(2) bar scale of 2/11 inch to 1 foot (drawings 1 and 3: to the same scale) (4-6) bar scales of 2/9 inch to 1 foot

1 as above, The University of Cambridge, rooms labelled: The Porters Lodge, Closet to Library, The Staircase / and Vestibule, The Registry (twice), The Hall, The Lecture Room / and / Library, The Great Lecture Room / and / Music Room and dimensions of heights given (the principal rooms are 21 feet high) 2 as above, The University of Cambridge, rooms and voids labelled: Staircase to / Gallery / and Roof / &c, Water Closet, The Great Staircase, Chamber (twice), The upper part of / the Library, The upper part of / the Hall, The upper part of / the Great Lecture Room and Music Room 3 as above, The University of Cambridge, rooms labelled: The Picture Gallery, The Museum 4 as above 5 as above 6 as above, labelled: The Section of One Side of the Museum and The Plan of the Museum and above three cases: The Natural History of Ireland, The Natural History of England and The Natural History of Scotland 7 as above

• (1-7) Copy John Soane Arch^t July 1791

(1) Pen, black and sepia washes with cut-down border (lower edge) on laid paper (492 x 698) (2) pen and sepia washes on laid paper (542 x 755) (3) pen and sepia washes with cut-down border (lower edge and LHS) on laid paper (492 x 698) (4) pen, sepia, burnt umber, green and yellow washes on laid paper (955 x 640) (5) pen, sepia, black and coloured washes on laid paper (637 x 950) (6) pen, black, sepia and coloured washes on laid paper (632 x 950) (7) pen, sepia, black and coloured washes on laid paper (640 x 950) (1-7) with quadruple-ruled and raw umber wash border (1 and 3 cut-down) and with one fold mark

Thomas Chawner (1774-1851, pupil 1788-94)

(1-3) Portal & Bridges, fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche and GR below (4-7) J Whatman

The design is for a nine by five bay building with a front entrance into a hall and thence to the lecture room / library and large lecture room / music room of the ground floor. A side entrance takes the visitor upstairs to the museum and picture gallery via a geometric stair on a D-plan. Drawings 4 and 5 are alternative designs for the Great Lecture Room and Music Room. Both are of the same dimensions but with the seating arranged differently. Drawing 5 has windows on three sides and is shown as a lecture room. Drawing 4 has windows on two sides and is shown as a theatre with an orchestra pit. The interior architecture differs in that, for example, drawing 4 (theatre) has a vaulted ceiling and drawing 15 (lecture theatre) a canopy (or handkerchief) ceiling.

The room labelled 'Museum' (drawing 6) has a plan and form reminiscent of an unexecuted design by Soane (and/or George Dance) for the picture gallery (sic) at Fonthill Splendens, 1787 (q.v.). The long narrow plan that was unavoidable at Fonthill was here more apt for museum objects. George Dance's executed design for the Common Council Chamber of the Guildhall, London of 1777-8, included a top-lit pendentive or canopy dome (in which the dome and the pendentives are part of the same sphere) similar to the Fonthill example though circular rather than elliptical on plan. The three lanterns of the Senate scheme are elliptical on plan but with flat roofs rather than the conical lanterns set on drums of the Fonthill example. The first built example of a related design was the fine canopy dome with lantern in the Yellow Drawing Room at Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, 1790-1 (q.v.).

For the picture gallery design (drawing 7), the young draughtsman has enthusiastically filled the frames with a great many joyous figures with flying draperies (or none at all) depicting various scenes from the Classics including the Rape of Europa.

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