[3] Competition design No.3 with motto 'Mihi turpe relinqui est'

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Public buildings
  - London: St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics, Islington: unexecuted competition designs, 1777 (9)

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Reference number

SM 13/1/4

Purpose

[3] Competition design No.3 with motto 'Mihi turpe relinqui est'

Aspect

Section on the Line A,B,C,D,E,F and Elevation next Old Street

Scale

bar scale of 1/14 in to 1 ft

Inscribed

as above and (on parapet over entrance) S^T LUKE^SHOSPITAL / FOR LVNATICS. N^o3 (competition number added). Mihi turpe relinqui est [it is shameful for me to be left behind] (competition motto)

Signed and dated

datable to before 31 May 1777

Medium and dimensions

Pen with sepia and (section) pink washes, shaded within double ruled and wash border on laid paper with one fold mark (643 x 1000)

Hand

Robert Baldwin (fl.1762-c.1804)

Watermark

J Whatman

Notes

Robert Baldwin's hand can be seen in the inscribed titles as well as the rendering of the elevation and section of SM 13/1/6. It has been suggested (Professor du Prey, in conversation February 2009) that the room labels on SM 13/1/6 and SM 13/1/5 were added by Soane who may have drawn the plans too. It is not uncommon to have several hands making a competition drawing.

The plan could be described as a stretched half-ellipse (cut longitudinally). The elevation has a Pantheon-type dome in the centre over a three-bay, four-storey frontispiece with three Wyatt windows, the centre one with a pair of reclining statues. The giant, two-storey windows at each end have a pair of Greek Doric columns with plain shafts and without bases.

Literature

P.du Prey, John Soane: the making of an architect, 1982. Chapter 3 (Architecture for madness: the St Luke's competition)

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