The warehouses known as the Legal Quays were from the 16th century the official landing place for merchandise in the City of London. With the Custom House, they fronted the Thames between the Tower of London and London Bridge, a stretch of about 500 yards, and were supplemented in a piecemeal way by a number of 'sufferance' wharves. To try to solve the increasing problem of congestion - with its chaos, pilfering and delays that had already led the East India Company to build its own bonded warehouses in the City and away from the waterfront - the Corporation of London set up a committee in 1793 to consider improvements in the Port of London and also the rebuilding of London Bridge. A parliamentary committee was appointed in January 1796 and drawings submitted by Dance for the City Corporation and by others were published as The Several Plans and Drawings Referred to in the Second Report of the Select Committee into the Improvement of the Port of London (1799). The following year, The Several Plans and Drawings Referred to in the Third Report ... were published. Copies of both sets are in Dance's personal collection (drawer 52, Colonnade: see [Engraved plans referred to in the Second and Third Reports of the Parliamentary Select Committee upon the Improvement of the Port of London, published 1799 and 1800]).

If Dance's scheme had been built, it would have been his finest work. He knew this, telling Farington (diary entry for 30 July 1796) 'it would be a work of such magnitude as to be like undertaking to erect a Palmyra or Baalbeck'. Its ambition and scale are best understood from William Daniell's painting made from Dance's drawing and later engraved (Guildhall Art Gallery). It shows, in a wide aerial view, the double bridge in the foreground - that is, two parallel bridges a hundred yards apart, each with a drawbridge so that ships could sail in and land traffic could be diverted with minimal interruption. Wide stairs allow access to the bridges on either side of the Thames from broad riverside quays and from the north and south crescent-shaped piazzas with, on their central axes, Wren's Monument to the Great Fire re-erected on the City side and an obelisk commemorating British naval victories on the Southwark side. Beyond the bridges and crescent stretch, eastwards and on either side, docks and warehouses. It would have been the most magnificent realisation of London's wealth and power. The relevant records are lost so that it is not known for sure why Dance's scheme was not adopted, though it is not difficult to imagine that cost and commercial private interests were responsible.

It is possible that Soane was involved with a design for the Legal Quays. An elevation of a monument domed and colonnaded building with nine water gates ([SM 13/1/1]) catalogued with Soane's two competition entries for St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics ([SM 13/1/2-10]) is most probably a preliminary design for the Legal Quays. The only other clue as to Soane's possible participation is an entry in the Clerk of Works Journal from 1792 to 1801 (CLRO, 379^B, p.91 verso) on a page dated February 1796 that lists details of hours and expenses of work done for the Port of London committee, for example, 'Dance 114 [hours]', 'Pea[cock] 12 [hours]' and 'Soane, supper'.

See also the general note on St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics.

LITERATURE. Stroud pp.150-6; Kalman pp.236-42; F. Barker & R. Hyde, London as it might have been, 1982, pp.42-5.