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Designs for the Privy Council Offices, February 1825 (3)
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- Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
Reference number
SM (134) 50/1/33 (135) 50/1/32 (136) 50/1/34
Purpose
Designs for the Privy Council Offices, February 1825 (3)
Aspect
134 Plan of the One Pair or Principal Floor
135 Plan of the Ground Floor
136 Plan of the One Pair or Principal Floor
Scale
(134-136) bar scales of 1/6 inch to 1 foot
Inscribed
134 as above, New Council Offices &c, (in Soane's hand) 1st Plan of Council Office submitted / to Lord Harrowby, labelled: (pencil) Mr Greville / 23'0'' by 16'7½'', (pencil) Mr Buller / 23.6 by 17.0, Part of the Board of Trade, Principal Staircase, The Committee Room / 27'6'' by 21'9'', The Lord Presidents / Room / 21'3'' by 21'9'', (in Soane's hand) Change the disposition of these / rooms, (pencil) Committee, Staircase, (pencil) The Lords / Retiring Room / 22'0'' by 14'6'', Water / Closet (twice), Council Chamber / 34'9'' by 34'9'', (pencil) 1100 New Council Chamber / Old Council Chamber / 33 / 23 / 99 / 66 / 759 ---- ----- (illegible)
135 as above, New Council Offices &c, labelled: Downing Street, (pencil) Office Keeper, Mr Litchfield / 23'0'' by 17'0'', (pencil) Mr Humphry / 24.0 by 17.0, Staircase, (pencil) Door Keeper / Over this Housemaids / Closet Sink Large / Cistern &c, Entrance Hall, Principal Staircase, (pencil) Clerk / 17'0'' by 21'9'', (pencil) Waiting / Room / 10'0'' by 21'9'', (pencil) Clerk / 21'0'' by 21'9'', Staircase, (pencil) Waiting Room / 14'6'' by 17'0'', (pencil) Clerk / 13.0 by 14'0'', Water / Closet (twice), (pencil) 13.0 by 7.6, (pencil) 13'0'' by 15'6'', (pencil) 13.0 by 15.6, (pencil) 34'9'' by 27'9''
136 as above, New Council Offices &c, (in Soane's hand) 2d [Plan of the One Pair...] as altered / Harrowby, labelled: (pencil) Robing / Room / 10'0'' by 17'0'', (pencil) Barristers Room / 23.0 by 17.0, (pencil) Mr Greville / 24.0 by 17.0, (pencil) Mr Buller / 24.0 by 17.0, The / Principal / Staircase, The Lord President's Room / 19'0'' by 21.9, Committee Room / 30'0'' by 21'9'', Staircase, (pencil) Retiring Room / 14'6'' by 17'0'', (in Soane's hand) enlarge this room, Ante Room / 20'0'' by 14'0'', Water / Closet (twice), Council Chamber / 34'9'' by 40'0''
Signed and dated
- (134) Lincolns Inn Fields / February 1825 (135) Lincolns Inn Fields / 24 Feby 1825 (136) Lincolns Inn Fields / 24th February 1825 / (At Fife House 12 March)
Medium and dimensions
(134) Pen, pink and yellow washes, (135) pen, pink, blue and yellow washes, (136) pen, pink, yellow ochre and grey washes, with a flier on wove paper, affixed (90 x 175) (136-138) pricked for transfer on wove paper (536 x 732, 522 x 712, 532 x 721)
Hand
(134-136) David Mocatta (1806-82, pupil 1821-27)
Watermark
(134-136) Smith & Allnutt 1820
Notes
Drawing 134 is identified as the '1st plan of Council Office submitted to Lord Harrowby' who was Lord President of the Council. The Council Chamber is in line with the Downing Street frontage and the building looks to continue westwards into Downing Street. The drawing shows two variant designs for the Council Chamber; the one on the right has slightly curving ends.
Drawings 135 and 136 form a pair, identified as the second plan shown to Lord Harrowby. In contrast to drawing 134, the second design has a larger Council Chamber with an ante-room at the east end. The Committee Room and Lord President's Room switch places following Soane's instruction on drawing 134 to 'change the disposition' of these rooms. A notable detail of drawing 136 is that it clearly shows a design for a starfish ceiling in the Council Chamber. Also in pencil are columns in the centre of each of the four walls and, on the flier, a section through the ceiling showing the coving of the ceiling and the skylights flanking the chamber on the north and south sides.
Charles Greville (1794-1865) was Clerk of the Privy Council. It was Greville who objected most strongly to Soane's decoration of the Privy Council Chamber (see scheme note). James Buller (1772-1830), described by Greville as 'a very honourable, obliging and stupid man', was clerk in ordinary to the Privy Council. Little is known about John Lichfield (d.1858) in connection with the Privy Council, and even less about 'Mr Humphry'.
Drawings 135 and 136 form a pair, identified as the second plan shown to Lord Harrowby. In contrast to drawing 134, the second design has a larger Council Chamber with an ante-room at the east end. The Committee Room and Lord President's Room switch places following Soane's instruction on drawing 134 to 'change the disposition' of these rooms. A notable detail of drawing 136 is that it clearly shows a design for a starfish ceiling in the Council Chamber. Also in pencil are columns in the centre of each of the four walls and, on the flier, a section through the ceiling showing the coving of the ceiling and the skylights flanking the chamber on the north and south sides.
Charles Greville (1794-1865) was Clerk of the Privy Council. It was Greville who objected most strongly to Soane's decoration of the Privy Council Chamber (see scheme note). James Buller (1772-1830), described by Greville as 'a very honourable, obliging and stupid man', was clerk in ordinary to the Privy Council. Little is known about John Lichfield (d.1858) in connection with the Privy Council, and even less about 'Mr Humphry'.
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).