Blackwell Hall was bought by the City in the 14th century and used as a cloth market. In 1784 Dance was asked to prepare a scheme for a compter, or debtors' prison, on the site of Blackwell Hall but this was dropped. There is a 'Plan for making Justice Rooms in Blackwell Hall' (CLRO, Surveyor's City Lands Contracts I pp.311-16, 131B). On 25 June 1790 Dance estimated the value of Blackwell Hall as £4,780.0.0 and on 1 December of the same year made a plan for rebuilding and forming Justice Rooms, a Land Tax Office and a Court of Requests and letting the east front for building (CLRP, City Lands Journal). A more comprehensive scheme for redeveloping Blackwell Hall was shown to City Lands Committee on 23 October 1792 and a further scheme estimated at £4,500 on 29 March 1793.

In April 1806, a petition from Sir Francis Baring, John Julius Angerstein and others for a lease of the site of Blackwell Hall was made to the City Lands Committee. The intention was to build premises for the newly formed London Institution for the 'promotion of Literature and Science by means of public lectures'. Stroud suggests that 'two small ... plans among Dance's drawings were probably produced for Sir Francis as a friendly gesture, and show his suggestions for rooms on the ground floor and first floor'. However the price required by the Corporation was too high and eventually the Institution was built on the north side of Finsbury Circus to William Brook's design, opened in 1819 and demolished in 1936. Blackwell Hall was replaced in 1822 by law courts designed by William Montague, Dance's successor, some blitzed remnants surviving until 1987.

The traced drawings are not in Dance's hand and considering the type of building and the generous site, the design seems rather staid. From early 1805, Dance had been working (with James Lewis) on designs for the Royal College of Surgeons. The accommodation included a museum, lecture theatre and offices and thus was rather similar to the requirements of the London Institution. A comparison of plans shows some shared characteristics including large semi-circular compartments in which the external triangular corners were used for secondary staircases. It does seem as though this design is indeed by Dance and was presumably an early idea that was never developed.

LITERATURE. Stroud pp.122, 192: D. Stroud, 'The Giltspur Street Compter', Architectural History, Journal of the of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, XXVII, 1984, p.128; S. Bradley & N. Pevsner, London: the City of London, 1997, p.304.

OTHER SOURCES. Corporation of London Records Office.