Scale
1-3 bar scale of 1/14 in to 1 ft
Inscribed
1 as above, A. Staircase for the use of the Master & Apothecarys Servants / B. do for the more convenient conveying the provisions to the Patients / C. do for the use of the Hospital / D. do from the Street to the Kitchen &c and rooms labelled: Cellars (3 times), Coals / 15 by 20 (twice), Coals / 15.9 by 19, Area (twice), Cutting room / 16.1½ by 19.7½, Small beer / Cellar / 17 by 23, Kitchen / 22.0 by 19.7½, Servants / room / 15.7½ by 16.9, Boiling room / 15.7½ by 16.9, Masters / Kitchen / 16.1½ by 9.1½, Pantry / 10.1½ by 9.1½, Apothecarys / Kitchen / 16.1 by 9.1½, Wet Larder / 16.1½ by 9.1½, Court, Washouse / 16.6 by 16, Passage to Staircase to Hospital
2 rooms labelled: Cold Bath / 16 feet square, Warming Room / 19 by 19, Common / Sink, Privy, Corridor, Warming Room / 19 by 13, Passage to Straw Chimy, Straw Chimney, Keepers room / 11 by 10.6, (entrance) Cortile, Vestibule, Physicians / Examining Rooms / 16.6, 5.0 / Masters Parlour / 16.6, 20.0, Apothecarys Parlour / 16.0 by 17.1½, Mens waiting / Room / 16 by 8 feet, Womens waiting / room 16.6 by 9:6, Matrons Parlour / 16. by 9:6, Matron's bedroom / 16.6 by 9.6, Apothecarys Shop / 16.6 by 9.6, Apothecarys Still / Room / 16.6 by 9:6, Court, Covered way to the several Wards and Infirmarys &c, Masters Garden / the Ground raised / To within one foot of the / level of this floor, Hot bath / 17.1½ by 10.6, Surgery / 17:1½by 10.6, Mens / Wardrobe, Iron Gate (twice, separating men's side from women's side), Womens / Wardrobe / 8.0 by 10.6, Mens / Hot bath / 18:3 by 10:0, Women's Infirmary 81 feet long, Surgery &c / 19 by 7.6, Straw Barn / 19 by 21, Area to the Women's Infirmary, Drying Yard for Linen &c, Men's Infirmary / 76 feet long, 19 feet (wide), Area to the Men's Infirmary, Sink, Privy, Warming Room / 19 by 13, Passage to Infirmary, Warming Room / 19 by 13, Keepers room / 11 by 10.6, Passage to Straw Chimy, Straw Chimney, Passage to Warming room, Warming Room / 19 by 19, Bonehouse, Mens Cold bath / 16 feet square, Straw / Barn
3 as above and (on parapet over entrance) ST LUKES HOSPITAL / FOR LVNATICS
1-3: No3 (competition number added)
1-3 Mihi turpe relinqui est [it is shameful for me to be left behind] (competition motto)
Signed and dated
Medium and dimensions
(1) Pen and washes within a single ruled border on laid paper with one fold mark (641 x 988);(2) pen and washes within single ruled border on laid paper with one fold mark (656 x 999); (3) 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
Soane?; Soane?; Robert Baldwin (fl.1762-c.1804)
Watermark
1-3 J Whatman
Notes
Robert Baldwin's hand can be seen in the inscribed titles as well as the rendering of the elevation and section (drawing 1). It has been suggested (Professor du Prey, in conversation February 2009) that the room labels on drawings 1 and 2 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