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St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street, Finsbury, Islington, London, 1777, 1781-2 and c.1794-1811
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- George Dance office drawings: the drawings of George Dance the Elder and George Dance the Younger
Reference number
SM D4/2/7
Purpose
St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street, Finsbury, Islington, London, 1777, 1781-2 and c.1794-1811
Aspect
[11] Plan of the Timbers of the Roof, Plan of the Slating of the Roof. (Dance) North and South
Scale
1/7 in to 1 ft
Inscribed
as above, St Lukes Hospital for Lunaticks and No16
Signed: Geo: Dance, contract statement
signatures and date as [SM D4/2/1]
Signed and dated
- 1781-2
Medium and dimensions
Pen, green earth, grey, sepia, yellow, light red washes, pencil within single ruled border on laid paper, two sheets joined, original cloth backing (730 x 2580)
Hand
see note below
Notes
NOTES ON [SM D4/2/1], [SM D4/2/2], [SM D4/2/3], [SM D4/2/4], [SM D4/2/5], [SM D4/2/6], [SM D4/2/7]
Drawings [SM D4/2/1], [SM D4/2/2], [SM D4/2/3], [SM D4/2/4], [SM D4/2/5], [SM D4/2/6], [SM D4/2/7] (inscribed [SM D4/1/3], [SM D4/1/4], [SM D4/1/1], [SM D4/2/7], [SM D4/1/9], [SM D4/1/10] and [SM D4/1/7]) are seven of a set of 17 contract drawings. Those missing must include the site plan, the plan of the third floor of the centre block and details of the boundary walls. The contract was for the 'carcase' of the building and excluded the entrance and pavilion wings which were built later. George Dance's signature is sometimes accompanied by the date 1781, the contractors' signatures are dated 30 May 1782.
Several hands were involved in making the contract drawings. The contract statements on each of the drawings may have been inscribed by Soane, for the date is almost certainly in his hand. The labelling of most of the mouldings drawn on [SM D4/2/4] is by Dance. The draughtsmanship of [SM D4/2/4], [SM D4/2/5], [SM D4/2/6] appears to be the same and though in an impersonal style, the palette of washes, the use of shading and of a rain-washed technique for the brick masonry suggest Soane's hand. The dimensions on all the drawings are by the 'curly office hand' noted on some of the Giltspur Street Compter drawings. The titles, drawing numbers and some plan labelling are in a good graphic style by an office hand that may also have drawn the lettering for the foundation stone (see below).
The unusually large size of these contract drawings, which are between 2575 and 2690 millimetres wide, is explained by the length of St Luke's, at 495 feet by far the biggest of Dance's schemes. (See elevations showing the comparative sizes of some of Dance's buildings, 1813 or after ([SM D4/7/1] and [SM D4/7/2])
The specification accompanying the contract drawing was signed by Joshua Hobson of Horsley Down in the Borough of Southwark / And Willilam Hobson of Eastcheap London Bricklayers, dated 30th Day May 1782 and was witnessed by John Webster and George Pepys. Pepys was one of Dance's assistants and John Webster was Secretary to the Hospital. The works were to be completed on or before the 30th Day of October in the / Year 1783 or in default thereof to forfeit & pay to the / said Mr William Prowting or the Treasurer as aforesaid the full Sum of Twenty Pounds / by the week for every week after the said 30th Day of October in / the Year 1783.... The contract sum was £9,150.0.0.
The specification consists of 37 pages and is in Dance's hands, in a wide margin on the left-hand side, he writes in red ink in the key words to each paragraph detailing the bricklayers' work (pp.1-12), slaters work (p.13), carpenters' work (pp.14-24), masons' work (pp.25-32), plumbers' work (p.33), smiths' work (pp.34-5) and finishing with the signed and dated memorandum (pp,36-7). Each page of the contract specification is signed by Dance and by Joshua Hobson and W. Hobson. Grey stock bricks, Westmorland slates on boards, Riga fir, oak and Portland stone were among the materials specified.
The specification is bound in a volume of 21 folios with blue, pink, yellow and black marbled boards, and a recent brown cloth half-binding (490 x 310). It is inscribed (by A.T. Bolton, Soane Museum curator 1917-45), St Luke's Hospital / Old Street / George Dance RA / Contract Specificition / 1782 May 30 (SM, AL 5D).
Affixed to the verso of the front board is the inscription, in mirror capitals, for the engraved plate of the foundation stone: The FIRST STONE of this HOSPITAL was laid the / 30th July 1782 by / THE MOST HIGH, PUISSANT AND NOBLE PRINCE / GEORGE BRUDENELL MONTAGU, DUKE OF MONTAGU / MARQUIS OF MONTHERMER, EARL OF CARDIGAN, BARON / BRUDENELL OF
STANTON WYVILL IN THE COUNTY OF / LEICESTER, AND BARONET, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY' S MOST / HONORABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, MASTER OF THE HORSE TO / THE KING, GOVERNOR AND CAPTAIN OF WINDSOR CASTLE, / F.R.S. KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE / GARTER AND PRESIDENT OF ST LUKE'S HOSPITAL for / WHICH WAS INSTITUTED IN THE YEAR / 1751 / BY VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTION / AND BY THE GENERAL BENEFACTORS OF THE PUBLICK, / THE GOVERNORS ARE NOW ENABLED TO ERECT THIS / BUILDING FOR THE RECEPTION OF THEIR PATIENTS / Edward Payne Esqr / John Elliott Esqr / Stephen Godin Esqr / Vice Presidents, WILLIAM PROWTING ESQR Treasurer / George Dance Architect and (verso, Dance) 1817 / 1782 / 35 / Saint Luke's Hospital for Lunatics / Inscription on First Stone.
The calculation of 35 years from 1782 to 1817 might suggest that Dance pasted the inscription into the specification in 1817. A photograph of the plate itself and a description of its discovery were published in The Britannia Quarterly (1917, pp.73-4) by the Bank of England's printing department.
Drawings [SM D4/2/1], [SM D4/2/2], [SM D4/2/3], [SM D4/2/4], [SM D4/2/5], [SM D4/2/6], [SM D4/2/7] (inscribed [SM D4/1/3], [SM D4/1/4], [SM D4/1/1], [SM D4/2/7], [SM D4/1/9], [SM D4/1/10] and [SM D4/1/7]) are seven of a set of 17 contract drawings. Those missing must include the site plan, the plan of the third floor of the centre block and details of the boundary walls. The contract was for the 'carcase' of the building and excluded the entrance and pavilion wings which were built later. George Dance's signature is sometimes accompanied by the date 1781, the contractors' signatures are dated 30 May 1782.
Several hands were involved in making the contract drawings. The contract statements on each of the drawings may have been inscribed by Soane, for the date is almost certainly in his hand. The labelling of most of the mouldings drawn on [SM D4/2/4] is by Dance. The draughtsmanship of [SM D4/2/4], [SM D4/2/5], [SM D4/2/6] appears to be the same and though in an impersonal style, the palette of washes, the use of shading and of a rain-washed technique for the brick masonry suggest Soane's hand. The dimensions on all the drawings are by the 'curly office hand' noted on some of the Giltspur Street Compter drawings. The titles, drawing numbers and some plan labelling are in a good graphic style by an office hand that may also have drawn the lettering for the foundation stone (see below).
The unusually large size of these contract drawings, which are between 2575 and 2690 millimetres wide, is explained by the length of St Luke's, at 495 feet by far the biggest of Dance's schemes. (See elevations showing the comparative sizes of some of Dance's buildings, 1813 or after ([SM D4/7/1] and [SM D4/7/2])
The specification accompanying the contract drawing was signed by Joshua Hobson of Horsley Down in the Borough of Southwark / And Willilam Hobson of Eastcheap London Bricklayers, dated 30th Day May 1782 and was witnessed by John Webster and George Pepys. Pepys was one of Dance's assistants and John Webster was Secretary to the Hospital. The works were to be completed on or before the 30th Day of October in the / Year 1783 or in default thereof to forfeit & pay to the / said Mr William Prowting or the Treasurer as aforesaid the full Sum of Twenty Pounds / by the week for every week after the said 30th Day of October in / the Year 1783.... The contract sum was £9,150.0.0.
The specification consists of 37 pages and is in Dance's hands, in a wide margin on the left-hand side, he writes in red ink in the key words to each paragraph detailing the bricklayers' work (pp.1-12), slaters work (p.13), carpenters' work (pp.14-24), masons' work (pp.25-32), plumbers' work (p.33), smiths' work (pp.34-5) and finishing with the signed and dated memorandum (pp,36-7). Each page of the contract specification is signed by Dance and by Joshua Hobson and W. Hobson. Grey stock bricks, Westmorland slates on boards, Riga fir, oak and Portland stone were among the materials specified.
The specification is bound in a volume of 21 folios with blue, pink, yellow and black marbled boards, and a recent brown cloth half-binding (490 x 310). It is inscribed (by A.T. Bolton, Soane Museum curator 1917-45), St Luke's Hospital / Old Street / George Dance RA / Contract Specificition / 1782 May 30 (SM, AL 5D).
Affixed to the verso of the front board is the inscription, in mirror capitals, for the engraved plate of the foundation stone: The FIRST STONE of this HOSPITAL was laid the / 30th July 1782 by / THE MOST HIGH, PUISSANT AND NOBLE PRINCE / GEORGE BRUDENELL MONTAGU, DUKE OF MONTAGU / MARQUIS OF MONTHERMER, EARL OF CARDIGAN, BARON / BRUDENELL OF
STANTON WYVILL IN THE COUNTY OF / LEICESTER, AND BARONET, ONE OF HIS MAJESTY' S MOST / HONORABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, MASTER OF THE HORSE TO / THE KING, GOVERNOR AND CAPTAIN OF WINDSOR CASTLE, / F.R.S. KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE / GARTER AND PRESIDENT OF ST LUKE'S HOSPITAL for / WHICH WAS INSTITUTED IN THE YEAR / 1751 / BY VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTION / AND BY THE GENERAL BENEFACTORS OF THE PUBLICK, / THE GOVERNORS ARE NOW ENABLED TO ERECT THIS / BUILDING FOR THE RECEPTION OF THEIR PATIENTS / Edward Payne Esqr / John Elliott Esqr / Stephen Godin Esqr / Vice Presidents, WILLIAM PROWTING ESQR Treasurer / George Dance Architect and (verso, Dance) 1817 / 1782 / 35 / Saint Luke's Hospital for Lunatics / Inscription on First Stone.
The calculation of 35 years from 1782 to 1817 might suggest that Dance pasted the inscription into the specification in 1817. A photograph of the plate itself and a description of its discovery were published in The Britannia Quarterly (1917, pp.73-4) by the Bank of England's printing department.
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.
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