1 in to 1 ft

Breakfast room Doorway Stratton, Center of Hall / of communication, Grounds / 6ⁱⁿ wide, (pencil, Carter) 3¾ inches lower than this / Doorway / Doors 9..10¼ high and dimensions given

• 1803-07

Pen, sepia and light red washes, pencil, hatching on laid paper (435 x 255)

Dance, Carter

fleur-de-lis in crowned cartouche and WR below

The breakfast room, which is on the south front between the library and Hall of Entrance, was part of Dance's new east wing but re-using the existing west wall. The door plan shows that the left-hand 2 foot 6 inches of the door conceals part of a wall and is fixed; the opening is 3 feet 10 inches wide. The reason for this unorthodox arrangement is shown on a floor plan ([SM D1/1/38]). The width between the two south windows of the breakfast room is marked 5 feet 5 3/8 inches. In order to balance this, the door on the opposite side of the room needed to be the same width. But a door of that width on to the Hall of Communication would mean that the line of axis between the door and the centre of the north window would be lost. Here, a reduction of the door width nicely brings the axis to the centre of the large three-part window. It is interesting that Dance has no qualms about the 'falsity' of his door arrangement but Soane had done the same thing in his house at 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields (coincidentally, between the hall and breakfast room). Still, it would have been surprising to visitors to see a wide door but walk through a narrower one.

In this design, Dance has problems with the arrangement of the door panelling and revises the stele details of the door head to the more florid design seen in the next drawing. For an elevation of the door facing the Hall of Communication see [SM D1/4/16].

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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