Survey drawings of the old State Paper Office, Great George Street, ?1829 (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: New State Paper Office, Duke Street, Westminster, 1829-34 (207)

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Reference number

SM (1) 82/4/5 (2) 82/4/4 (3) 82/4/3 (4) 82/4/2 (5) 82/4/1

Purpose

Survey drawings of the old State Paper Office, Great George Street, ?1829 (5)

Aspect

1 Basement Plan of State Paper Office / Great George Street with rough section showing the height of the floors
2 Ground Plan of State Paper Office
3 One Pair Floor
4 Two Pair Floor; (verso) plan of the Court of King's Bench, Palace of Westminster
5 Attic Floor

Scale

(1, 4, 5) to a scale of 1/4 inch to 1 foot (2) (pencil) bar scale of 1/4 inch to 1 foot (3) bar scale of 1/4 inch to 1 foot

Inscribed

1 as above, labelled: Vaults, Area, Bed Room, Cellar, Larder, Yard, Scullery, Water Closet, Kitchen, Basement, Ground Floor, One Pair Floor, Two Pair Floor, Attic Floor and some dimensions given
2 as above, labelled: State Paper Office, Delahay Street, Great George Street, Basement / Ground Floor / One Pair / Two Pair, 66 feet 6 ⁱⁿ, Door, Clerk's Room, Sup^r Contents in Presses / 300^ft.7.0, N^o 2, Entrance Hall, Board Room, 10 feet 6 in high to Ceiling, Super^l Contents in Presses / 490 feet, N^o 1, N^o 3, Sup^r Contents of Presses / 288^ft 6'' and dimensions given, Superficil (sic) Contents of Presses / in N^o 1-2-3-4-5-6 & 7 // N^o 1 - 490-0-0 / 2 - 300-7-0 / 3 - 288-9-0 / Ground Floor / 1079-1-0, Running Feet / 47-7½ / 32-6 / 33-6 // 4 - 320-0-0 / 5 - 195-5-0 / 6 - 292-6-0 / 7 - 296-10-0 / One Pair Floor / 1104-9-0 / 2183-10-0, 34-7½ / 24-0 / 32-0 / 32-6 / 236-9 // 2P^r 8 - Manuscripts - 20.8 by 15.6 / 9 - Books - 17.5 by 14.6, Living Rooms / Basement Kitchen Cellar / & Bedroom occupied / by the H Keeper / ~~1^st Floor M^r Arbuthnot~~ / ~~M^r~~ / Ground Floor / Hall - 16 x 12 / Board room - 22 by 18 / Clerks Room - 19 by 15 / & - 19 by 17 / 2 Bed rooms, 1^st Floor M^r Hobhouse 23 by 19 / M^r Lemon 19 by 15 / 2 Rooms 19 by 17 / Anti Room to M^r Lemons / fitted with Presses 15 by 12 / 2^d Floor Manuscript 19 by 17 / Book Room 19 by 18, & the Rooms occupied by the Housekeeper / who has all the Attics except one / used by the bookbinder 19 by 17
3 as above, labelled: State Paper Office, Great George Street, Super^l Content in Presses / 320f^t 0 / N^o 4 / M^r Hobhouse Room, N^o 5 / highth (sic) of Ceiling / 12 feet 3 ⁱⁿ, Sup^l Contents of Presses / 195.5.0, Sup^l Contents in Presses / 292f^t 6ⁱⁿ / No 6 / M^r Lemons Room, Sup^l Contents in Presses / 296f^t 10ⁱⁿ / N^o 7 / M^r Lemons Room and dimensions given
4 as above, labelled: State Paper Office Great George Street, To Contain Manuscripts, Occupied by Housekeeper (twice), Bed Room (twice), Containing Books and dimensions given
5 as above, labelled: State Paper Office / Great George Street, Bookbinders Room, empty (twice), Bed Room (3 times), Staircase, Closet and dimensions given

Signed and dated

April 1829
(2) 25^th April 1829 (4, 5) April 29^th 1829

Medium and dimensions

(1) Pen, grey and terre verte washes on wove paper with one fold mark (422 x 550) (2) pen, grey, lemon yellow and terre verte washes, pricked for transfer on laid paper (436 x 676) (3) pen, grey and lemon yellow washes, pricked for transfer on laid paper (365 x 537) (4) pen and grey wash, pricked for transfer on wove paper with one fold mark (390 x 604) (5) pen and grey wash on wove paper with one fold mark (383 x 585)

Hand

(1-5) ?Office of Works

Watermark

(1) 1827 (2) J Bigg and fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche and below, 1800 (3) fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche and below, 1800

Notes

A house in Great George Street had been used to store some of the State Papers since 1819, but it was damp, not fireproof and unable to bear the weight of more papers. Drawings 1-5, Soane's surveys of that house, show for example a 'Bookbinders Room', 'Mr Lemon's Room', 'Mr Hobhouse Room' and accommodation for a housekeeper. Henry Hobhouse (1776-1854) became Keeper of the State Papers in 1826. Robert Lemon (1779-1835) was Deputy Keeper of the State Papers from 1818 to 1835. The offices on the ground and one pair floors contain presses (in yellow wash), of which the capacity is given on drawing 2. The vaults are adjacent to the basement and separated by an open-topped passageway (drawing 1).

Level

Drawing

Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation

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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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