Chambers designed and built at least nineteen houses in Berners Street and possibly about twenty-six. The first house, no.13 was for him and designed in 1764-1765. The houses were well built but all the houses that Chambers designed in Berners Street have been demolished. This plan shows the houses to have been flat fronted, 27ft wide, with three bays and the entrances in the centre with a yard or area in front of them and steps down to a service entrance.

Chambers was born in Sweden and died in London. He travelled widely, visiting China, and studied architecture at the Ecole des Arts, Paris, from 1749 and in Italy from 1750 to 1755. Many of his drawings from this period are contained in his important 'Franco-Italian' album, held in the V&A. Chambers moved to London in 1755 and published his influential Treatise on Civil Architecture in 1759. Chambers demonstrated the breadth of his style in buildings such as Gower (later Carrington) House and Melbourne House, London, in such country houses as Duddingston, Scotland, and in the garden architecture he designed for Wilton House, Wiltshire, and at Kew Gardens. He became head of government building in 1782, and in this capacity built Somerset House, London.