Carlton House Terrace

THE two Carlton House Terraces stand on the site of the gardens of Carlton House. Carlton House itself stood further north towards Pall Mall but it was Carlton House which determined the axis to east and west of which the new terraces were built. This happened in a somewhat roundabout way. The first Carlton House (taking its name from Henry Boyle who became Baron Carleton in 1714) was disposed of, in 1732, to Lord Chesterfield who held it in trust for Frederick, Prince of Wales. The Prince held his court there and died in 1751. His widow lived there and absorbed the house next door westwards. She died in 1772 and the house stood empty. At this time Carlton House was a large but rather shapeless building with a courtyard and entrances towards Pall Mall and a garden sloping down to St James’s Park. Then, in 1783, another Prince of Wales—the future Prince Regent and George IV—took it over. He lost no time in instructing his private architect, Henry Holland, to improve the house out of recognition. The main result, so far as we are here concerned, was the creation of a symmetrical facade with a magnificent Corinthian portico and, on the same axis, a columnar screen with two arched entrances, towards Pall Mall.