Carlton House, on London’s Pall Mall, was presented to George when he came of age in 1783. Over the next forty years he created an elegant sequence of colourful interiors, rich in textiles, filled with masterpieces of furniture, sculpture, porcelain and paintings, many of them purchased in Paris in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Among them were Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Teniers. These hung in carefully arranged groups above elegant furniture with elaborate veneers or incorporating porcelain and hardstone panels with gilt-bronze mounts.

At Carlton House George first experimented with schemes in a Chinese fantasy taste, which would later bear fruit at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. During the Regency and in the early years of George IV’s reign, Carlton House became the centre of court life, its lavish interiors acting as backdrop to increasingly spectacular entertainments. The building, however, suffered from structural defects and in 1827 it was demolished. Its furnishings were reused in the new architectural schemes at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle that became the focus of the final decade of George IV’s life.