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[14-15] Preliminary designs (in Soane's hand), 31 July 1794 and 8 August 1794 (2)
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Reference number
SM (14) 36/4/24 (15) 16/4/19
Purpose
[14-15] Preliminary designs (in Soane's hand), 31 July 1794 and 8 August 1794 (2)
Aspect
14 Plan of ground floor and sketch elevation of entrance
15 Plan of ground floor with entrance as shown in elevational detail on drawing 14
Scale
(14-15) bar scales of 1/10 inch to 1 foot
Inscribed
(14) Design A No 4, (pencil) Mr Delavals / House, (pen) Parliament Stairs, Abingdon Street, Mr Wilberforce, Mr Wharton, Mr Cowper, Mr Rose, Part of King Henry the / Seventh's Chapel, Old Palace Yard, Qy (query) Lord Chamberlains Coach house &c, rooms labelled: The Entrance for / Peers, The Entrance for / His Majesty, Hall (twice), Entrance, The Court of Requests, Journals & Library (some erasures including Bishops), Lobby, Council / attend[ants], Witness to / attend House, House of Commons, Lobby, The Painted Chamber for / Conferences, Lobby (twice), Lords Robg Room, Servants, Committee / Room, Qy(query) Duke of Glo: / Bishops / & Arch Bish, The / Doorkeeper, Lobby / and Gallery over it, Serjeant / at / Arms, Court, Anti / Clerks, Mr Cowper, Mr Rose, Passage, Lobby, Anti room, St[air], Waiters, Anti, Ld Chan[cellor], The House of Lords, Doork[eeper], Doorkeeper, Anti room, Kings Robg Room, Prince / of / Wales, Court (twice), Lord G. / Chamberlain, Prince / of / Wales, Qy Bishops / Earl / Mar / door, Qy Arch B / Anti / Room, Qy Earl Mar / Duke of / Glouc[ester] / & rest of the / Royal family and Lord Great / Chamberlain
(15) Design A, No 4, The River Thames, Old Palace Yard, A B C D E, A. Staircase for Lords / Servants, B. Staircase for Spectators / in the Kings Robing / Room &c &c / E. Lord Chamberlain's Staircase &c / Clerks of Parliament &c / The King passes from C to D into the / anti Room to his Robing Room / in a straight line, and thence in another / Straight line to the Throne / The Entrance for the Lords is also / in straight lines, rooms labelled: Coffee House, Porte cochere, C, Hall for / Lords, Lords / Entrance, Kings Ent / Hall, Footmans / waiting / room, Library / of / Law books / for both / Houses of / Parliament, The Bishops, The Arch bishops, The Witnesses / attending the / House, House of Commons, The / Painted / Chamber / & Conference / Room, Lobby, The Lords / Robing Room, The Lords / attendants, A, Committee / Room / now the / Princes / Chamber, Duke of Gloucester / & the / rest of the / Royal family, Waitg room, Door / keeper, Lobby, House of Lords, Council / attending / the House, Serjeant / at / Arms, Black Rod, Lobby, Waiting room, anti room, anti room, B, The Lord / Chancellor, D, 30 by 42, The / Kings Robing / Room, Door keeper (twice), anti room, The Prince / of / Wales, The Earl / Marshall, The Clerk / of Parliament / Mr Rose, anti room, The Assistant / Clerk of Parl:t / Mr Cowper and The Lord / Great / Chamberlain
Signed and dated
- (14) This plan made the 31st of July 1794 after I had / seen Sir P. Burrell (see Notes below)
Medium and dimensions
(14) Pen, sepia, red, blue, yellow and raw umber washes, pricked for transfer, with quadruple-ruled and black wash border on laid paper (662 x 528) (15) pen, black, sepia, red and blue washes, pricked for transfer on thin laid paper (498 x 403)
Hand
(14) Soane, Thomas Jeans (c.1775-1866, pupil August 1792 - 25 August 1797) (15) Soane
Watermark
(14) J Whatman
Notes
Sir Peter Burrell (created 1st Lord Gwydir in 1796), as Deputy Lord Great Chamberlain, jure uxoris, had 'ceremonial responsibility for the Palace of Westminster' (Kings Works, VI, 1973, p.500). The office Day Book shows that Soane had a further meeting with Burrell on 7 August 1794.
Soane's note (given above) that the plan was made after he had seen Burrell perhaps explains the changes in these designs from those of drawings 10-13. The House of Lords is once again sited above and in line with the Painted Chamber (as in drawings 4-9) and the Court of Requests is left as such. Drawing 14 has the King's Entrance on the west side with a long but straight route through two lobbies leading (right-hand side) to the royal Robing Room opposite to the House of Lords on the left-hand side. Additional to earlier designs are two rooms for 'servants' and another for 'Waiters'.
Drawing 15 has broadly the same plan including the two courts that would have allowed for more daylight and ventilation. The elevation of the porte-cochère appearing on drawing 14 is shown on plan here. To its left is marked, for the first time, a 'Coffee House'. A comparison of plans with elevations shows that the riverside elevation of 65 and 66 having nine bays and four plus four columns corresponds with (plans) 14-18.
S. Sawyer, 'Soane at Westminster'. PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1999, pp. 169-72 puts drawing 14 (together with 16, 34 and 35) as scheme 'A4' in Soane's sequence of designs for the House of Lords. Drawing 15 (together with drawings 17 and 18) makes up scheme 'A5'. Reference also to drawing 14, p. 184.
Soane's note (given above) that the plan was made after he had seen Burrell perhaps explains the changes in these designs from those of drawings 10-13. The House of Lords is once again sited above and in line with the Painted Chamber (as in drawings 4-9) and the Court of Requests is left as such. Drawing 14 has the King's Entrance on the west side with a long but straight route through two lobbies leading (right-hand side) to the royal Robing Room opposite to the House of Lords on the left-hand side. Additional to earlier designs are two rooms for 'servants' and another for 'Waiters'.
Drawing 15 has broadly the same plan including the two courts that would have allowed for more daylight and ventilation. The elevation of the porte-cochère appearing on drawing 14 is shown on plan here. To its left is marked, for the first time, a 'Coffee House'. A comparison of plans with elevations shows that the riverside elevation of 65 and 66 having nine bays and four plus four columns corresponds with (plans) 14-18.
S. Sawyer, 'Soane at Westminster'. PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1999, pp. 169-72 puts drawing 14 (together with 16, 34 and 35) as scheme 'A4' in Soane's sequence of designs for the House of Lords. Drawing 15 (together with drawings 17 and 18) makes up scheme 'A5'. Reference also to drawing 14, p. 184.
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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