18 Hanover Square was the London house of Sir Francis Dashwood, later the 11th Lord Le Despencer (see notes to West Wycombe Park). Robert Adam had made unexecuted designs for his country seat at West Wycombe in c1761-62, and later in that decade was commissioned to design a library wing for the back (north-west) side of 18 Hanover Square. This was a single-storey, 95 foot-long, narrow wing; the library itself being 60 feet long. Bolton claims that the heaviness of the ceiling and grotesque wall panels for this library are in the style of the early Adam office, offering a corrective date for these designs of 1763-65, despite the dates of 1766 and 1767 being inscribed on the drawings. Bolton's theory is eschewed by other scholars. There is no evidence that Adam's library wing was executed, but Adam's bills strongly suggest that it was. It is not possible, however, to know if this was done in accordance with the surviving drawings in the Soane Museum. The house - presumably along with Adam's library wing - was demolished in the late nineteenth century, and the site finally sold in the early 1950s.

See also: West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire

Literature:
A.T. Bolton, The architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume I, p. 59, Volume II, Index p. 39; Survey of London, Volume 14, 1931, p. 131; D. King, The complete works of Robert & James Adam and unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume I, pp. 296-97; The National Trust, West Wycombe Park: Buckinghamshire, 2001, pp. 59-63

Frances Sands, 2011