Surveys of the existing property, with preliminary designs for the north-west extension and the realigned Princes Street and a design for a domed central pavilion on Lothbury Street, 1800 (4)

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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)
    - 1799-1810 Expansions north-west and rebuilding of existing offices (487)
      - Acquiring property for the north-west extension, 1800-1803 (23)

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Reference number

SM (5) 9/3/19 (6) 9/3/12 (7) 9/3/8 (8) 9/3/18

Purpose

Surveys of the existing property, with preliminary designs for the north-west extension and the realigned Princes Street and a design for a domed central pavilion on Lothbury Street, 1800 (4)

Aspect

5 Site plan of the north-east corner showing holdings and outline of the proposed Bank extension; elevation of the existing Lothbury Street front and elevation of the proposed Lothbury Street front showing central four-columned projection surmounted by a stepped dome 6 Site plan of the north-east corner showing holdings and a design for the north screen wall; and elevation of proposed Lothbury Street front with domed central pavilion 7 Site plan of the Bank showing holdings and two alternative designs for Princes Street; elevation of existing Lothbury Street front; and elevation for proposed Lothbury Street front with domed central pavilion 8 Site plan of the Bank showing two alternative designs for Princes Street; elevation of existing Lothbury Street front; and elevation of proposed Lothbury Street front with domedcentral pavilion

Scale

(5-8) bar scale

Inscribed

5 The Bank of England, Entrance into the Bank / from Lothbury, Lothbury (twice), Princes Street, Drapers Court (twice) holdings labelled, including: Mess^rs Elliot & C^o / Empty, Mess^rsClive & C^o / Empty, Grocers C^o/ Beadles House, The Crown / at Will 6 Rec^dfrom M^r Leverton / Thursday Even: May 29: 1800, a key A to E referring to the plan: CD is to be at right Angles with AB April 22^nd / E The Curve from E to D to spring from the corner of M^r Hancock's House, (Soane): The parts coloured Red and the part of the Garden through which / Princes Street is proposed to be continued contains the property / proposed to be purchased by the Bank - // Signed John Soane. Plan labelled: Lothbury (twice), Drapers Court (twice), Princes Street, Proposed continuation of Princes Street into Lothbury, The Bank of England, Grocers Company Garden, Upper Beadles House / of the Grocers Company, This part of Princes Street proposed to be shut up and small plan in upper right of sheet labelled: M^r Hancocks House, E, Circular Wall forms the West side of Princes Street 7 N^o 3, key A to CD, References to the plan AA These parts to be added to the Garden belonging to the Worshipful Company of Grocers agreeable to the first proposition. // B This Wall to be built with a communication / into Princes Street // The difference in value between the Ground / marked AA and the Ground taken from the Grocers / Garden partly forming the continuation of Princes Street / and partly added to the Bank (marked with the letters CD) to be assessed and paid for. Plan labelled: The Bank of England, Entrance to Bank from Lothbury, Lothbury (twice), This part of Princes Street to be shut up, Draper Court (twice), Numbers 7 to 25, Proposed continuation of Princes Street, Proposed outline of the Bank, Proposed line of Houses. 1800., The Grocer's Company Garden, Princes Street, Present Line of Houses, Threadneedle Street, The Sun Fire Office, The Bank Coffee House, Bank Street, The Royal Exchange, S^t Bartholomew's Lane, Church, Tower, Boughey, Lacy & Whitton, Locket / Cock Tavern, Weller, Mess^rs Grote & C^o, Mess^rs Pole & C^o, Capel Court 8 A key AA and B referring to the plan: AA These parts to be added to the Garden belonging to the Worshipful Company of Grocers / agreeable to the first proposition // B. This wall to be built with a communication into Princes Street / the difference in value between the Ground mark'd AA and the Ground taken from / the Grocers Garden partly forming the communication of Princes Street and partly added / to the Bank mark'd with the letters CD to be assessed and paid for. Plan labelled: The Grocers Company's / Garden, Upper Beadles House / of the Grocers Company, this part of Princes Street to be shut up, Lothbury, Entrance to the Bank from Lothbury, Founders Hall Court, Token House Yard, S^tBartholomew's Lane, Church, court (twice), Cock Tavern, Chapel Court, The Royal Exchange, The Bank / Coffee House, Threadneedle Street, Sun Fire Office, Bank Street, Princes Street and the numbers of holdings on the site of the proposed North West Extension

Signed and dated

(6) Copy March 17^th 1800 (7) Copied Nov^r 1^st 1808 from / the original plan made in March 1800 (8) 1800

Hand

Soane office

Watermark

(6) James Whatman Turkey Mill Kent 1794

Notes

In drawing 5, each holding is labelled with the house number, the owner's name, the final year of the lease and the rent. This drawing apparently serves as a guide for acquiring the properties. Judging from the outline of the proposed building, Soane had already begun designing the screen wall of the new extension.

Drawings 5 to 8 show variant designs for the screen wall on the north side of the Bank, on Lothbury Street. The designs include a grandiose projecting blind portico in the centre of the wall. The pavilion-like projection consisted of four raised columns in antis framed by pilasters and surmounted by a dome. The drawings show slightly varying designs for the dome.

Drawing 7 shows the holdings to the south-east. In 1800 the Bank gained permission from Parliament for widening Bartholomew Lane by pulling down these four houses and inserting a footpath through part of the tower of St Bartholomew's Church. This plan was never executed because of the death of the Bishop of London in May 1808, with whom the negotiations had been made; his successor was less amenable. Later, in 1825, the Bank intended to submit another proposal but the financial crisis of that year led to more postponements.

Literature: W. Marston Acres, The Bank of England from within, Oxford, 1931. pp. 397, 476-477

Level

Drawing

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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.

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).