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  • image Image 1 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 2 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 3 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 4 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 1 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 2 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 3 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9
  • image Image 4 for SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9

Reference number

SM (3) 50/2/22 (4) 50/2/23 (5) 50/2/20 (6) 49/5/9

Purpose

Survey drawings of the old Treasury complex (4)

Aspect

3 Plan of part of the Treasury, the "Tennis Court" and the various Public Buildings / connected therewith as they existed in 1793 4 Plan of the Old Council Offices &c at Whitehall in 1793 5 Plan of the Treasury and other Public Offices at Whitehall (previous to 1824) 6 Plan of the Upper Story of the Office of the Secretary of State for the Home Department / about the Year 1820

Scale

(3) to a scale of 1/12 inch to 1 foot (4, 5) bar scales of 1/12 inch to 1 foot (6) bar scale of 1/6 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

3 as above, (pencil) Board Room over 4 as above, labelled: (pencil) India Board, (pen) Yard (5 times), Kitchen, Breakfast / Room, Coffee house, Tennis Court, Council Office (twice), Stables and Coach houses, (pencil) Mr Pollock C Clerk / to Mr Dundas, Back part / of India Office and some dimensions given 5 as above, labelled: The Offices of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whitehall, Board of Trade, Council Office, Tennis Court, Passage leading to the Park, Old Council Office, Staircase / leading / to the / Treasury, Part of the "Treasury Chambers", The Chancellor of the Exchequer's, Donning Street (sic) and dimensions given 6 as above, labelled: Late the Auditor of the Civil List, (pencil) Mr Hobhouse, Messengers room, Area, Commissariat Department, (pencil) Mr Dawson, (pencil) Lobby, (pencil) Military Room, Late the Storekeeper Generals Department, (pencil) Mr Hicks, (pencil) Mr Wood, Late the Auditor of the / Civil List Department, (red pen) Door to Waiting Room adjoining / Mr Peel's room, (pencil) Skylight, Passage leading to Mr Hills room, Lead Flat, Area, Skylight, (red pen) Opening for / Light, (red pen) This opening leads / to a Passage, (red pen) Opening to Passage / leading to Treasury, Commissariat Department, (pencil) Office Keeper / Room, Lead Flat, (pencil) Staircase / to Treasury, Housekeepers apartments Board of Trade, Iron Closet, Commissariat Department, Iron Closet, Whitehall and dimensions given

Medium and dimensions

(3) Pen and sepia wash, pricked for transfer on stout laid paper with two fold marks (515 x 733) (4) pen on laid paper (450 x 570) (5) pen, grey and pink washes, pricked for transfer on wove paper with one fold mark (605 x 794) (6) pen, red pen and grey washes, pricked for transfer on wove paper (721 x 524)

Hand

Soane office

Watermark

(3) Portal & Bridges and fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche and below, ornate W (4) J Whatman and fleur-de-lis above cartouche with bar and below, ornate W (5) J Whatman 1816 (6) J Budgen 1822

Notes

Two survey drawings show the Treasury complex as it was in 1793, a fact that is confirmed by comparison with another copied survey drawing (q.v. SM 50/2/21). Drawing 3 may indeed be a copy of the earlier drawing. Drawing 5, a survey of the same buildings 'previous to 1824', shows one or two differences, however - two new entrances on Whitehall and alterations to the coffee house among them. The complex includes the offices of the Treasury, the Board of Trade, the Home Department and the Privy Council and the 'Brake' or Great Open Tennis Court. The area of the site is roughly 260 feet by 220 feet, with Whitehall at the bottom (east) and Downing Street to the left (south) and the Treasury by William Kent at the north-west of the complex.
The Home Office had occupied part of the complex known as the Old Tennis Court since c.1808. This had formerly been one of four tennis courts at the old Palace of Whitehall. Originally built by Henry VIII, the Old Tennis Court was much altered internally, becoming in 1663 part of the residence of the Duke of Monmouth, which eventually came into the use of the Secretary of State for the Home Department and other government departments. The building retained its Tudor façade until 1846. Henry Dundas (1742-1811) was Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1791 to 1794. William Pollock (dates unknown) was his Chief Clerk.
On drawing 5, in pencil, the corner turret of the Old Tennis Court is given its proper octagonal shape. The outline of Soane's new Board of Trade Offices is added in pink wash (q.v. drawings 7-8). Drawing 6, which shows the upper floor of the Home Office, has Whitehall at the top of the sheet.

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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