as above

• 1807
  1807 (NB. date of original; this copy probably made 1819-20)

Pen and sepia wash, pricked for transfer on wove paper with two fold marks (588 x 550)

Soane Office

The removal in 1807 of the public houses adjoining the north front of Westminster Hall revealed the medieval façade for the first time in over a hundred years, although it was found to be in a very dilapidated condition. Sean Sawyer has identified this drawing as an unfinished copy of an elevation by someone at the Office of Works showing the state of the hall in 1807 (The National Archives: WORK 29/3297) (Soane at Westminster, PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1999, p. 258). An example of the abuse inflicted upon the hall includes the window that breaks the trefoil panelling to the east of the entrance. Repairs were carried out in 1807-8, including the infilling of the modern windows, the replacement of canopies on the west tower and the restoration of the tracery in the upper windows. Soane carried out more extensive repairs with Thomas Gayfere, the master-mason of Westminster Abbey, assisted by John William Hiort and Robert Browne, in 1819-20. This work included the restoration of missing ornaments and the replacement of battlements, crockets and quatrefoil cresting, and coincided with the addition of a new tier of windows in the slope of the roof, the replacement of the louver (of which there is a model in the Soane Museum, SM MP20) and the restoration of the great hammerbeam roof.

Tom Drysdale, October 2014

Drawing

Westminster Kings, The British Museum, London, 31 October 1995 - 14 January 1996

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