Scale
(83) bar scale (84) to a scale (85) bar scale and full size
Inscribed
83 The Bank of England and elevation labelled, some in red pen (Soane): Centre of Deputy / Governors Room, B (twice), Qy fa-- (face?) of balustrade, A (four times), Query 23'0", A.A. to be 1/3 the width / of B, x no windows, Bank / Collonade Court / Final
84 (Soane) Qy 9'6" or 9'9" and dimensions given
85 (Soane) A, A / Full size and some dimensions given
Signed and dated
- (83) Sepr 4: 1803 (84) This side Oct 4 1803 and Oct: 4 1803
Hand
Soane office and Soane
Watermark
(84) Taylor 1801 (85) J Whatman 1801
Notes
As shown in the variant plans for the north-west extension (for example SM 9/2/9, drawing 7) the windows on the south side of the Court were a concern; shedding light into the offices was of the utmost importance, as these smaller rooms were not top-lit. The Governor's Room, Deputy Governor's Room and two waiting rooms faced the Court from the south. Each of these offices needed windows looking on to the Waiting Room Court, including the Governor's Room located in the far south-east corner of the Court. Drawing 83 shows paired attached columns in the centre of the elevation, with each column pair framing a window. This design allowed for two large, but centrally located, windows. Drawing 85 shows the executed design with a similar column feature, in correspondence with other walls of the Court, but also with understated windows at the corners of the elevation. In drawing 85, the ornamentation in the attic is not as executed; the executed version had Vitruvian scrolls decorating the central panel. As in the executed version, drawing 85 shows the columns between pilasters rather than antae. Soane had previously used antae to frame columns, as in the Lothbury Street screen walll; this design is a notable departure.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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
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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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