bar scale of 1/24 inch to 1 foot

This is a true Copy of the Plan of the Opera House and other Houses and / Ground in the Haymarket and Market Lane, referred to in a Lease from / the Crown to Edward Vanbrugh Esq^r (dated the 4^th day of January 1777 / and remaining in the Office of his Majesty's Surveyor General // Examined P W^m Harrison // Nov^r 27^th 1790, Stage, The Opera house, Orchestra, Pit, Boxes, Passage, Houses belonging to / the Opera House, Room belonging / to opera house, Entrance, Passage, Entrance into / Opera House, King's Yard, Geo: / Alexander, W^m/ Johnson, Eliz: / Hallet, In^o / Stephenson, Haymarket / East, North / Parsons Cooling, West / Market Lane, Peter Dennis and Doct^r Brooks / South, NB The House in the possession of William Johnson was / lately two Houses which are now laid into one and dimensions given

• Copy Nov^r 27^th 1790

Pencil, pen and wash on laid paper (307 x 487)

attributed to William Harrison

fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche and GR below

The drawing shows the original Royal Opera or 'Queen's Theatre' in Haymarket built by Sir John Vanbrugh from 1704 to 1705, copied from a plan on a lease held in the office of William Chambers, His Majesty's Surveyor General. William Harrison probably made the drawing. Soane called on Mr O'Reilly and Mr Harrison in St James Place on 25 November 1790. He called on Harrison the next day and on the 27th he paid Harrison 'for an altered plan of the old opera house'.

The original opera house at Haymarket was built by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1704. This plan of Vanbrugh's theatre shows the theatre with a proscenium arch approximately 35 feet wide and an auditorium approximately 45 feet deep. Theatres grew in size through the 18th century, as revealed in the succession of designs for the nearby Royal Theatre at Drury Lane: Robert Adam's 1775 alterations to the Drury Lane theatre provided a proscenium 30 feet wide and an auditorium 60 feet deep; in 1794, Henry Holland rebuilt the theatre with a wider proscenium and an auditorium 100 feet deep. Vanbrugh's design has the boxes surrounding and in close proximity to the stage, another aspect of early theatre design that was altered through the 18th century.

The original theatre was positioned behind a range of houses on Haymarket, with only a narrow entrance front facing the street. As SM 61/5/9 shows, this part of the plan was not altered by subsequent architects but the rest of the theatre was largely changed. SM 61/5/9 shows much less space behind the stage, and the boxes arranged in a horseshoe-form resembling La Scala in Milan.

Survey of London, St James, Westminster, volumes XXIX and XXX, 1960, pp. 223-225.

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