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London: 22 Dunraven Street (former New Norfolk Street), Westminster: alterations for John Hammet MP, 1801 (7)

Notes

Soane's work at 22 New Norfolk Street (now Dunraven Street) took the form of the addition of a projecting bow to the rear of the first floor of the house (overlooking Hyde Park) as well as a new attic and garrets. It is possible that the surviving porch is also by Soane. Four drawings ([1]-[4]) show that his original designs included alterations to the neighbouring house to the south, although ultimately it was only his alterations to No 22 that were executed. The client was John Hammet (1767-1811), banker and MP for Taunton (1800-11). He enraged Soane by giving instructions directly to the builders to extend the first-floor balcony two feet forward of the ground floor balcony. A typically undiplomatic response from Soane led to his dismissal and payment of just £65.0.0 from an initial estimate of £1500, after which the work continued under the direction of James Spiller (c.1761-1829). Soane's work was retained when the rear part of the house was reconstructed in 1914.

Literature:
P. Dean, Sir John Soane and London, 2006, p. 200; S. Bradley & N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 6: Westminster, 2003, pp. 552-3; F. H. W. Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), 1980, p. 284.

Tom Drysdale, June 2015

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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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Contents of London: 22 Dunraven Street (former New Norfolk Street), Westminster: alterations for John Hammet MP, 1801 (7)