[4] Survey, Westminster Hall and Law Courts, c September 1822

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Office of Works
  - London: Palace of Westminster: The New Law Courts, surveys and designs, 1820-32 (507)
    - Survey Drawings - Previously Extant Buildings, 1820-23 (122)
      - Site Surveys, 1820-23 (9)

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Reference number

SM 53/1/9

Purpose

[4] Survey, Westminster Hall and Law Courts, c September 1822

Aspect

Plan of the ground floor of Westminster Hall, the Law Courts and their ancillary offices and accommodation on the north side of Westminster Hall, with the Courts of King's Bench and Chancery located in the latter

Scale

bar scale of ¹/₁₈ inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

Westminster Hall. / Court of Kings Bench / Court of Chancery / Waiting Room (x 4 ) / Lord Chancellors / Room / Mices / Coffee House / Area (x 4) / M^r Lee / Clerk in Parliament . Passage / to / Judges Room / Court of / Kings Bench / Grand Juery and Record Room / Passage / to / Court / of / Common / Pleas Vaults / Room under / Judges Room / of the Court / of Kings Bench / Court of Common Pleas / Vaults under Judges / Room of the Court of / Common Pleas. / Record Room / Passage / to / Judges / Room / of / Court / of / Exchequ[e]^r/ Exchequer Coffe House / Yard / Vaults belonging / to / Exchequer Coffee / House / Vaults / belonging / to / Olivers / Coffee House. / Record Room / under Exchequer Court / Olivers Coffee House

Signed and dated

28/09/1822
dated in accordance with corresponding Day Book entry

Medium and dimensions

Pencil, wash, blue wash, pen, pricked for transfer on laid paper (488 x 297)

Hand

John William Hiort (1772 - 1861), draughtsman
attributed in accordance with SM 53/3/14 and the Day Book entry for 28 September 1822, which notes that John Hiort was engaged with theNew Courts / Drawing Plan of / the old Buildings.

Watermark

W Weatherley / 1822

Notes

This drawing is a fair copy in a distinctive meticulous hand, of the various survey drawings recording the extant buildings to the north of Westminster Hall. It is a variant of SM 53/3/14, and therefore attributed to John Hiort. Buildings to be demolished are indicated with lighter wash, while those to be retained or incorporated into the New Law Courts are indicated in wash. That the existing Court of Exchequer is to be retained suggests this plan relates to the first Law Courts scheme, prepared by Soane from 1820 - 1821. The latter is also shown with its north-eastern corner as extant prior to the restoration of Westminster Hall (1819 - 1823), during which it was part demolished and rebuilt, set-back from the north-west tower of the Hall's north front.

Level

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation. This catalogue of Soane’s designs for the New Law Courts was generously funded by The Worshipful Company of Mercers and The Pilgrim Trust.

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).