Contract drawings for the central portion of the western Bank building, August 1766 (6)

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Bank of England
  - Bank of England, City of London for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 1788-1834 (1352)
    - 1788-1793 Initial assessment of existing buildings and minor alterations (73)
      - Bank buildings by Sir Robert Taylor, 1766 and 1802 (10)

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Reference number

SM (1) 1/3/1 (2) 1/3/2 (3) 1/3/3 (4) 1/3/4 (5) 1/3/5 (6) 1/3/6

Purpose

Contract drawings for the central portion of the western Bank building, August 1766 (6)

Aspect

1 A Plan of the Vault Story of the Building to be erected in Cornhill & Threadneedle Street 2 A Plan of the Kitchen Story of the Building to be erected in Cornhill & Threadneedle Street 3 A Plan of the Ground Story of the Building to be erected in Cornhill & Threadneedle Street 4 A Plan of the Principal Story of the Building to be erected in Cornhill & Threadneedle Street 5 A Plan of the Chamber Story of the Building to be erected in Cornhill & Threadneedle Street 6 A Plan of the Attick Story of the Building to be erected in Cornhill & Threadneedle Street

Scale

(1-6) to a scale

Inscribed

1 as above, referred to in the Articles between Mess^rsJames & Fordice for themselves & Robert Taylor on behalf of the Bank of England, Cespools drains & Privey as Markt in the Plan, the Vaults paved with hard Stocks in Mortar 2ⁱⁿ Deal Doors with hooks Eyes Steel Locks & Ketches to the same, two Necessarys Compleat, NB as the Ground is irregular & the old Buildings not taken down the New Building may not be precisely right to the Dimensions of this or any other of the plans, labelled: Wine Vault with archd cells, Small Beer Vault, Cespool & Stinke trap, Coal Vault, Stink trap, Necessary over well (sic), Threadneedle Street, Cornhill and dimensions given 2 as above, referred to in the Articles between Mess^rsJames & Fordice for themselves & Robert Taylor on behalf of the Bank of England, The Floor to be paved with Purbeck Stone Portland Stone Chimney Pieces, Portland Stone Steps to the staircase, the Ceilings & Quartering to be lath'd and plaister'd the Walls rendered & the whole to be whited, Elm Dressers with drawer shelves Pott Board & spitracks a Closet in one part of each of the Kitchens, Iron Barrs to the Windows From Hand Rail & Barr to the staircases, from Locks & Latches to Doors, two Stone Sinks, brass Washers, & Lead pipes, Skirting round the Walls Inch & ½ Deal Doors whole Deal Shutters & Window Boards; labelled: Strong Room Vaulted, Kitchen, Light Pantry, Housekeepers Room, Pantry, and dimensions given 3 as above, referred to in the Articles between Mess^rsJames & Fordice for themselves & Robert Taylor on behalf of the Bank of England, The floors to be laid with Inch & ¼ Oak, 2ⁱⁿ6 pannell Doors framed lead flush & square. Mortice Locks & hinges to the same the Walls lined with inch & ½ Deal, framed lead flush and square, Portland Stone Chimney Pieces & Slabs, the Ceiling floated lath & Plaister, Iron Fastening & Shutters to the Windows, labelled: Back Office, Sky Light Office, Great Office, Hall, and dimensions given 4 as above, referred to in the Articles between Mess^rsJames & Fordice for themselves & Robert Taylor on behalf of the Bank of England, Drawing Room, China Drawers, Dressing Room, Area, and dimensions given 5 as above, referred to in the Articles between Mess^rsJames & Fordice for themselves & Robert Taylor on behalf of the Bank of England, Bed Chamber, Dressing Room, Closett, and dimensions given 6 as above, referred to in the Articles between Mess^rsJames & Fordice for themselves & Robert Taylor on behalf of the Bank of England, Inch & ¼ Deal folding Floor Inch & half 6 panneld Square Doors Moulded Ovolo round Doors & Chimneys, Mortice Hinges & Iron Locks with Brass knobs to Doors, whole and Skirting, Floated Lath & Plaister to Ceilings, whited Floated Lath & Plaister to Partitions & Halls floated Rendring for Paper Portland Stone Chimney-pieces, Slabs & Flintstone Hearth; labelled: Area, Water Closet, Bed Chamber, Closett, Dressing Room, Bed Chamber, This Room is included in that of the Chamber Story, and some dimensions given

Signed and dated

(1-5) Rob^t Taylor, Alex Fordyce, W^mJames, Dated this 14^th Day of August 1766 (6) Rob^t Taylor, Dated this 14^th Day of August 1766

Medium and dimensions

(1-6) Pen and grey wash, within double ruled border, on laid paper (372 x 532, 368 x 526, 367 x 528, 364 x 536, 372 x 531,346 x 529)

Hand

(1-6) Taylor office

Watermark

(1) J Whatman (2) LVG (3-5) J Villedary (6) GR

Notes

Drawings 1 to 6 show one of the four Bank Buildings. The building shown occupied the north elevation of the triangular block, facing Threadneedle Street and the Bank of England (the building coloured in red on drawing 7). As the drawings show, the building is both a residence and a large office space on the ground floor. Two separate dwellings occupy the three floors above the offices and the two basement storeys. A separate part of the basement, consisting of two strong rooms, is apportioned to the offices and accessed by a separate staircase. Taylor has used top-lighting to light one of the enclosed offices on the ground floor.

Occupying the office space was a banking firm called Neale, James, Fordyce & Down, a firm closely associated with the European financial crisis of 1772-3. In June 1772 Alexander Fordyce fled the country and the firm stopped payments, precipitating a banking crisis throughout Scotland as well as in London and Amsterdam (Sutherland, pp.445-6).

Literature

L.S. Sutherland, Politics and Finance in the Eighteenth Century, 1984, pp. 445-6.

Level

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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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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