[27] Finished drawing for the ground floor of a group of prison buildings for Edinburgh Bridewell, 1791, executed in part

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Robert and James Adam office drawings
- Public buildings
  - Bridewell, Edinburgh: designs for a group of prison buildings, 1790-91, executed in part (32)
    - Variant design for a castle-style bridewell scheme, 1791, executed in part (6)

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Reference number

SM Adam volume 33/34

Purpose

[27] Finished drawing for the ground floor of a group of prison buildings for Edinburgh Bridewell, 1791, executed in part

Aspect

Ground plan for a group of prison buildings with surrounding yards enclosed by a retaining wall with bastions. At the front of the site is a lodge flanked by two gate houses with entrances to their respective yards, bound by walled passages. The main central prison building comprises a D-shaped block comprising a central D-shaped inspecting lodge with a series of apertures overlooking a chapel and two rows of radiating cells divided by a central corridor. To the front of this building is the Governer's house, to the rear is another inspection lodge to overlook the yards, and either side of this building are two rectangular cellblocks with corner turrets, rear bows and internal courtyards. To the rear of the site are two additional lodges for the surgeons and chaplains

Scale

bar scale of 3/8 of an inch to 10 feet

Inscribed

General Plan of a new designed Bridewell &c^a for the County and City of Edinburgh / 4 rooms above for better / kind of Inmate’s / Surgeons / Chaplains / Yard for the Men / 4 rooms above for better / king of Debtors / Surgeons / Chaplains / Yard for Women / Lodge / Yard for Youth / Chaplains Garden / Inspection / Lodge / Chapel / passage between the sleeping & the working cells / Surgeons Garden / Gardens for the Governour[sic] (underwritten in pencil) / Governours / drawing room . Governess / draw^g room / Gov^rs / Dining room / Gov^r^s / dining room / Lobby / Garden for the Governess (underwritten in pencil) / Fumigating / rooms / Parlor / Hall / & / Guardroom / Washouse[sic] / Canteen / Gate & Lodge to the Bridewell / Gate & Lodge to Bedlam / Gate & Lodge to Prison / Yard for Women Maniac’s / Nurse / Court / Chapel / Court / Nurse / Court / Yard for Men Maniac’s / Yard for Men Debtors / Court / Court / Chapel / Court / Yard for Women debtors. / (and in pencil) The centre building of this is the / Plan that has been taken / Omitted in the Estimate [_ _ _] / [_ _ _ _ _] [_ _] [_ _ _] [_ _ _ _ _] [_ _ _ _]ting round the south side of / the Bridewell & only [_ _ _ _ _] 1/3d of the quantity / of [_ _ _ _] Building [_ _ _ _ _] [_ _ _] [_ _ _ _ _ _] / 246 feet over walls / 2 86. feet over walls

Signed and dated

1791
datable to 1791

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil, wash and coloured wash including Verdigris, Payne’s grey and Naples yellow, within a ruled border on laid paper (551x375)

Hand

Possibly
Adam office hand, possibly Robert Morison, John Robertson, or John Paterson

Watermark

Portal & Bridges

Literature

Bolton, 1922, p. 11
King, Vol. 1, 2001, pp. 56-7
For a full list of literature references see scheme notes.

Level

Drawing

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

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