Design for improvements to Whitehall and Westminster

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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: Board of Trade and Privy Council Offices, Whitehall & Downing Street: designs for new offices and scheme for the improvement of Downing Street, 1823-33 (284)
    - Designs for the new government buildings on Whitehall and the completion of Downing Street with a Triumphal Arch, December 1825-May 1833 (100)

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Reference number

SM (243a) 37/1/1

Purpose

Design for improvements to Whitehall and Westminster

Aspect

243a Plan of a Design for Improvements at Whitehall &^c by Sir John Soane

Scale

bar scale of 5/9 inch to 10 feet

Inscribed

as above, labelled: River Thames, Westminster Bridge, Embankment, Cotton Garden, Abingdon Street, Garden, Mews, Old Palace Yard, House of Lords, House of / Commons, Westminster Hall, New Palace Yard, St Margarets St, Bridge Street, Bridge Court, Cannon Street, Manchester Buildings, Derby Ct, Derby St, Parliament Street, Privy Garden, Whitehall / Chapel, Whitehall, Horse Guards, Secretary / of States / Office, Treasury, Treasury / Yard, Downing St, Fludyer (sic), King Street (twice), Crow (sic), ----- (illegible), Gardners Lane, George Yard, Great George St, Little George St, School, Sessions / House, Garden Square, St Margarets / Church, Westminster Abbey, Henry VII / Chapel, Poets Corner, Chapter / House, Little / Cloister, Little Deans Yard, Cloisters, Deans Yard, Deans Street, Tothill St, Longditch or Prince Street, Bennet St, Dartmouth / St, Queen St, Mews, Storeys Gate, St James Park, Delahay St, Duke Street, St James Park, Parade

Medium and dimensions

Pen, sepia, blue, green and light red washes, pricked for transfer within multi-ruled sepia and black wash border on wove paper (241 x 448)

Hand

Soane Office

Notes

Soane saw the building of the Board of Trade and Privy Council Offices on Whitehall as an opportunity to "improve" the Westminster area by widening King Street to create a vista from Whitehall to Westminster Abbey. A similar drawing is SM 49/5/39. This drawing, however, must have been made earlier as it does not show the Lords' committee rooms added to the Palace of Westminster in 1826-7.

Tom Drysdale, November 2014

Level

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