William Prowting (1708-94) was a member of the Society of Apothecaries, of which he was Master in 1775. On his death he bequeathed to the Apothecaries £100 of South Sea Annuities for the establishment of lectures on Materia Medica. A posthumous full-length portrait was commissioned by the Society from Lemuel Francis Abbot (c.1760-1803) and hangs still at their Hall in Black Friars Lane in the City of London. Prowting was one of the founders of St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in 1750 and its Treasurer from 1773 to 1794. As Architect and Surveyor of St Luke's Hospital Dance would have known him quite well. Prowting's name and occupation appear in the London Poll Book of 1758 where his address is given as Tower Street and again in Bailey's London Directory of 1784 where his address is listed as 83 Great Tower Street. His name also occurs in the City Lands Journal (CLRO) for 17 August 1792 when his surveyor William Hobson asked for £250 as compensation to Prowting for setting back the east and north sides of a tenanted property in St Mary at Hill and Thames Street. Dance's designs for Prowting's nearby premises on the southwest corner of Tower Street and Mincing Lane may have been occasioned by a similar setting back that decided Prowting on a complete rebuilding. The widening of street junctions was part of Dance's job as City Architect and Prowting's new premises had a nicely rounded corner. The plans (there are no elevations) suggest large flat windows rather than, say, the more conservative bow windows of a scheme for a Mr Palmer in Fenchurch Street made earlier in 1777. The drawings for this, with those for several other shops carried out as architect to the City of London from c.1774 to 1815, are in the Corporation of London Records Office.

Great Tower Street was 'widened on the N side in 1882-4, when the street was dug up to accommodate the Metropolitan Railway' (Bradley & Pevsner, 1997, p.512) and presumably Prowting's premises, if still there, disappeared. The northwest corner of today's Great Towen Street and Mincing Lane is presently (August 2005) a building site. Under construction is an office building (2 Plantation Place) of 14,000 square metres designed by Arup Associates.

LITERATURE. Stroud pp.49, 141, 243; Kalman pp.213-31; H. Kalman, 'The Architecture of mercantilism' in P. Fritz & D. Williams, The Triumph of culture: 18th century perspectives, Toronto, 1992, p.79; S. Bradley & N. Pevsner, London 1: The City of London, 1997, pp.414-15, 534-5.

OTHER SOURCES. Society of Apothecaries

Group

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