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  • image Image 1 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 2 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 3 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 4 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 5 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 6 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
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  • image Image 8 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 1 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 2 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 3 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 4 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 5 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 6 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 7 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9
  • image Image 8 for SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9

Reference number

SM (21) 71/3/8 (22) 71/3/6 (23) 71/3/7 (24) 71/3/9

Purpose

Alternative designs for railings, February and May 1792 (4)

Aspect

21 Plan of area to be enclosed with block plans of Senate House on the right (north), (unbuilt) south wing (left) and plan of front wall of Stephen Wright's Library range, 1754-8, on the west side. To the east labelled Trumpington Street (twice), Saint Marys Church and Entrance (twice) 22 East elevation of railings and lamps between the (unbuilt) south wing and Senate House 23 East elevation of railings and lamps between the (unbuilt) south wing and Senate House with railings extending in front of both wings 24 Plan and elevation of the eastern end of the Senate House showing the enclosing railings to a larger scale and with a (rough pencil, Soane) detail of a finial

Inscribed

21 as above, No 2 22 No 2, Entrance (twice), (pencil, Soane) This side 23 No 3, Entrance (3 times) 24 No 4, Design for Enclosing the Senate House Etca / The University of Cambridge and Gates

Signed and dated

  • (21) signed by Senate building committee: J. Postlethwaite V. Chanor / J. Smith / W. Elliston / T. Kipling / J Jowett / G.Borlase / W: Collier / Robt Tyrwhitt / T. Kerrich (22) the same signatures as (20) and dated Mar.6 (23) no Senate building committee signatures (24) (signed by: J. Postlethwaite V. Chanor / J. Smith / J.Barker / T. Kipling / J.Turner / G.Borlase / W. Collier / R.Tyrwhitt / T. Kerrich / J. Plampin and dated March 31st 1792
    (21-23) John Soane Archt Gt Scotland Yard / Feb: 1792 (24) (signed by Soane) John Soane / Great Scotland Yard Mar. 20th / 1792



Medium and dimensions

(21) Pen and sepia washes, shaded with triple-ruled and black wash border on laid paper with four fold marks (467 x 586) (22) pen, sepia and yellow ochre washes, shaded with single-ruled and sepia wash border on laid paper with two fold marks (285 x 465) (23) pen, sepia and yellow ochre washes, shaded with single-ruled and sepia wash border on laid paper (282 x 462) (24) pen, black and sepia washes, shaded with quadruple-ruled and sepia wash border on laid paper with one fold mark (584 x 455)

Hand

(21-24) Thomas Chawner (1774-1851, pupil 1788-94)

Watermark

(21) J Whatman, fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, ornate W (22) fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, ornate W (23) J Whatman (24) J Whatman, fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, ornate W

Notes

Soane's office 'Ledger B' has an entry for 1 February 1792 ' No. 4 fair drawings of different designs for enclosing the Area of the Senate House'. Subsequent entries deal with repairs to the greenhouse in the Botanic Gardens and drains and paving. Other commissions for Cambridge buildings were for Gonville and Caius College and St John's College, 1792 (q.q.v).

The current railings correspond with the design show in drawing 4.

Level

Drawing

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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.

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