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Royal College of Surgeons, 41-42 (now 35-43) Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, Camden, London, 1805-12 (with James Lewis)
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Reference number
SM D5/3/23
Purpose
Royal College of Surgeons, 41-42 (now 35-43) Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn, Camden, London, 1805-12 (with James Lewis)
Aspect
[4] Ground floor plan, Section lengthways through the Museum and Section across the Museum
Scale
1/10 in to 1 ft
Inscribed
as above, Design for a Museum and Theatre / proposed to be added to the buildings / on the South side of Lincolns Inn Fields / belonging to the College of Surgeons, Lincolns Inn Fields, Portugal Street, labelled Keeper, Secretary, Keeper's apartments, Museum, Theatre, Vestibule, Professor's / room, Courtyard, Basement, Flue (three times), Hot air and some dimensions given
Signed: Geo: Dance, J Lewis and Approved and Signed / by order of the Committee / Wm Long Chairman
Dated: 5th Janaury 1805
Signed and dated
- 1805-12
Medium and dimensions
Pen, sepia, pink, yellow, blue, and burnt umber washes, shaded, pencil, within single ruled and light burnt umber wash border, pricked for transfer on laid paper (445 x 565)
Hand
Dance
Watermark
D & C Blauw and fleur-de-lis in crowned cartouche and WR below
Notes
The plan shows a regularised ten-bay front to Lincoln's Inn Fields with two entrances, the left-hand one with a porch with two engaged columns. The existing two houses have been kept as accommodation for the Secretary and Keeper. Behind No.41, and not shown on the survey plans, is an existing extension with a bow window overlooking a courtyard (labelled 'Committee Room' on the plan belonging to the Royal College of Surgeons - see below). Beyond this, on the site of the stables, is an anatomy theatre, 34 by 30 feet. To the rear of No.42, in the courtyard and stables area is a three-bay museum with a double-apsed ante-room carved out of the two existing back rooms.
The museum, measuring 81 feet 9 inches by 40 feet, is lit by three circular lanterns, 12 feet in diameter. In the double-height space, a gallery and glass cases are ranged around the walls. The anatomy theatre has no windows and is presumably also top-lit.
A plan at the Royal College of Surgeons (2/96(36)), drawn by Dance but signed 'J Lewis' and inscribed '(Design No.4) / Plan of the Ground Floor of the Royal / College of Surgeons with additions and improvements / NB The Columns may be omitted as they darken the Entrance' is broadly the same as the design catalogued above though, for example, three rectangular lanterns light the museum, its ante-room is shown with corner alcoves and without twin spiral stairs, the anatomy theatre has two windows on to Portugal Street and a circular lantern and the benches ae more closely packed. The reference to 'Columns may be omitted' is to the pair of attached columns either side of the front door of No.41. It is likely that the Surgeons' drawing preceded the more developed plan on [SM D5/3/23]. The Building Committee minutes for 5 January 1805 record that comparison was made with a 'former plan' and that the 'plan now presented is best adapted ...' (RCS Archive).
In a discussion of Soane's use of top-lighting at Dulwich, Waterfield (1987, pp.11-12) notes that Dance employed a more sophisticated version of the top-lighting used in his Shakespeare Gallery for the Royal College of Surgeons museum in a style close to Dulwich (designed by Soane from 1811).
REPRODUCED. G. Waterfiled, Soane and after, the architecture of Dulwich Picture Gallery, catalogue of an exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1987, p.13; C. Yanni, Nature's museums: Victorian science and the architecture of display, 1999, fig.2.15.
The museum, measuring 81 feet 9 inches by 40 feet, is lit by three circular lanterns, 12 feet in diameter. In the double-height space, a gallery and glass cases are ranged around the walls. The anatomy theatre has no windows and is presumably also top-lit.
A plan at the Royal College of Surgeons (2/96(36)), drawn by Dance but signed 'J Lewis' and inscribed '(Design No.4) / Plan of the Ground Floor of the Royal / College of Surgeons with additions and improvements / NB The Columns may be omitted as they darken the Entrance' is broadly the same as the design catalogued above though, for example, three rectangular lanterns light the museum, its ante-room is shown with corner alcoves and without twin spiral stairs, the anatomy theatre has two windows on to Portugal Street and a circular lantern and the benches ae more closely packed. The reference to 'Columns may be omitted' is to the pair of attached columns either side of the front door of No.41. It is likely that the Surgeons' drawing preceded the more developed plan on [SM D5/3/23]. The Building Committee minutes for 5 January 1805 record that comparison was made with a 'former plan' and that the 'plan now presented is best adapted ...' (RCS Archive).
In a discussion of Soane's use of top-lighting at Dulwich, Waterfield (1987, pp.11-12) notes that Dance employed a more sophisticated version of the top-lighting used in his Shakespeare Gallery for the Royal College of Surgeons museum in a style close to Dulwich (designed by Soane from 1811).
REPRODUCED. G. Waterfiled, Soane and after, the architecture of Dulwich Picture Gallery, catalogue of an exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1987, p.13; C. Yanni, Nature's museums: Victorian science and the architecture of display, 1999, fig.2.15.
Level
Drawing
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk