bar scale of 1/5 inch to 1 foot

as above, labelled: First Floor, 19'0'' by 15'0'', 19'0'' by / 23'0'', 15'0'' by / 17'0''

• February 1825
  L. I. Fields / Feb^y 1825

Pen and sepia wash, pricked for transfer on wove paper with one fold mark (491 x 353)

Soane Office

Smith & Allnutt 1820

John Henry Ley moved into the house in 1820 and promptly set about improving the residence. £450 was spent in that year and successively smaller payments up to the third quarter of 1824. Faced with an urgent need for more committee rooms for the Commons a select committee recommended the construction of a new building in the area between the House of Commons and the Painted Chamber - "the only spot on which the plan can be carried into effect", according to Soane (q.v. London: House of Commons, Palace of Westminster: designs and executed design for library and committee rooms, 1825-1830). This proposal necessitated the removal of Ley's house. Ley refused to give up the residence, however, and put forward his own plan for new committee rooms leaving his own house in tact. This plan is now in the Soane Museum (SM 51/4/1). In April 1826 Soane produced a new design based on Ley's. The committee preferred the original proposal but, with no other option, sanctioned the reduced plan to be carried out. This survey of Ley's house, dated "February 1825", was probably made in preparation for Soane's original plans. East is to the top of the drawing.

See also designs produced by Adam Lee, Labourer in Trust, in 1821 (SM 51/4/2-8).

Tom Drysdale, November 2014

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