Plan of the hall ceiling at Manresa House, Roehampton, Wandsworth by leading architect and designer Sir William Chambers (1723-1796). Manresa House was built between 1760 and 1768 or 1769, primarily to hold the Earl of Bessborough’s collection of antique sculpture. It was placed to give the appearance of an antique temple standing in a grove of trees, especially when viewed from Richmond Park, which bordered the site. This design, from the ceiling pattern book, is highly finished and presented as fragmentary. It is compartmentalized in the Palladian manner and is inscribed as being for the Saloon but its use in the pattern used in the Hall.

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.