City authorities commissioned the building so that the Lord Mayor would no longer lodge in livery company halls, and it was funded by taxing non-Anglican Dissenters. George Dance the Elder designed it, with John Deval as master mason. Construction began in 1739 and ran to 1752, mostly in the 1740s. Springs on the site required piles for the foundations. The article calls the style Palladian.
It has three main stories over a rusticated basement, with a Corinthian portico of six columns. The Egyptian Hall, the main reception room, has twenty sculpture niches and no Egyptian motifs. George Dance the Younger re-roofed the central courtyard in 1795.
It is the Lord Mayor's official residence and is Grade I listed. It is not generally open to the public, though tours run most Tuesdays.
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