T]he 1994 film The Madness of King George recounted the sad tale of King George III who, not only lost England its American colonies during his reign, also lost his mind.

The Royal family seem to have been a pretty unimaginative bunch for the King’s eldest son was also named George and in 1811 was officially made Regent to rule in his father’s place due to his incapacity.

The son, by all accounts, was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, extravagant, self-indulgent and a disloyal friend, but his one redeeming feature was a passion for art and architecture. His holiday home in Brighton, The Royal Pavilion, gives you some idea of his extravagance and self-indulgence.

Shepherd TH. West Gate, Regent’s Park, 1827

For Londoners we should be eternally grateful the Prince Regent took architect John Nash under his wing. Regent Street and Regent’s Park with its surrounding houses are London’s only major piece of centralized planning, the speed with which his proposals were accepted led to some speculation about the relationship between Nash’s attractive wife Mary Anne and the Prince.

Grade II Listed Hanover Gate serves as one of four gates to Regent’s Park, namely the west gate. The other three gates are Macclesfield Bridge (the north gate), Gloucester Gate (the east gate) and York Gate (the south gate).

With its channelled stucco and painted stone the picturesquely monumental Hanover Gate Lodge was designed by John Nash in 1822 and is an absolute delight if you could but see it for it is surrounded by street furniture and an inappropriately planted conifer.

The two storey heavily rusticated small baroque lodge with its chamfered corners is usually taken to be octagonal for the leaded pyramidal roof rising to a central chimney stack give that impression. A series of swags above the four huge projecting porches, two of which have statues within its niches, give a sense of grandeur beyond its humble function.

Its name gives a nod to the Hanoverians of which the Prince Regent was the fourth of that ruling dynasty he would go on to predictably name his son – George.

Every month CabbieBlog hopes to show you a little gem of a building which you might have passed without noticing. Situated in St. James’s Park Duck Island Cottage, surrounded by foliage is more visible at night when illuminated than by day. The first governor of Duck Island was created by Charles II for Charles de St. Denis, Seigneur de Saint Evremond, exiled from France introduced champagne to Britain, the Monarch’s favourite tipple.

[T]he King planned to transform St. James’s Park into a fashionable French style garden complete with a canal extending almost the entire length of the park, placing at one end a 100ft duck island. He was to continue his family’s practice of keeping birds here which would put fowl on the menu. He appointed Edward Storey as ‘Keeper of the King’s birds’ hence nearby Storey’s Gate and Birdcage Walk running the length of the park.

Originally built as a decoy the building was extended in the succeeding years eventually being re-built by William III as Duck Island Cottage.

To show that Monarchs were not without humour in 1733 Queen Caroline revived the post of Governor of Duck Island and presented it to the celebrated ‘thresher’ poet a certain Stephen Duck.

The gardens and lake over time became a stench of stagnant water and dense wilderness until the park was landscaped by John Nash to approximate what we see today. In 1837 the Ornithological Society of London was formed and successfully petitioned that a house for a bird-keeper be constructed on Duck Island, but after a short time the Society was wound up and little was done for Duck Island.

Sliding gently into obscurity and screened from view by shrubs the hut was lived in from 1900 to 1954 by bachelor bird-keeper Thomas Hinton. After his death and with damaged caused by wartime air raids the cottage was deemed unfit for human habitation.

Saved from demolition by the Royal Fine Art Commission it was eventually remodelled and given over to two spinster park keepers who lived there until 1980.

Since that time Duck Island Cottage has been carefully restored and is decorative features reinstated. It is now the temporary headquarters of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust in 1994.

A full account can be found here. Picture of Duck Island Cottage © Copyright Julian Osley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.