Dover House, the London headquarters of the Scotland Office, is at 66 Whitehall. The core of the current building was built, from 1754 to 1758, by James Paine, a leading Palladian architect, for Sir Matthew Featherstonehaugh MP. Paine published his designs for the main house and the two side storeys in his 'Plans, Elevations and Sections of Noblemen and Gentlemen's Houses', a manifesto for British architecture in contradistinction to ancient and continental models.
In 1788 the house was acquired by Frederick, Duke of York, second son of George III. The Duke appointed Henry Holland to remodel the house. Holland was heavily influenced both by contemporary French neo-classical architecture and by recent studies of ancient Greek architecture. He designed the elegant rotunda, built in what had been the courtyard in front of Paine's house, and the Whitehall façade with its Ionic portico. Holland also designed the suite of rooms on the ground floor of Paine's house; the central room is an important survival of painted decoration in an Etruscan or Raphaelesque style.
After the Duke of York the house was occupied by the Melbourne family, including Lord Melbourne (Prime Minister 1834, 1835 - 1841) and his wife Lady Caroline Lamb. From 1830 the house was leased by Agar Ellis, first Lord Dover. The first floor rooms were subject to further alteration during this period; some of the work has been attributed to J P Gandy Deering.
The building became the Scottish Office in 1885. For a period during the Second World War it was used as the London headquarters of General Montgomery. Since 1999 it has been the London headquarters of the Scotland Office and the Office of the Advocate General for Scotland.