[1] Survey of existing hall (designed by Robert Taylor, 1714-88) with proposed triple-lantern design and stove studies added, dated 19 November 1791

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Books

Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Bank of England
  - Bank of England, City of London for the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, 1788-1834 (1356)
    - 1791-1801 Rebuilding of offices in the east wing and north-east extension (431)
      - Bank Stock Office, 1791-1793 (73)
        Preliminary column-flue designs, November 1791 to c. March 1792 (8)

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Reference number

SM volume 74/1

Purpose

[1] Survey of existing hall (designed by Robert Taylor, 1714-88) with proposed triple-lantern design and stove studies added, dated 19 November 1791

Aspect

Plan, laid-out elevation/sections and details for Bank Stock Office

Scale

bar scale of 1/8 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

as above, The Bank Stock Office / Rebuilt 1792, (Dance) Oak Leaves, Acorn, Birds, dimensions given and (verso) Dimensions of Bank Stock Office / as it is now

Signed and dated

Nov^r 19: 1791 (recto and verso)

Medium and dimensions

Pen, pencil, sepia, rose pink, yellow ochre and brown madder washes, partly pricked for transfer on laid paper with three fold marks (458 x 587)

Hand

Thomas Chawner (1774-1851, pupil 1788-94) (Day Book, 19 November 1791), Soane and George Dance (1741-1825)

Watermark

fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, GR and E & P

Notes

This sheet shows a survey of the existing structure, taken by Thomas Chawner on 19 November 1791. It was used as a template in two of the laid-out sections for the preliminary triple-lantern design presented to the Bank of England's directors on 24 November and 6 December 1791. Three lantern lights surmounted by pitched wood roofs (in yellow ochre wash) rise above the existing vaulting. In rose pink wash is shown the new masonry vaulting.

Pencil sketches over the plan, probably in Soane's hand, shows the retention and reinforcement of four existing points of support and the disposition of the stove and lanterns. Further sketches in the margins, identified as being in Dance's hand by Summerson and Jill Lever, show details of the central stove and column-flue, including a plan, ornamental lion, and a capital for the column-flue that shows oak leaves and acorns above a spiral column-flue. It is not possible to say when Dance added his details, but since SM 10/4/19, SM volume 60/165, SM archive 14/80/2, SM archive 14/80/3, SM archive 14/80/5 and SM archive 14/80/4 ignore the footprint provided by this drawing it may have been done after them and before SM archive 14/80/1, dated 11 December 1791 and following.

To see further studies done by George Dance to assist Soane with the rebuilding of the Bank Stock Office between 1791 and 1792 see SM 10/4/19, SM volume 60/165, SM archive 14/80/2, SM archive 14/80/3, SM archive 14/80/5, SM archive 14/80/4, SM archive 14/80/1, SM volume 42/173, SM volume 42/170, SM volume 42/174, SM volume 42/175, SM volume 42/176, SM volume 42/171, SM volume 42/177, SM volume 42/77 and SM volume 42/76.

The sheet has been folded three times and identified on its outside by the verso inscription, probably for ease of storage and also transport to and from Soane's Great Scotland Yard and Bank offices.

Literature

J. Lever, Catalogue of the drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) ... from the collection of Sir John Soane's Museum, 2003, p. 352
E. Schumann-Bacia, John Soane and the Bank of England, 1991, p. 52, ill. 36
J. Summerson, 'The evolution of Soane's Bank Stock Office in the Bank of England', The unromantic castle, 1990, pp. 146-147, ill. 125

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

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).