These terraces were built on Crown land between 1827 and 1832 to overall designs by John Nash, but with detailed input by other architects including Decimus Burton.
In the early 18th century, an aristocratic townhouse built on the site was rented by Baron Carleton, from whom the present name of the terrace derives.
The site's proximity to the centres of royal and political life in London have seen a large number of notable people take up residence in the terrace and the adjacent gardens.
In the 21st century the majority of the houses are occupied as corporate or institutional headquarters, while a smaller, but increasing, number serve as private homes.
The land on which Carlton House Terrace was built had once been part of the grounds of St James's Palace, known as "the Royal Garden" and "the Wilderness".
[1] By an indenture dated 23 February 1732 the lease was assigned to Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II, who predeceased his father, dying in 1751; his widow, Augusta, continued living in the house, making alterations and purchasing an adjoining property to enlarge the site.
[2] Instructions were given in 1826 to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests that "Carlton Palace" should be given up to the public, be demolished and the site and gardens laid out as building ground for "dwelling houses of the First Class".
[4] After Carlton House was demolished the development of its former site was originally intended to be part of a scheme for improving St James's Park.
For this John Nash proposed three terraces of houses along the north of the park, balanced by three along the south side, overlooking Birdcage Walk.
It consists of a granite column designed by Benjamin Wyatt topped with a bronze statue by Richard Westmacott of Frederick, Duke of York.
[8] The terraces, which are four storeys in height above a basement, were designed in a Neoclassical style, stucco clad, with a Corinthian columned façade overlooking St James's Park, surmounted by an elaborate frieze and pediment.
[9] According to the architectural historian Sir John Summerson Nash's designs were inspired by Ange-Jacques Gabriel's buildings in the Place de la Concorde, Paris.
Summerson's praise of the buildings is muted: The central pediments are a somewhat too contrived means of preventing an apparent sag in a very long façade and the attics on the end pavilions may be over-emphatic.
In fact, Carlton House Terrace is thoroughly typical of the extraordinary old man who designed it, but whose only contribution to the work was probably the provision of a few small sketches, done either in the glorious painted gallery of his Regent Street mansion or the flower-scented luxury of his castle in the Isle of Wight.
[7]The authors of the Survey of London take a more favourable view: The houses … form a double group each side of the Duke of York's Column.
[7] Proposals for redevelopment were put forward by the architect Sir Reginald Blomfield, who had earlier been one of those responsible for replacing Nash's Regent Street buildings with larger structures in the Edwardian neo-classical style.