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London: House of Clerk to the Commons, Speaker's House, Palace of Westminster, ND (3)

Drawings 1 and 2 are undated, rough, three-part plans rapidly drawn by Soane with a writing pen and writing ink in which the existing House of Lords is located as in, for example, the plan of Westminster Palace, 1793, published in King's Works, VI, fig.19. Outlined with a stronger pen line (on drawing 1) are the buildings that were to be kept that is: Westminster Hall, Court of Requests, Painted Chamber and the House of Lords. An axis is drawn through the centre of the right-hand building that begins with a portico and elongated oval lobby at the bottom, cuts through the Court of Requests and Painted Gallery to reach the Speaker's House with its portico at the top. These designs seem unconnected with a new House of Lords.

Drawing 3, roughly made by Soane over a carefully drawn survey plan, is a development of drawings 1 and 2. The overall three-part plan is no longer symmetrical though the right-hand and centre are much the same as in drawings 1 and 2. Different is the addition of a quarter-circle wing labelled 'Low Buildg' on the left-hand side. As before the House of Lords, drawn in more detail, remains in the same position as on the 1793 plan. These drawings seem to be concerned more with the house of the Speaker of the House of Lords than with the Lords chamber.

Jill Lever, December 2013
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