An ambitious projector of London improvements, Trench was a colonel and a Tory MP from 1807 until 1847. After proposing a monumental pyramid to celebrate the victory at Waterloo (1815) he designed an embankment along the north side of the Thames from Charing Cross to Blackfriars. The idea was to relieve traffic on the Strand and create an elegant promenade along the river. When presented to Parliament in 1824, Trench's scheme aroused fierce opposition and was quickly dropped. He attempted to revive it in 1841 but construction did not begin until 1864, five years after Trench's death.
The panorama of the Thames Quay represents Trench's plan for the Embankment which was not begun until after his death. The bust on the bracket portraying Trench's patron, the Duchess of Rutland, is now at Castle Howard.