Chandos House, now a Grade 1 listed building, was designed and built by Robert and James Adam, the most prominent Scottish architects in Georgian Britain. The House is very important as a prototype for their later grand houses, such as 20 St. James's Square and Derby House. Chandos House was built speculatively, with monies from the Adam family and from the banker Sir George Colebrooke, another Adam client. It was started in 1769 and finished in 1771 on a plot stretching from Duchess Street south to the junction of Queen Anne Street and Chandos Street, which then belonged to the 2nd Duke of Portland.

The façade is of Craigleath stone, perhaps as an advert for the quarry to the west of Edinburgh on which the Adam brothers’ firm had recently taken a lease. It repeatedly failed to sell, and was even put up for sale by the Auctioneers Christies in June 1772, who described it as a most capital and elegant leasehold mansion, with beautiful stone front…six noble spacious rooms on a floor, a grand staircase…and water closets to the different Apartments.” [read more]