Scale
bar scale
Inscribed
as above, labelled (Soane) No:1, This Drawing and the others no: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7 are / the drawings referred to in my Report, dated Augst: 24 1809 / sent under cover to George Aust Esqre for the information / of the Lords and other Commissioners for managing the / affairs of Chelsea Hospital/ John Soane, From the particular favorable circumstance / of the great declinity in the ground towards / the River I am enabled without increasing / the superficies of the building, to make an / arcade exceeding 150 feet in length, wherein / the convalescent patients, secure from / weather may enjoy the full benefit of the / pure air from the River where as well as / under the majestic Elms in the airing ground., "Batter'd with War in many an hard /campaign / Tho' the maim'd soldier quits the martial plain / Fancy restores him to the Battle's rage, / and temporary youth inflames his age, / again he fights the foe, counts o'er his scars. / Tho' Chelsea now the seat of all his wars / and fondly hanging on the lengthened tale / Re-slays his thousands", On the Basement also are apartments for the / matron, one of whose duties being to provide for the / sick, requires her Kitchen at least to be placed as / to enable the Sick to have their nourishment warm / and comfortable - here are also a Hot & Cold Bath / with their appurtenances, and several other necessary / offices, Washouse, Cold Bath, door, area (three times), Dressing / Room, arcade (eight times), Hot Bath, Staircase (twice), Coverd / way, Proj[ection], Matrons / Kitchen, Still / Room, Matron, Surgeon's / Kitchen / etc and Matron's / Parlour
Signed and dated
- John Soane. architect. Lincolns Inn Fields, Copy delivered / August 24th 1809
Hand
Soane office, Soane
Notes
This drawing, SM volume 77/58, SM volume 77/54 and SM volume 77/57 all show different floors of same building, with wards, matron's kitchen and other rooms all laid out. The building separated on the end is presumably still intended as a 'foul ward'.
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
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).
