[20] Working drawing for the basement, April 1803

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Bank of England
  - Bank of England, City of London for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 1788-1834 (1356)
    - 1799-1810 Expansions north-west and rebuilding of existing offices (487)
      - First phase of north-west extension: Waiting Room Court, Accountants Office and Doric Vestibule, 1801-1804 (111)

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Reference number

SM volume 73/6

Purpose

[20] Working drawing for the basement, April 1803

Aspect

Plan of the Basement Story and elevation of an arcade of alternating large and small round-headed arches

Scale

bar scale

Inscribed

as above, (Soane) Door, equal arches, 3 arches / as above, 1 large arc, Arc (twice), This passage to be crowned / with Yorkshire Ledger, 3 arches / as above, Qy these larger arches / or similar ones under the spaces / between the Col^m / Qy which will give / most light?, 3 arch / as above and some dimensions given, (pencil) Qy Chimneys

Signed and dated

April 26: 1803

Hand

Soane office and Soane

Notes

This drawing and SM volume 73/13 are alternative designs for the basement. This drawing and SM volume 73/7 correspond with the ground floor design shown in SM volume 72/13, SM volume 73/15 and SM volume 73/8 whereas SM volume 73/13 corresponds with SM volume 73/9 and SM volume 73/10. The primary differences between the designs are the siting of the stairwell and, in most cases, the alcoves flanking the Princes Street entrance.

SM volume 72/13 has 'trunk arch' inscribed in Soane's hand to describe part of the vaulted corridors. The Architectural Publication Society’s Dictionary of architecture, published in 1852, defines a Trunk arch as 'one of which only the intrados, and not the face, is seen'. The arches in SM volume 72/13 are 6'3" wide. 'Trunk arch' is also inscribed on drawings for the Consols Transfer Office (SM volume 74/54, SM volume 57 and SM volume 59.

The drawing shown here is also inscribed by Soane and concerns the York ledger foundations. Soane has written 'Qy which will give / most light?', indicating that he is mindful of providing the most light possible in the basement.

Literature

W. Papworth [ed], The Dictionary of architecture, published in parts 1848-1892, volume VIII

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

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).