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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.
Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).
Contents of Monuments and mausolea
- Aberlady Church, East Lothian: Monument to Lady Elibank, commissioned by Patrick Murray, 5th Lord Elibank, c1762-63, unexecuted (7)
- All Saints' Church, Kedleston, Derbyshire: Monument to Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 4th Baronet, commissioned by Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 5th Baronet (created Lord Scarsdale 1761), c1759-63, executed (3)
- Audley End, Saffron Walden, Essex: Monument to Elizabeth, Countess of Portsmouth, commissioned by Sir John Griffin Griffin (later 4th Lord Howard de Walden), c1763, unexecuted (3)
- Bowood Mausoleum, Calne, Wiltshire: mausoleum and monument to John Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Shelburne, commissioned by Mary Fitzmaurice, Countess of Shelburne, 1761, executed (23)
- Compton Verney chapel, Warwickshire: Monument to the Hon. John Verney, commissioned by the 14th Lord Willoughby de Broke, c1760, executed (2)
- Hume Mausoleum, Edinburgh: designs for a mausoleum to David Hume, 1777, executed in part [10]
- Kelburn Castle, Ayrshire: monument to John Boyle, 3rd Earl of Glasgow, probably commissioned by Elizabeth, Countess of Glasgow, 1775, as executed (14)
- Kenwood House, Greater London: design for a Monument or folly, commissioned by 1st Earl of Mansfield, c1767-83, unexecuted (1). See under: Country Houses: Kenwood House, Greater London
- Linnaeus Monument, Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh: designs for a monument to Carl Linnaeus (also known as Carl von Linné), 1778, executed (2)
- Milton Abbey church, Dorset: Monument to Lady Caroline Milton, commissioned by Joseph Damer, Baron Milton, 1775, executed (4)
- Putney burial ground, Upper Richmond Road, Putney, London: monument to Robert Wood, 1775, unexecuted (3)
- Queensberry Square, Dumfries: preliminary and finished designs for a memorial commemorating Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, 1779, as executed (1)
- Romsey Abbey, Hampshire: Monument to Frances, Viscountess Palmerston, commissioned by Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, 1769, executed (3)
- St John the Baptist's (Lady Chapel), Mersham, Kent: Monument to Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, 6th Baronet, probably commissioned by Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet, 1763, executed (2)
- St Leonard's Church, Heston, Greater London: Monument to Robert Child, probably commissioned by Sarah Child, 1782, as executed (10)
- St Michael Penkevil, Cornwall: Monument to the Rt Hon. Admiral Edward Boscawen, commissioned by Frances Boscawen, 1761, executed (15)
- Tobago: Monument to Archibald Stewart, public commission, c1779, unexecuted (3)
- Unknown location: Monument to Mrs Margaret Calderwood, probably commissioned by Lieutenant-Colonel William Calderwood, 1774, unexecuted (1)
- Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire: designs for a family mausoleum for Sir James Johnstone, 1790, as executed (4)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to Elizabeth Percy, 1st Duchess of Northumberland, commissioned by the 1st Duke of Northumberland, 1778, executed with minor alterations (1)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to John André, commissioned by King George III, c1781, executed (4)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Townshend, commissioned by Viscountess Townshend, 1760, executed (13)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to James Thomson, commissioned by Patrick Murdoch and Andrew Millar, 1762, executed (11)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to Major-General James Wolfe, public commission, 1759, unexecuted (11)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to Mrs Mary Hope, commissioned by John Hope, c1767, as executed (1)
- Westminster Abbey, London: Monument to Sir John Dalrymple, 4th Baronet, c1782, as executed (3)
- Worcester Cathedral, Worcestershire: monument to Bishop James Johnson, commissioned by Sarah Johnson, 1778 (6)
- Wynnstay House, Ruabon, Denbighshire: monument to David Garrick, commissioned by Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 4th Baronet, 1772, unexecuted (3). See under: Wynnstay House, Ruabon, Denbighshire.