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[11] Stage III: approach to the vault
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Reference number
SM 63/7/16
Purpose
[11] Stage III: approach to the vault
Aspect
Perspective from the north-west with a background that includes a pyramidal mausoleum, a stormy sky and wind-tossed trees
Scale
to differing scales
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, grey, green, raw umber, sepia, white highlights, watercolour technique, pricked for transfer on laid paper (306 x 412)
Hand
George Basevi (1794-1845, pupil 1810-16) (12) ? Henry Parke (1790-1835, pupil 1814-20)
Watermark
Phipps & Son 1809
Notes
An entrance to the vault implies not just the gated opening of drawing SM 63/7/19 but also some method of entering the vault from ground level. Drawing SM 63/7/5, which follows, shows a drop of 4 feet 6 inches. Drawing 63/7/19 shows a threshold but not steps, while drawing SM 63/7/16 may show a threshold or a top step. Again, drawing 32, dated 23 May 1816 and made for the engraver, is without a stair.
None of the other drawings show anything more than what may be read as a threshold or possibly a top step. Except, that is, for the small plan on drawing 47 (attributed to J. M. Gandy) which shows twelve steps, as does the published plan for which the it was made (J. Soane, Designs for public and private buildings, 1828, plate 54). In fact, since the sunken area is externally no more than four feet wide and nine feet long, it is difficult to know how a stair could be fitted in that would allow for the dignified transition of a coffin from the hearse to the vault.
At the present time, the vault is fronted by a rectangular pit without stairs except for two carved out of the west front of the base upon which the monument sits; the vault itself is sealed with stone slabs and there is no gated entrance to the vault such as that shown here.
Summerson (op.cit. above) wrote that beyond the entrance 'is a sunken area, a pit, where one would expect to find steps leading down to the vault. But there are no steps and probably never were. The entrance to the gate is, and probably always was, walled up. There is not even a symbolic door.' Bowdler and Woodward (op.cit. above) writing later describe the construction of a flight of steps to the vault as ' Pharaonic in mood' and 'unique'. Unique because 'the standard method of entering a vault ... was to burrow down at one end of the tomb and insert a coffin through this narrow trench.'
None of the other drawings show anything more than what may be read as a threshold or possibly a top step. Except, that is, for the small plan on drawing 47 (attributed to J. M. Gandy) which shows twelve steps, as does the published plan for which the it was made (J. Soane, Designs for public and private buildings, 1828, plate 54). In fact, since the sunken area is externally no more than four feet wide and nine feet long, it is difficult to know how a stair could be fitted in that would allow for the dignified transition of a coffin from the hearse to the vault.
At the present time, the vault is fronted by a rectangular pit without stairs except for two carved out of the west front of the base upon which the monument sits; the vault itself is sealed with stone slabs and there is no gated entrance to the vault such as that shown here.
Summerson (op.cit. above) wrote that beyond the entrance 'is a sunken area, a pit, where one would expect to find steps leading down to the vault. But there are no steps and probably never were. The entrance to the gate is, and probably always was, walled up. There is not even a symbolic door.' Bowdler and Woodward (op.cit. above) writing later describe the construction of a flight of steps to the vault as ' Pharaonic in mood' and 'unique'. Unique because 'the standard method of entering a vault ... was to burrow down at one end of the tomb and insert a coffin through this narrow trench.'
Literature
J. Summerson, 'Sir John Soane and the furniture of death', p. 136, The Unromantic castle and other essays, 1990; R. Bowlder and C. Woodward, '"An Ornamental Structure and Very Likely to be Damaged ": Sir John Soane's tomb in St Pancras Gardens, London', p.253, Architectural History, 42, 1999
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