Carlton House

“The annexed print is a view of the great hall, which is conceived with a classic elegance, that does honour to the genius of the late Mr. Holland, who was the architect of Carlton House. The size of the hall is forty-two feet in length and twenty-nine in breadth. The entrance to the hall from the vestibule is by a flight of steps, which gives it an air of uncommon grandeur; it is supported by eight fine columns of the Ionic order, with architrave, frieze, and cornice. The ceiling is coved, and ornamented with plain caissons, and lighted by a skylight of an oval form. The columns are finely executed in scaglioni, of a yellow porphyry; the capitals and bases are bronzed, as are all the ornaments in the hall.

In four corresponding niches are casts from the antique, of two Muses, the Antinous and the Discobulus; on the cornice are placed busts, urns, and griffins; over the niches are basso-relievos, which are also bronzed. At each end of the hall is a stove of a new and elegant construction; six Termini of fine workmanship support a dome or canopy: the whole is executed in cast-iron bronzed. Over each fire-place is an allegorical painting in imitation of bronze basso-relievo, and compartments over the doors in the same manner: the tout-ensemble is striking and impressive.

....Carlton House, with its court-yard, is separated from Pall-Mall by a dwarf screen, which is surmounted by a very beautiful colonnade. A riding-house and stables, belonging to His Royal Highness, are at the back, immediately contiguous to St. James's Park. The garden is laid out with the utmost taste and skill of which its limits are capable.

On the 8th of February, 1790, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales had a state levee, for the first time, at his palace of Carlton House, which was the most numerous of any thing of the kind for many years; and, except the want of female nobility, was more numerous and splendid than the generality of the drawing-rooms even at St. James's.

Carlton House was a palace belonging to the crown, and presented by His Majesty to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on his coming of age, for his public town residence. The old building being out of repair, it was judged proper by Parliament to enable His Majesty to erect the present noble edifice in its room; and Mr. Holland had the honour of being appointed the architect.”