[11] Design for the ground floor of a group of prison buildings for Edinburgh Bridewell, 1790-91, unexecuted

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Robert and James Adam office drawings
- Public buildings
  - Bridewell, Edinburgh: designs for a group of prison buildings, 1790-91, executed in part (33)
    - Variant design for a bridewell scheme, 1790-91, unexecuted (1)

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Reference number

SM Adam volume 33/26

Purpose

[11] Design for the ground floor of a group of prison buildings for Edinburgh Bridewell, 1790-91, unexecuted

Aspect

Ground floor plan of a group of prison buildings arranged around a central chapel and chapel court. Bounding the court on three sides are four cell blocks with internal courtyards, flanked by an infirmary and sick ward with internal courtyards and corner turrets to the outer walls. Adjoining the chapel is another block of cells with curved wings enclosing two additional internal courts. Rooms include a kitchen, shop, surgeon’s parlour, nurses room, housekeeper's room and guardrooms

Scale

bar scale of 1/2 an inch to 10 feet

Inscribed

(In the hand of William Adam) 3^d Design for a Bridewell at Edinburgh / (in another hand) Court with Cells for Bedlamites / Closet / Infirmary / Water / Closet / Keeper / Court with Cells for Debtors / Storeroom / House Keeper / Turn key / Turn key / Court with Cells for / Felons / Chappel / Chappel Court / Court with Cells for Felons / Kitchen / Scullery / Pantry / Larder / Court with Cells for Debtors / Closet / Nurses / room / Court with / Wards &c / for the Sick / Ward for the / Sick / Water Closet / Shop / Surgeons / Parlor / Bedroom / Closet / Court with Cells / for Idle youth / Turnkey / officers / Guard / Lobby / soldiers / Guard / Turnkey / Court with Cells / for Idle Women / (verso) 2 This goes 4^th in the Book / ~~First put into the book / 1 Design of the Bridewell~~ / (in a different hand) Edin^h – Bridewell former Design / (in a different hand) / Formmer[sic] plans of the Bridewell

Signed and dated

1790-91
datable to 1790-91

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil and wash on laid paper (644x484)

Hand

Possibly
Adam office hand, possibly Robert Morison, John Robertson, or John Paterson

Watermark

Footed P

Literature

Bolton, 1922, p. 11
King, Vol. 2, 2001, p. 54
For a full list of literature references see scheme notes.

Level

Drawing

If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk

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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