Architectural taste during the Regency period continued a legacy of neoclassicism, popular throughout the second half of the 18^th century, but started to shed much of the residual rococo adornments. One such advocate was the influential designer Thomas Hope (1769-1831) whose Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, published in 1807, promoted designs drawn from the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. His renovation of a home on Duchess Street in London by renowned neoclassical architect Robert Adam, starting in 1799, focused on ‘themed’ rooms of the Egyptian, Roman and Greek styles. Hope’s Statue Gallery housed a number of ancient sculptures, which he hoped to maintain the purity of by keeping the design of the gallery room spartan. In 1802, Hope opened his home to the public, where it caught the attention of the Prince of Wales (later, George IV). The Prince’s subsequent love of the Greco-Roman style helped to amplify the fashion. Across London, stark Grecian temple forms were thus utilized for important buildings such as the British Museum (designed by Sir Robert Smirke in 1823) and St. John’s Church, Waterloo (designed by Francis Bedford and constructed 1822-1824), whose façade echoes that of the present lot.