John Nash (architect) - Welsh Interlude

Welsh Interlude

Nash left London in 1784 to live in Carmarthen, where his mother had retired to, her family being from the area. In 1785 he and a local man Samuel Simon Saxon re-roofed the town's church for 600 Guineas. Nash and Saxon seem to have worked as building contractors and suppliers of building materials. Nash's London buildings had been standard Georgian terrace houses, and it was in Wales that he matured as an architect. His first major work in the area was the first of three prisons he would design, Carmarthen 1789-92, this prison was planned by John Howard (prison reformer) and Nash developed this into the finished building. He went on to design the prisons at Cardigan (1791–96) and Hereford (1792–96).

By 1789 St David's Cathedral was suffering from structural problems, the west front was leaning forward by one foot, Nash was called in to survey the structure and develop a plan to save the building, his solution completed in 1791 was to demolish the upper part of the facade and rebuild it with two large but inelegant flying buttresses.

In 1790 Nash met Uvedale Price, whose theories of the Picturesque would have a major future influence on Nash's town planning. In the short term Price would commission Nash to design Castle House Aberystwyth (1795), its plan took the form of a rightangled triangle, with an octagonal tower at each corner, sited on the very edge of the sea, this marked a new and more imaginative approach to design in Nash's work.

One of Nash's most important developments were a series of medium sized country houses that he designed in Wales, these developed the villa designs of his teacher Sir Robert Taylor. Most of these villas consist of a roughly square plan with a small entrance hall with a staircase offset in the middle to one side, around which are placed the main rooms, there is then a less prominent Servants' quarters in a wing attached to one side of the villa. The buildings are usually only two floors in height, the elevations of the main block are usuually symmetrical. One of the finest of these villas is Llanerchaeron, at least a dozen villas were designed throughout south Wales.

He met Humphry Repton at Stoke Edith in 1792 and formed a successful partnership with the landscape garden designer. One of their early commissions was at Corsham Court in 1795-6. The pair would collaborate to carefully place the Nash-designed building in grounds designed by Repton. The partnership ended in 1800 under recriminations, Repton accusing Nash of exploiting their partnership to his own advantage.

As Nash developed his architectural practice it became necessary to employ draughtsmen, the first in the early 1790s was Augustus Charles Pugin, then a bit later in 1795 John Adey Repton son of Humphry.

In 1796, Nash spent most of his time working in London, this was a prelude to his return to the capital in 1797.