Sir Robert Smirke RA (1 October 1780 – 18 April 1867) was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles (such as Gothic and Tudor). As an attached (i.e. official) architect within the Office of Works, he designed several major public buildings, including the main block and façade of the British Museum and altered or repaired others. He was a pioneer in the use of structural iron and concrete foundations, and was highly respected for his accuracy and professionalism. His advice was often sought in architectural competitions and urban planning, especially later in his life.

Smirke was born in London on 1 October 1780, the second son of the portrait painter Robert Smirke; he was one of twelve children. He attended Aspley School, Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire, where he studied Latin, Greek, French and drawing, and was made head boy at the age of 15. In May 1796, on the recommendation of George Dance the Younger, Smirke he began his study of architecture as a pupil of John Soane but left after only a few months in early 1797 due to a personality clash with his teacher. He wrote to his father:

He (Soane) was on Monday morning in one of his amiable Tempers. Everything was slovenly that I was doing. My drawing was slovenly because it was too great a scale, my scale, also, being too long, and he finished saying the whole of it was excessively slovenly, and that I should draw it out again on the back not to waste another sheet about it.

In 1796, he also began his studies at the Royal Academy, winning the Silver Medal and the Silver Palette of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce that year. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Academy in 1799 for his design for a National Museum. After leaving Soane he depended on George Dance the Younger and a surveyor called Thomas Bush for his architectural training.

In 1801, accompanied by his elder brother Richard, he attempted to embark on a Grand Tour, but was forced to return to England because war with France made it impossible to travel safely without fear of arrest. The short-lived Peace of Amiens the following year allowed British travellers to visit France, and Smirke set off again in September 1802 in the company of the artist William Walker, returning early in 1805. His itinerary and impressions are recorded in a series of letters and journals he wrote, many preserved in the archive of the RIBA, and in the many drawings he made of buildings and locations. In France he visited places such as Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Nîmes, Arles and Marseille; he was particularly impressed by the various Roman monuments in the south of the country. While in Italy, he passed through Genoa, Pisa, Florence and Siena but spent almost two months in Rome where he made the decision to visit Greece. Embarking from Messina, he travelled via the Ionian Islands to Corinth and the Argolid. Turning south into the Peloponnese, he saw the famous sites of Messene, Megalopolis, Bassai and Olympia, before travelling on to Athens where he spent a month sketching the monuments. From Athens Smirke wrote to his father:

How can I by description give you any idea of the great pleasure I enjoyed in the sight of these ancient buildings of Athens! How strongly were exemplified in them the grandeur and effect of simplicity in architecture! The Temple of Theseus (Temple of Hephaestus)... cannot but arrest the attention of everyone from its appropriate and dignified solemnity of appearance. The temple of Minerva (Parthenon)... strikes one in the same way with its grandeur and majesty. We were a month there. The impression made upon my mind... had not in that time in the least weakened by being frequently repeated and I could with pleasure spend a much longer time there, while those in Rome (with few exceptions) not only soon grow in some degree uninteresting but have now entirely sunk into disregard and contempt in my mind. All that I could do in Athens was to make some views of them...hoping that they will serve as a memorandum to me of what I think should always be a model.'

Following his departure from Athens, Smirke visited other famous ancient sites such as Thebes and Delphi.

Smirke's return from Greece was complicated by the resumption of war between Britain and France, and he had to travel via Sicily and Malta to avoid the risk of capture by enemy troops, though this challenge allowed him to visit and draw some of the famous Greek archaeological sites of Sicily. He also managed to revisit Naples (seeing the ruins of Pompeii and Paestum) and Rome, as well as other cities, as he travelled up the Italian peninsula towards Venice, Padua, Vicenza and Verona. Crossing into Austrian territory, he visited Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague before moving on to Dresden and Berlin, returning to England via Heligoland in early January 1805.