ames Pennethorne played a major part in the evolution of London into a modern metropolis. When John Nash made him his principal assistant in 1828, he embarked on a programme of road-route improvements which included Carlton House Terrace; the St. James’s Park area; New Oxford Street, which cut across the dreadful slums of St Giles Rookery (1843-7); Commercial Street, which, it was hoped, would allow dockland traffic to bypass the city area (1843-7); the approaches to Windsor Castle (1846-52); and Buckingham Gate (1853-8).
Allied to his street improvements were the laying out of several parks, including, in London: Kennington Park in South London (1841-51), Victoria Park in the East End (1842-45), and Battersea Park on the South Bank of the Thames (1858).
Bibliography
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Halliday, Stephen. Making of the Metropolis: Creators of Victoria's London. Derby: Breedon, 2003.
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"Sir James Pennethorne" (Obituary). The Builder Vol. 29 (16 September 1871: 717-18. Available on the Internet Archive.
Thornbury, Walter. Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People and Its Places. Vol. III: Westminster and the Western Suburbs. London, Paris & New York: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. Available on Google Books Reader.
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Created 25 September 2007
Last modified 5 November 2026