[39] Design for the tower, St Peter's, Walworth, London, c.1823-24

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Churches and chapels
  - London: St Peter's, Walworth, designs for construction and interiors, 1822-25 (66)
    - Designs and working drawing for the various elements of the tower, St Peter's, Walworth, London, 1823-24 (6)

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Reference number

SM 54/6/28

Purpose

[39] Design for the tower, St Peter's, Walworth, London, c.1823-24

Aspect

Plan of the western front of the roof. The front edge is balustraded. Behind there is a central aperture where joists and beams from the floor below are visible. Either side are two elliptical staircases. The metal slating of the roof is on either side. The elevation on the left shows the rectangular portion of the tower with a shuttered louvre surmounted by a circular space for a clock face, and the architrave is supported by Corinthian pilasters. Atop the architrave are caps at each corner. Above is the cylindrical portion of the tower, with engaged Corinthian columns resting on a podium and supporting the architrave. Between the columns is a lancet window. Atop the architrave are a series of stone slabs around the base of a faceted dome, and the above is the finial and bottom part of a weather vane. The section on the right shows the outline and main features of the elevation. However, here the internal stone structures and arrangements of blocks can be seen, and the double dome with an internal dome, and external stone casing. The rod for the weather van is visible through the finial, and attaches to the sides of the dome. Between the elevation and section are four plans relating to each individual element of the tower. Plan A.B. has the square base section with architrave profiles on each corner. Plan C.D. has the architrave with internal circular structures recessed at each cardinal point. Plan E.F. differs in illustrating the arrangement of the engaged Corinthian columns and the recesses in the wall for each lancet window. Plan G.H. illustrates the circular level of the dome and the stone abutments, which align with the engaged Corinthian columns of Plan E.F.. A pencil line centres all the plans, and red pen is used on the elevation for centring

Scale

bar scale of ¹/₄ inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

Newington Church / Plans, Elevation, and Section of the Steeple / N^o.26 / Staircase to Belfry / Staircase to Belfry / Elevation / set off A / Plan on the line A.B. / Plan on the line C.D / Plan on the line E.F. / Plan on the line E.F. / Section / Portland / Portland / Portland Stone / Portland Stone / Portland Stone / York / York / York / Portland / Portland / Portland Stone / Portland Stone / Portland / Portland / Portland Stone

Signed and dated

c.1823-24
datable to 1823-24 in accordance with (other drawings in this group)

Medium and dimensions

Pencil, pen, red pen, wash, coloured washes of pink, blue and yellow, pricked for transfer on wove paper (712 x 524)

Hand

Possibly Mee, Arthur Patrick (1802--1868), draughtsman
Some of the letter forms, such as upper case -N and lower case -s are consistent with Office Day Book entries and other drawings by Mee

Verso

Faint pencil, perhaps an arch with key-stone and a girder.

Notes

This is the first detailed drawing for the tower. Soane provided a plan, elevation and section, but measurements are not included. The 1822 scheme (SM 54/8/8; SM 54/8/16) has been modified by reversing the position of the shuttered louvree and the clock face, all columnar elements are unfluted, and the balustrade with turned balusters encircling the cylindrical portion of the tower has been omitted. The inscriptions refer to York and especially Portland stone as the medium of construction.

As a design, this drawing can be compared with SM 54/4/8 relating to the tower at Holy Trinity Marylebone. They are almost identical in plan, elevation and section, although SM 54/4/8 has a split elevation and section instead of two separate drawings. Unlike SM 54/4/8, the St Peter's version lacks the frieze of fret between the Corinthian capitals at the top of the square portion of the tower, and the lancet window in the cylindrical portion is not shuttered, the dome is fluted, and the dowels on the outer stonework of the dome are not shown.

One difference within the St Peter's corpus is the clock face surround does not have a wreath in this drawing, but is wreathed on SM 54/6/15 and SM 54/6/16, which were produced in the same year.

Level

Drawing

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).