Variant designs for alterations to the ground floor, 11 and 12 Downing Street, August-November 1825 (5)

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Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
- Office of Works
  - London: 10-12 Downing Street: designs for alterations, 1825 (22)

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Reference number

SM (17) 50/4/1 (18) 50/4/2 (19) 50/4/3 (20) 50/4/4 (21) 50/4/5

Purpose

Variant designs for alterations to the ground floor, 11 and 12 Downing Street, August-November 1825 (5)

Aspect

17 Plan of M^r Lushington's / house and the one adjoining / shewing the proposed / alterations (Ground Floor) 18 Plan of M^r Lushington's / house and the one adjoining / shewing the proposed / alterations (Ground Floor) 19 Ground floor plan 20 Ground Floor plan with section through staircase 21 Ground Floor plan

Scale

(17-21) bar scales of 1/6 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

17 as above, labelled: Downing Square, Area (twice), Staircase, Hall, Lobby, Up, Servants Staircase, Down, Water Closet under / landing, Staircase, Wardrobe, Washhand / Stand, Lobby, Water Closet, Bookcase, 32'0'', 22'3'', 21'8'', 41'3'', Q[uer]^y door, Paved Court, Area, (beneath flier): Water Closet under, Staircase, Wardrobe, Recess, Washhand / Stand, Water Closet 18 as above, labelled: Downing Square, Area (twice), Staircase, Hall, Lobby, up, Servents (sic) Staircase, down, Water Closet under / Landing, Staircase, Wardrobe, Washhand / Stand, Lobby, Water Closet, Bookcase, 32'0'', 22'3', 21'8'', 41'3'', Q^y door, Paved Court, Area, (beneath flier): Staircase, Wardrobe, Recess, Washhand / Stand, Water Closet 20 (Soane) S. R. / (office) M^r Lushington's ^^{(Soane) Esq} / (office) House, Downing Square, Lobby, (Soane) Light / above, (Soane) high lights 21 The Right Honorable / S. R. Lushington (erased) Esq^re, Downing Square, Area (twice), Lobby; (verso, Soane): Plan of alterations / in Downing Street

Signed and dated

(17) Lincolns Inn Fields / 18^th Aug^t 1825 (18) Lincolns Inn Fields / (Copy) 30^th Aug^t 1825 (19) (Soane) Lincolns Inn / Fields / (?George Bailey) 2^nd Sep^r 1825 (20) Lincolns Inn Fields / 3^rd Octob^r 1825 (21) (Soane) L. I. Fields / 17 Nov^r 1825

Medium and dimensions

(17-19) Pen, sepia, pink and blue washes, pricked for transfer on laid secretary paper (17) with three fold marks and a flier on laid paper (323 x 407) (18) with one fold mark and a flier on laid paper (322 x 402) (19) with three fold marks (323 x 401) (20) pen, pencil, sepia, pink and blue washes, pricked for transfer on wove paper (350 x 551) (21) pen, sepia and pink washes, pricked for transfer with a sepia wash border on thin wove paper with four fold marks (333 x 562)

Hand

(17, 21) Stephen Burchell (1806-?, pupil 1823-28) (18, 20) C. J. Richardson (1809-71, pupil and assistant 1824-1837) (19) ?George Bailey (1792-1860, pupil then assistant 1806-37, curator 1837-60) (Day Book, 6 September)

Watermark

(17) G C & Co 1823 and Britannia with lance, shield and olive branch within crowned oval (18, 19) Fellows 1823 and Britannia with lance, shield and olive branch within crowned oval

Notes

Although Soane's initial design was described as 'excellent' by Stephen Lushington (joint Secretary of the Treasury and occupant of No. 11 from 1824 to 1827) - who added in a letter dated 28 August 1825 that 'I have nothing to suggest but beg your early attention of it' - several more plans were made, the last of which is dated '17 Nov[embe]r 1825'. Soane's alterations were to provide an 'eating room', an ante-room, a lobby and a new staircase, and designs to combine No. 11 with the neighbouring property (then called No. 12).

The 'eating room' designed by Soane (top-right of drawings 17-21) occupies a former yard at the back of No. 11. Due to the position of the room it had to be top-lit to provide enough light. The ceiling (for which no drawings are known to survive) has a canopy dome flanked by two skylights, shown in blue wash on drawings 17-19, an almost identical arrangement to Soane's own breakfast room at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields.

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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