Old Cavendish Street is now a short nondescript street running from Oxford Street to Cavendish Square via Henrietta Place with the John Lewis department store on the eastern side and the House of Fraser department store to the west.

Soane and Edward Foxhall (1756-1815) were both students at the Royal Academy schools and were life-long friends and colleagues. Foxhall worked on many of Soane's jobs including Fonthill Splendens, Letton Hall, Malvern Hall, Wimpole Hall and Simonds Brewery, Reading. His role as carver, decorator, upholsterer and purveyor of fine furniture and fittings made him invaluable and he or his workshop made picture frames for Soane and also, a small table for Mrs Soane. Foxhall's son, also Edward, was a pupil of and then assistant to Soane from 1812 to 1821. Foxhall's father Martin (d.1797) was a carver, gilder and picture framemaker with a shop in Cavendish Street (later old Cavendish Street) from which he traded as Foxhall & Son from 1783. His death in 1797 probably explains the occasion of the new front designed by Soane.

Literature. D. Stroud, Sir John Soane, architect, 2nd ed., 1996, pp.50. 59, 143; National Portrait Gallery - British picture framemakers, 1630-1950 at www.npg.org.uk/research/conservation/directory-of-british.../j. php






Jill Lever, May 2012