(5) to a scale (6) scale of ¼ inch to 1 foot

5 Place this window / flush with the / outside, See Temple of the Winds, dimensions given and (verso) Section of the Bank Stock Office, (pencil) dimensions given 6 The Bank of England, Design for the Bank Stock Office, (clockwise from the upper-right) As in the Governors Waitg Room / making the flutes / broad, make the flutes / very shallow not more / than one inch in deepest parts, Line the Walls with stone rust: / to the first fascia, let the fret be cut in the solid, a key A. The same as used in the Vestibule / B. The Temple of the Winds with / Variations / C. Pal. p. 51 and pl. 25 / D. / E. Pal. pl. 15 fret & pl. 19 fret, I wish the / column to / be only 3 feet: diam: & to range with / the fascia D, Raise Column, Plaistering, Plaister Cornice like that in / unclaimed dividend office, The large flutes as in the Vestibule, dimensions given and (verso) Query Tube of Copper or Iron & / Iron Pillar in Cent / Perhaps the Tubes to wind / instead of being - - - - - - [illegible], dimensions given

• (5) (verso) Jan^y 21 1792 (6) datable to January 1792

(5-6) Pen, pencil, pale red ink and sepia wash on wove paper with three fold marks (509 x 638, 517 x 648)

Soane office

Drawing 5 closely follows the last triple-lanern drawing (drawing 3), keeping the central stove and column-flue, the rectangular fenestration in the central lantern, and the pilasters running down to the floor; while incorporating Soane's important sketched amendment in drawing 3 to cover the end-bay lanterns, replacing them with clerestory thermal windows, and also eliminating the round-headed niches in the wall and making the column-flue more Tuscan than Doric. The sketch plan on the verso shows Soane experimenting with oval vaulting in the hall's end bays, having not yet settled on the eventually realised cross-vaults.
The sketches made with pen in the left-hand side of drawing 5 shows Soane beginning to work out the decorative scheme including, as realised, the triple-fluted pilasters raised up on piers and the Greek-key entablature moulding from the Athenian Tower of the Winds, and, unrealised, a Vitruvian-scroll moulding at the rim of the central oculus. The rough sketches also show the idea in the left bay to lower the vaulting and flatten the roof (eventually realised), and in the right bay the idea (also realised) to make a more semicircular lower arch.
Drawing 6 is a preliminary column-flue design incorporating Soane's revisions from drawing 5 and, similarly he uses this drawing to continue working out the hall's decorative scheme. In pen Soane sketches motifs for various mouldings and identifies their sources in the marginal inscriptions. Though few of the decorative ideas explored here were actually used in the built hall (the principle exception being the Greek-key frieze), the drawing nevertheless very significantly shows Soane's desire to blend motifs already present in Taylor's Bank with some of his own favourite sources from Greek and Roman architecture. In all cases, lightness and elegance are emphasized for the low-profile plaster decoration, as is an insistent horizontality that balances the composition's verticality.
The key refers to important features. A is for the fascia at the springing of the lower arches, a copy of the wave-scroll moulding from the adjacent vestibule to the Bank's east wing built by Taylor in 1765-68 (not realised in the built design). B is for the frieze running through the level of the pilaster caps, a variation of the fret moulding from the first-century Athenian Tower of the Winds (mis-called a Temple here) that Soane greatly admired (realised). C is for the four arch soffits, a vine moulding derived from plates 51 and 23 of Robert Wood's The Ruins of Palmyra (1753) another much admired source (not realised). D is for around the oculus beneath the lantern, a fret moulding as in Taylor's Bank Governor's Waiting Room (not realised). E is for the lantern cornice's modillions derived again from Wood's Palmyra, here plates 15 and 19 (not realised).

(6) D. Abramson, Building the Bank of England: money, architecture, society 1694-1942, 2005, p. 111; E. Schumann-Bacia, John Soane and the Bank of England, 1991, pp. 52-53, ill. 38; J. Summerson, 'The evolution of Soane's Bank Stock Office in the Bank of England', The unromantic castle, 1990, pp. 151 & 153-154, ill. 130

Drawing

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