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Designs for completing the end of Downing Street, February 1825 (3)
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- Sir John Soane office drawings: the drawings of Sir John Soane and the office of Sir John Soane
Reference number
SM (131) 49/5/15 (132) 49/5/24 (133) 49/5/16
Purpose
Designs for completing the end of Downing Street, February 1825 (3)
Aspect
131 Perspective Sketch of a Design for completing the New Buildings / in Downing Street and Downing Place from the east end of Downing Street
132 Perspective View of a Design for completing the Buildings in Downing Street from the east end of Downing Street
133 Perspective Sketch of a Design for completing the New Buildings in Downing Street / and Downing Place from the east end of Downing Street
Inscribed
131 as above
132 as above
133 as above
Signed and dated
- (131) February 1825 (132) 1825 (133) 14 February 1825
Medium and dimensions
(131) Pen, sepia, black and blue washes, pricked for transfer with single ruled border on wove paper (312 x 490) (132) pen, sepia and blue washes with single ruled and sepia wash border on wove paper (506 x 718) (133) pencil, sepia, black and blue washes on wove paper (361 x 492)
Hand
Soane office
Watermark
(132) Smith & Allnutt 1820
Notes
Soane's suggestions for 'completing' the new Board of Trade and Privy Council Offices involved another new building being erected on the opposite side of Downing Street. This building, shown on the left of drawings 131 and 132, was to mirror the Privy Council Offices but the front on Whitehall is only three bays wide. On drawing 132 the Privy Council Offices continue further into Downing Street with a hexastyle projection at the west end to match that at the east. Soane had the idea to link these two buildings with a triumphal arch at the end of Downing Street (drawing 133). The arch was incorporated into his intended 'processional route' from Hyde Park to the House of Lords but it was never authorised and so remained unbuilt. The date ('14 February 1825') is a little suspicious as the arch does not appear again in any designs until April 1825.
Level
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