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You are here: CollectionsOnline  /  [3-6] Survey plans of a small area to the right of the House of Commons, June 1825 (4)
  • image Image 1 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 2 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 3 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 4 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 1 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 2 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 3 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10
  • image Image 4 for SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10

Reference number

SM (3) 51/6/7 (4) 51/6/8 (5) 51/6/9 (6) 51/6/10

Purpose

[3-6] Survey plans of a small area to the right of the House of Commons, June 1825 (4)

Aspect

3 Plan of ground floor 4 plan of first floor 5 Plan of second floor 6 Plan of attic floor

Scale

(3-6) bar scales of 1¼ inches to 10 feet

Inscribed

3 House of Commons, labelled: Part of the House of Commons, A / Part of / the Lobby to / the House / of Commons, Water / Closet (twice), Part of the Long Gallery 6' 7½" below Lobby A, Engrossing Office / contains abt. 470 ftSupra, Press, Clerk of the Fees Offices containg 412 Ft Supra / Floor on the same level as the Lobby A / and 2 rooms over, Presses (twice) and Part of Mr Ley's House 4 labelled: House of Commons, A / Part of the / Lobby to / the House of / Commons, Steps down to Long Gallery, Upper part of the Long Gallery, Committee Clerks Office / containing abt. 480 Ft Supr / Floor 3' 6" above Lobby of House of C, Steps to Copying Clerks, Upper part of the Clerk of the Fees office and Part of Mr Ley's House 5 labelled: Side Gallery of the House of Commons, Clerk of Election / Recognizances, Clerks of Committee & Elections, Private Bill office, Journal Office / containing abt. 380 ft Supra / abt. 13 ft above Floor of / Lobby A, Presses (3 times), Steps leading to Passage adjoining Lobby, Clerk of the Fees / Copying Clerks contg abt. 370 ft Supra, Presses and Steps down to Solomons Porch 6 labelled: Clerk of the Journals / 218 ftSupra, Examining Offices / 202 ft Supra, Presses and Press

Signed and dated

  • (3-6) Lincolns Inn Fields / June 1825

Medium and dimensions

(3) Pen, pink, green and yellow washes on laid paper (480 x 284) (4) pen, sepia and pink washes on laid paper 478 x 282) (5) pen, yellow, pink and burnt sienna washes on laid paper (479 x 287) (6) pen, blue and yellow washes on laid paper (475 x 283)

Hand

(3-6) Soane office (? George Bailey (1792-1860, pupil then assistant, 1806-37, curator 1837-60)

Watermark

(3, 5) W Weatherley 1822 (4, 6) fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below WW

Notes

The plans relate to a small area immediately to the right of the House of Commons and its lobby. A comparison with a plan of Westminster Palace in 1793 (published in Kings Works , VI, fig. 19) shows the same general layout. The darker sepia wash indicates the earlier medieval structure, in particular St Stephen's Chapel (1348) used by the House of Commons from 1547. The lighter sepia wash indicates the later buildings while the coloured washes seem to identify 'ownership'.
Drawing 3 (ground floor) has a single flight of stairs between the Lobby and the Long Gallery. Drawing 4 (first floor) has two flights of a stair in the same location as well as the addition of four separate flights of 'Steps'. Drawing 5 (second floor) has the same staircase at bottom right-hand corner and 'steps' in the centre-left passage that link to those of the first floor.
'Mr Ley' was John Henry Ley, Clerk of the House of Commons from 1820.

Level

Drawing

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

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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.

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