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Among the improvements in progress in the British metropolis, there is none so conspicuous as that of the New Street; and perhaps, for many centuries, there may not occur in London a union of circumstances necessary to be combined for the execution of so vast a project; and should this even be the case, still, the great advantages of novelty and contrasting character with former practices, which are eminently possessed by Regent Street and the streets connected with it, will probably be absent.

In England, as elsewhere, the taste of the reigning sovereign, and his disposition to encourage the arts of his country, are requisite for creating in the public a feeling and impulse adequate to great architectural undertakings; and perhaps the effects of the patronage of princes, or the want of it, is more evident and lasting in architecture than in any other of the sister arts. Towards the improvements embraced by the present subject, the patronage of the monarch coincided with the circumstances of the soil on which the street was to be formed.