[4] Design for the first floor of a new Parliament House

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- William Kent (c.1685-1748): Westminster, London: designs for a new Parliament House, 1733-c.1748 (37)
  - The 'Pantheon' Schemes, 1732-33 (9)

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Reference number

SM 36/2/10

Purpose

[4] Design for the first floor of a new Parliament House

Aspect

First floor plan

Scale

bar scale of 5/9 inch to 10 feet

Signed and dated

1733

Medium and dimensions

Pen and sepia (brown) wash on wove paper with one fold mark (508 x 706)

Hand

William Kent (1685 - 1748)

Watermark

fleur-de-lis within crowned cartouche / WR = IV

Notes

An earlier design (V&A 3518.1; Salmon, fig. 13.21) had included a new Court of Requests immediately to the north of the curved colonnade, but that has been replaced in this design by a smaller room and an oval-shaped vestibule that acts as one of two 'hubs of circulation on the west side of the building' (along with the matching oval room to the south) (Salmon, p. 335). The House of Commons, a Greek cross shape in plan, has a circular arrangement of seating with the Speaker's chair to the north of the centre. The House of Lords is the rectangular room on enfilade to the south of the building. The large room behind the Old Palace Yard colonnade, 70 feet square, has no identified purpose. To the east, between two rectangular halls with columned screens, is a basilical room with apses to the north and south. This is the Cottonian Library (see drawings [6-9]).

(Salmon, p. 335)

Level

Drawing

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