Preliminary designs for the cellar, one dated 16 May 1798 (3)

Explore Collections

You are here: CollectionsOnline / Preliminary designs for the cellar, one dated 16 May 1798 (3)

Browse

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)
    - 1791-1801 Rebuilding of offices in the east wing and north-east extension (430)
      - Consols Transfer Office, 1797-1799 (75)

Use of images and copyright
Enlarge this Image

Print this image in A4 view

Reference number

SM (3) 10/6/10 (4) volume 74/64 (5) volume 74/73

Purpose

Preliminary designs for the cellar, one dated 16 May 1798 (3)

Aspect

3 Plan for cellar under new Transfer Office 4 A plan & section of one of the four piers in the cellar / under the new Transfer Office with the center line of each adjoining arch 5 Longitudinal (Bailey) Section of a Design for the 3 P^r Cent Transfer Office with cellar, looking north

Scale

(3-4) to scale (5) bar scale

Inscribed

3 as above, dimensions given 4 as above, A coppy, dimensions given 5 as above, (Bailey) The Bank of England, some dimensions given

Signed and dated

(3, 5) datable to 1798-99 (4) Bank 16 May 1798

Medium and dimensions

Hand

Soane office

Notes

Drawing 3 shows the cellar was to be built of eight cross-vaulted bays by four cross-vaulted bays. This corresponds to the hall above with three bays across under the central dome, two bays under the end-bays and one bay under the eastern recess. This is more clearly shown in the section of drawing 5.

Four main piers, corresponding to the four main piers in the hall above, and eight smaller piers, for additional support, form segmental arches supporting the foundations of the hall. Drawing 4 shows the structure of the piers, made of stone and iron tie-rods with a column-flue running through the centre. Drawing 5 indicates doors at the north end under the central dome of the hall, suggesting that perhaps the cellar was used for storage.

Drawing 5 also shows an alternative design scheme for the Consols Transfer Office without a central lantern or clerestory windows, reducing the height of the end-bays.
Bailey (1792-1860) was an office assistant between 1806 and 1837 and then from 1837 to 1860 he was the curator. He took on a role of inscriber within the office adding dates and locations to drawings at a later date for referencing. This could possibly have led to inaccuracies, especially if he added the information after Soane's demise in 1837 and so one should consider these inscriptions with caution.

Level

Drawing

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

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.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).