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[28] Copy of Thomas Leverton's design for Gordon House
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Reference number
SM 67/2/13
Purpose
[28] Copy of Thomas Leverton's design for Gordon House
Aspect
(Copy) Sketch of River Front Designed, for Colonel Gordon (adjoining Chelsea Hospital)
Scale
bar scale
Inscribed
as above and some dimensions given
Hand
Soane office
Notes
This elevation is presumably a copy made in Soane's office of a borrowed original. The design is not Soane's but Thomas Leverton's, who was commissioned as architect of Gordon House. Soane may have wanted to have a copy for his own records as the construction of the villa was so bound up with the plans for a new Infirmary.
Soane and Leverton would have known each other since Ptolemy Dean records that (unusually) in 1797 Soane executed Leverton's designs for a building in St Swithin's Lane, City. Under Thomas Leverton, Colvin (op.cit) lists 'house for Gen. J. W. Gordon, 1812, altered 1825 and 1931-2 and C.G.T. Dean (op.cit) writes that Thomas Leverton constructed a house 'for Colonel Gordon [which] was built of the yellow bricks then fashionable, but has the merit of being unpretentious'. The house that Dean describes appears similar to the one recorded here, although Soane's copies of Leverton's plans and elevations are the only surviving drawings of the house and it is not known if they are as built or not.
Soane and Leverton would have known each other since Ptolemy Dean records that (unusually) in 1797 Soane executed Leverton's designs for a building in St Swithin's Lane, City. Under Thomas Leverton, Colvin (op.cit) lists 'house for Gen. J. W. Gordon, 1812, altered 1825 and 1931-2 and C.G.T. Dean (op.cit) writes that Thomas Leverton constructed a house 'for Colonel Gordon [which] was built of the yellow bricks then fashionable, but has the merit of being unpretentious'. The house that Dean describes appears similar to the one recorded here, although Soane's copies of Leverton's plans and elevations are the only surviving drawings of the house and it is not known if they are as built or not.
Literature
H. Colvin, Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840, 3rd ed., 1995
C.G.T. Dean, The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, 1950
P. Dean, Sir John Soane and London, 2006, p.168
C.G.T. Dean, The Royal Hospital, Chelsea, 1950
P. Dean, Sir John Soane and London, 2006, p.168
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