Garrick's Temple, designer unknown but possibly modelled on Lord Burlington's temple at Chiswick House, is built by David Garrick to entertain friends and house his Shakespeare mementos

Walpole founds a printing press, the Strawberry Hill Press.

William Pitt the Elder becomes secretary of state and transforms the British war effort against France in America

After the death of Prince Frederick in 1751, his widow Princess Augusta establishes the botanical gardens at Kew.

John Robartes dies and Radnor House passes through various ownerships.

English painter Joseph Wright sets up a studio in his home town, Derby

Joshua Reynolds, by now the most fashionable portrait painter in London, copes with as many as 150 sitters in a year

Garrick commissions from Roubiliac a statue of Shakespeare for a large niche in the Temple at Hampton. The original is now in the British Museum and an exact is replica in Garrick's Temple

A comet returns exactly at the time predicted by English astronomer Edmond Halley, and is subsequently known by his name

Stanhope remodels and extends Pope's Villa.

Liverpool-born artist George Stubbs sets up in London as a painter, above all, of people and horses

Portrait-painter Thomas Gainsborough moves from Suffolk to set up a studio in fashionable Bath

Staffordshire potter Josiah Wedgwood sets up a factory of his own in his home town of Burslem

The first (wooden) toll bridge at Kew, built by Robert Tunstall, is inaugurated by the Prince of Wales (later George III).. At this time it is the only bridge between Fulham and Kingston

Laurence Sterne publishes the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy, beginning with the scene at the hero's conception

A succession of victories cause 1759 to be known in Britain as annus mirabilis, the wonderful year

Asgill House, designed by Robert Taylor, is completed for Sir Charles Asgill, recently the Lord Mayor of London (1757-8)

A new theatre opens in Richmond, with a prologue written for the occasion by David Garrick

German painter Johann Zoffany moves to England to find work as a painter of conversation pieces and portraits

Walpole adds the Gallery, round tower, great cloister and cabinet to Strawberry Hill.

Hampton Court is effectively abandoned by George III as a Royal dwelling and gradually becomes occupied by "Grace and Favour" residents

On the death of his grandfather, George II, George III becomes king of Great Britain

Scottish chemist and physicist Joseph Black observes the latent heat in melting ice

John Harrison's fourth chronometer is only five seconds out at the end of a test journey from England to Jamaica

Designed by Sir William Chambers, the Orangery in Kew Gardens is completed. It bears the arms of Princess Augusta, for whom it was built, and her husband Prince Frederick.