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Freefolk, near Whitchurch, Hampshire, c.1794
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Reference number
SM D3/14/4
Purpose
Freefolk, near Whitchurch, Hampshire, c.1794
Aspect
[2] Ground floor plan of house and offices, the house 72.9 wide by 52.10½ deep with faint three-storey side elevation
Scale
1/8 in to 1 ft
Inscribed
rooms labelled including Drawing Room, Eating Room, Library, Dressing Room, Powerdg / room, Water / Closet (twice), dimensions given and (verso, unrelated to Freefolk and written over rough designs for Freefolk) Amt of Bill, for Ld Eardley / Examined & Corrected / commission at 5 p.cent upon £2310 and additions of sums of money
Signed and dated
- c.1794
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen, pink, sepia and blue washes, partly pricked for transfer, on laid paper (640 x 410)
Hand
Dance
Notes
This is a six-part villa plan with three reception rooms on the garden side: a library 34 by 21 feet with a three-window bow and an apse at the opposite end and on either side, the dining and drawing rooms with enfilade access through the library at the garden end. The side walls of the house each have five windows and the entrance front faces the offices with the Way for Carriages between them. The stair like that at Camden Place is a flying stair and semicircular on plan. Dance has amended the plan (with a blue wash) so that the drawing and eating rooms are reduced in size with partitions enclosing two small rooms and the staircase hall is made even more dramatic with an apsidal end and columned screen.
The offices are arranged around a Court with a Servants Hall in the centre and, fronted by covered ways, Kitchen and pantries are on one side with Laundry, Washouse and Mangle on the other. The court is completed by walls on an apsidal plan that are the storage areas for Wood and Coal.
Dance had a rough drawing made by John Soane for Henry Holland's Berrington Hall, 1778-81, a house designed around a courtyard which was unusual at the time.
Verso
Faint round side elevation and section of Freefolk and with accounts for Ld. Eardley
Pencil
See also the design for a chimney-piece for Lord Eardley at 22 Arlington Street, dated 28 August 1792.
Notes on [SM D3/14/3] and [SM D3/14/4]
[SM D3/14/3] and [SM D3/14/4] show a symmetrical 5 by 5 bay plan for a villa with a central bow on the garden side and an entrance linked to the offices by a top-lit porte-cochere. Beneath this lies a tunnel to the offices. The staircase hall lies just within the front door and is semicircular on plan with a geometrical stair. The five principal rooms are symmetrically arranged around a longitudinal axis that runs from the garden bow to the exedra-like enclosing walls of the kitchen court with two cross-axes for the house.
The offices are arranged around a Court with a Servants Hall in the centre and, fronted by covered ways, Kitchen and pantries are on one side with Laundry, Washouse and Mangle on the other. The court is completed by walls on an apsidal plan that are the storage areas for Wood and Coal.
Dance had a rough drawing made by John Soane for Henry Holland's Berrington Hall, 1778-81, a house designed around a courtyard which was unusual at the time.
Verso
Faint round side elevation and section of Freefolk and with accounts for Ld. Eardley
Pencil
See also the design for a chimney-piece for Lord Eardley at 22 Arlington Street, dated 28 August 1792.
Notes on [SM D3/14/3] and [SM D3/14/4]
[SM D3/14/3] and [SM D3/14/4] show a symmetrical 5 by 5 bay plan for a villa with a central bow on the garden side and an entrance linked to the offices by a top-lit porte-cochere. Beneath this lies a tunnel to the offices. The staircase hall lies just within the front door and is semicircular on plan with a geometrical stair. The five principal rooms are symmetrically arranged around a longitudinal axis that runs from the garden bow to the exedra-like enclosing walls of the kitchen court with two cross-axes for the house.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk