Site record and site progress drawings for the later south-east Transfer Office, one dated 9 June 1818 (3)

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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)
    - 1817-1833 Rebuilding of offices in the south-east and the façade, temporary office spaces and presentation drawings (219)
      - South and south-east Transfer Offices, 1817-23 (115)

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Reference number

SM (65) volume 47/31 (66) 2/3/b4 (67) volume 48/3

Purpose

Site record and site progress drawings for the later south-east Transfer Office, one dated 9 June 1818 (3)

Aspect

65 Plan of the brick and hollow-cone pot construction materials for the end-bay barrel vaults 66 Perspective of the roof, arch and lantern construction 67 Longitudinal section showing the aisle arch springing points and the brick and hollow-cone pot construction above

Inscribed

65 (pencil) 12/6 66 View of the upper part of the New £4 p^r Cent Office (Now The Reduced Office), Paving / Bricks (three times) and some dimensions given 67 (pencil) A Stone from which the / cones are worked into the arch -, B. Paving bricks - these in the / Crown of the arch-, C. Cones, with Paving Bricks / between every sixth Course, A, B (three times) and C (twice)

Signed and dated

(65) June 9^th. 1818

Hand

(65, 67) Soane office (66) Henry Parke (1790-1835, pupil 1814-1820)

Notes

Drawings 65 to 67 show the construction of the roof over the barrel-vaults, indicating the use of brick and hollow-cone terracotta pots. Terracotta was a particularly fireproof material and Soane had drawn particular attention to the use of such materials for vaulting in his Royal Academy lectures.

Christopher Woodward suggests in Buildings in progress that drawing 66 'is the most precise depiction of the innovative fireproof construction which Soane had first employed at the Bank Stock Office in 1792. The ribs of the vaults are of brick or stone. The spaces in between are filled with hollow terracotta pots, chosen for their lightness and their resistance to fire.'

As shown, the terracotta pots were square and closed at one end though basically circular in cross-section, with one domical end containing an opening. As the notes for the Consols Transfer Office (drawings 10-16) q.v. indicate, this was an ancient technique that was rediscovered at the end of the eighteenth century and (used in the Consols Transfer Office) was the first time such construction had been employed in an English public building. The structural use of pots was developed by William Strutt (a mill-owner and engineer).

Drawing 66 also shows a temporary roof structure still in place, though the ring-beam for the central lantern has been added underneath. The temporary roof seems to be high enough that the lantern could be built completely under its shelter.

Drawing 67 shows the construction technique of drawings 65 and 66 in section and corresponds to the section shown in drawing 68.

Woodward (p.237) also draws attention to the fact that drawing 66 was made on a Tuesday. The following Friday, the assembly of the framing of the dome began.

Literature

C. Woodward, Buildings in progress: Soane's views of construction, an exhibition catalogue for the Soane Gallery, 1995, p.13; M. Richardson & M. Stevens (ed.), John Soane architect: master of space and light, Royal Academy of Arts, 1999, p.237, cat.145-146

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).