[22] Finished drawing for the section of a group of prison buildings for Edinburgh Bridewell, 1791, 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)
    - Design for a castle-style bridewell scheme, 1791, unexecuted (11)

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Reference number

SM Adam volume 33/14

Purpose

[22] Finished drawing for the section of a group of prison buildings for Edinburgh Bridewell, 1791, unexecuted

Aspect

Flier closed: Longitudinal section of a prison building showing a central five-storey building with two-storey links connecting to three-storey blocks. In the centre is a curved, domed chamber lit by a central skylight and a series of light shafts. The ground storey comprises a continuous arcade with four rows of pews, whilst the upper storeys are supported by Tuscan columns, all with railings. The flanking wings contain arched openings with attic-storey water cisterns. The two outer blocks comprise a narrow stairwell and an inspector’s lodge with small narrow apertures, followed by openings to the individual cells with railings. The different colour washes denote the building materials Flier open: Section of the outer blocks showing large arched openings in place of the narrow stairwells, and a wider section of the cell openings and railings in place of the viewing tower

Scale

bar scale of 1 1/2 inches to 10 feet

Inscribed

Section from East to West shewing the insides of the Inspection Lodges, with the four Ranges of Cells ~ / (in the hand of William Adam) at Edinburgh / (in another hand) N^o 1 Story of Cells for Felons and convicts / 2 - D^o - - Do - for Debtors / 3 - D^o - - D^o - Bridewell for Men / 4 - D^o - - D^o- Bridewell for Women / 5 - Rooms to be used for better people or for Infirmaries / 6 - General Store room for heating the whole Building / 7 - Inspection Lodge for the Stories of Cells No. 1 & No. 2 - / 8 - Inspectors Store room and Bedroom / 9 - Inspection Lodge for the Stories of Cells N^o. 3 & N^o. 4 if they are men Prisoners / 10 – Inspection Lodge for the Story of Cells N^o. 4 if they are women Prisoners / Cistern of Water / Cistern of Water with some dimensions / (verso) 1 Plan & 3 Sections of the Bridewell at Edin^h / N^o 1

Signed and dated

1790-91
datable to 1790-91

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil, wash and coloured wash including lemon yellow and pink within a ruled border on laid paper (1230x479)

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.

Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).