Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the
Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
and an official architect to the
Office of Works
The Office of Works was established in the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Reven ...
. He received a
knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
in 1831.
His best-known work was the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
(his work there is largely destroyed), a building which had a widespread effect on commercial architecture. He also designed
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest pub ...
, which, with its top-lit galleries, was a major influence on the planning of subsequent art galleries and museums. His main legacy is
the eponymous museum in
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
in his former home and office, designed to display the art works and architectural artefacts that he collected during his lifetime. The museum is described in the ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture'' as "one of the most complex, intricate, and ingenious series of interiors ever conceived".
[Curl, 1999, p. 622]
Background and training
![Sir John Soane from CW Hunneman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Sir_John_Soane_from_CW_Hunneman.png)
Soane was born in
Goring-on-Thames
Goring-on-Thames (or Goring) is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about south of Wallingford and northwest of Reading. It had a population of 3,187 in the 2011 census, put at 3,335 in 2019. Goring ...
on 10 September 1753. He was the second surviving son of John Soan and his wife Martha. The 'e' was added to the surname by the architect in 1784 on his marriage. His father was a builder or bricklayer, and died when Soane was fourteen in April 1768. He was educated in nearby
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spell ...
in a private school run by William Baker. After his father's death Soane's family moved to nearby
Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in t ...
to live with Soane's brother William, 12 years his elder.
William Soan introduced his brother to James Peacock,
a surveyor who worked with
George Dance the Younger
George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist.
The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists an ...
. Soane began his training as an architect age 15 under George Dance the Younger and joining the architect at his home and office in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
at the corner of Moorfields and Chiswell Street.
[Darley, 1999, pp. 1–21] Dance was a founding member of the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
and doubtless encouraged Soane to join the schools there on 25 October 1771 as they were free.
[Richardson & Stevens, 1999, p. 86] There he would have attended the architecture lectures delivered by
Thomas Sandby
Thomas Sandby (1721 – 25 June 1798) was an English draughtsman, watercolour artist, architect and teacher. In 1743 he was appointed private secretary to the Duke of Cumberland, who later appointed him Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park, wh ...
and the lectures on
perspective delivered by
Samuel Wale
Samuel Wale (1721? – 1786) was an English historical painter and book illustrator.
Life
He is said to have been born at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, possibly on 25 April 1721, to Samuel and Margaret Wale, though some sources indicate he was bor ...
.
Dance's growing family was probably the reason that in 1772 Soane continued his education by joining the household and office of
Henry Holland.
He recalled later that he was 'placed in the office of an eminent builder in extensive practice where I had every opportunity of surveying the progress of building in all its different varieties, and of attaining the knowledge of measuring and valuing artificers' work'. During his studies at the Royal Academy, he was awarded the Academy's silver medal on 10 December 1772 for a measured drawing of the facade of the
Banqueting House, Whitehall
The Banqueting House, Whitehall, is the grandest and best known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting houses, constructed for elaborate entertaining. It is the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall, the residence of ...
, which was followed by the gold medal on 10 December 1776 for his design of a ''Triumphal Bridge''. He received a travelling scholarship in December 1777 and exhibited at the Royal Academy a design for a
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...
for his friend and fellow student James King, who had drowned in 1776 on a boating trip to
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
. Soane, a non-swimmer, was going to be with the party but decided to stay home and work on his design for a ''Triumphal Bridge''.
By 1777, Soane was living in his own accommodation in Hamilton Street. In 1778 he published his first book ''Designs in Architecture''.
He sought advice from Sir
William Chambers on what to study: ''"Always see with your own eyes ...
oumust discover their true beauties, and the secrets by which they are produced."'' Using his travelling scholarship of £60 per annum for three years, plus an additional £30 travelling expenses for each leg of the journey, Soane set sail on his
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...
, his ultimate destination being Rome, at 5:00 am, 18 March 1778.
Grand Tour
![Soane Bank of England statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Soane_Bank_of_England_statue.jpg)
His travelling companion was
Robert Furze Brettingham
Robert Furze Brettingham (1750–1820) was an English architect, the nephew of Matthew Brettingham the Elder, who practised in London.
Biography
Education
Like his uncle he spent a part of his early life in Italy, from where he returned in 178 ...
; they travelled via Paris, where they visited
Jean-Rodolphe Perronet
Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (27 October 1708 – 27 February 1794) was a French architect and structural engineer, known for his many stone arch bridges. His best known work is the Pont de la Concorde (1787).
Early life
Perronet was born in Suresne ...
, and then went on to the
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
on 29 March. They finally reached Rome on 2 May 1778. Soane wrote home, "my attention is entirely taken up in the seeing and examining the numerous and inestimable remains of Antiquity ...". His first dated drawing is 21 May of the church of
Sant'Agnese fuori le mura
The church of Saint Agnes Outside the Walls ( it, Sant'Agnese fuori le mura) is a titulus church, minor basilica in Rome, on a site sloping down from the Via Nomentana, which runs north-east out of the city, still under its ancient name. Wha ...
(Saint Agnes Outside the Walls). His former classmate, the architect
Thomas Hardwick
Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an English architect and a founding member of the Architects' Club in 1791.
Early life and career
Hardwick was born in Brentford, Middlesex the son of a master mason turned architect also named Thomas Hard ...
, returned to Rome in June from
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
. Hardwick and Soane would produce a series of measured drawings and ground plans of Roman buildings together. During the summer they visited
Hadrian's Villa and the
Temple of Vesta, Tivoli
The Temple of Vesta is a Roman temple in Tivoli, Italy, dating to the early 1st century BC. Its ruins sit on the acropolis of the city, overlooking the falls of the Aniene that are now included in the Villa Gregoriana.
History
It is not known ...
, whilst back in Rome they investigated the
Colosseum
The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world ...
. In August Soane was working on a design for a ''British Senate House'' to be submitted for the 1779
Royal Academy summer exhibition
The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
.
[Darley, 1999, p. 27]
In the autumn he met the
Bishop of Derry
The Bishop of Derry is an episcopal title which takes its name after the monastic settlement originally founded at Daire Calgach and later known as Daire Colm Cille, Anglicised as Derry. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, b ...
,
Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol
Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, (1 August 1730 – 8 July 1803), was an 18th-century Anglican prelate.
Elected Bishop of Cloyne in 1767 and translated to the see of Derry in 1768, Hervey served as Lord Bishop of Derry until ...
, who had built several grand properties for himself.
The Earl presented copies of ''
I quattro libri dell'architettura
''I quattro libri dell'architettura'' (''The Four Books of Architecture'') is a treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), written in Italian. It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated wi ...
'' and ''
De architectura'' to Soane. In December the Earl introduced Soane to
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (3 March 1737 – 19 January 1793) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 until 1784 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camelford. He was an art connoisseur.
Early life
Pitt w ...
, an acquaintance which would lead eventually to architectural commissions. The Earl persuaded Soane to accompany him to Naples, setting off from Rome on 22 December 1778. On the way they visited
Capua
Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain.
History
Ancient era
The name of Capua comes from the Etrus ...
and the
Palace of Caserta
The Royal Palace of Caserta ( it, Reggia di Caserta ) is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed by the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies as their main residence as kings of Naples. It is the largest palace erected in Euro ...
, arriving in Naples on 29 December. It was there that Soane met two future clients,
John Patteson and Richard Bosanquet. From Naples Soane made several excursions including to
Pozzuoli
Pozzuoli (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Naples, in the Italian region of Campania. It is the main city of the Phlegrean Peninsula.
History
Pozzuoli began as the Greek colony of ''Dicaearchia'' ( el, Δικα ...
,
Cumae
Cumae ( grc, Κύμη, (Kumē) or or ; it, Cuma) was the first ancient Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BC and soon becoming one of the strongest colonies. It later became a rich Ro ...
and
Pompeii, where he met yet another future client,
Philip Yorke. Soane also attended a performance at
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...
and climbed
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of ...
. Visiting
Paestum
Paestum ( , , ) was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 550 to 450 BC, whi ...
, Soane was deeply impressed by the Greek temples. Next he visited the
Certosa di Padula
Padula Charterhouse, in Italian Certosa di Padula (or ''Certosa di San Lorenzo di Padula''), is a large Carthusian monastery, or charterhouse, located in the town of Padula, in the Cilento National Park, in Southern Italy. It is a World Herita ...
, then went on to
Eboli
Eboli ( Ebolitano: ) is a town and ''comune'' of Campania, southern Italy, in the province of Salerno.
An agricultural centre, Eboli is known mainly for olive oil and for its dairy products, among which the famous buffalo mozzarella from the ...
and
Salerno and its cathedral. Later they visited
Benevento and
Herculaneum. The Earl and Soane left for Rome on 12 March 1779, travelling via Capua,
Gaeta, the
Pontine Marshes
250px, Lake Fogliano, a coastal lagoon in the Pontine Plain
The Pontine Marshes (, also ; it, Agro Pontino , formerly also ''Paludi Pontine''; la, Pomptinus Ager by Titus Livius, ''Pomptina Palus'' (singular) and ''Pomptinae Paludes'' (plu ...
,
Velletri
Velletri (; la, Velitrae; xvo, Velester) is an Italian ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, approximately 40 km to the southeast of the city centre, located in the Alban Hills, in the region of Lazio, central Italy. Neighbouring comm ...
, the
Alban Hills and
Lake Albano
Lake Albano (Italian: ''Lago Albano'' or ''Lago di Castel Gandolfo'') is a small volcanic crater lake in the Alban Hills of Lazio, at the foot of Monte Cavo, southeast of Rome. Castel Gandolfo, overlooking the lake, is the site of the Papal Pal ...
, and
Castel Gandolfo. Back in Rome they visited the
Palazzo Barberini
The Palazzo Barberini ( en, Barberini Palace) is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome.
History
...
and witnessed the celebrations of
Holy Week
Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...
. Shortly after, the Earl and his family departed for home, followed a few weeks later by Thomas Hardwick.
It was then that Soane met
Maria Hadfield (they became lifelong friends) and
Thomas Banks
Thomas Banks (29 December 1735 – 2 February 1805) was an important 18th-century English sculptor.
Life
The son of William Banks, a surveyor who was land steward to the Duke of Beaufort, he was born in London. He was educated at Ross-on-Wye ...
. Soane was now fairly fluent in the Italian language, a sign of his growing confidence. A party, including
Thomas Bowdler
Thomas Bowdler, LRCP, FRS (; 11 July 1754 – 24 February 1825) was an English physician known for publishing '' The Family Shakespeare'', an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's plays edited by his sister Henrietta Maria Bowdler. The ...
,
Rowland Burdon, John Patteson, John Stuart and Henry Grewold Lewis, decided to visit
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and paid for Soane to accompany them as a draughtsman.
[Darley, 1999, p. 43] The party headed for Naples on 11 April, where on 21 April they caught a Swedish ship to
Palermo. Soane visited the
Villa Palagonia
The Villa Palagonia is a patrician villa in Bagheria, 15 km from Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. The villa itself, built from 1715 by the architect Tommaso Napoli with the help of Agatino Daidone, is one of the earliest examples of ...
, which made a deep impact on him. Influenced by the account of the Villa in his copy of
Patrick Brydone's ''Tour through Sicily and Malta'', Soane savoured the "Prince of Palagonia's Monsters ... nothing more than the most extravagant caricatures in stone", but more significantly seems to have been inspired by the Hall of Mirrors to introduce similar effects when he came to design the interiors of his own house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Leaving Palermo from where the party split, Stuart and Bowdler going off together. The rest headed for
Segesta
Segesta ( grc-gre, Ἔγεστα, ''Egesta'', or , ''Ségesta'', or , ''Aígesta''; scn, Siggésta) was one of the major cities of the Elymians, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily. The other major cities of the Elymians were Eryx a ...
,
Trapani
Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an imp ...
,
Selinunte
Selinunte (; grc, Σελῑνοῦς, Selīnoûs ; la, Selīnūs , ; scn, Silinunti ) was a rich and extensive ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Cottone and Modion ...
and
Agrigento
Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...
, exposing Soane to
Ancient Greek architecture
Ancient Greek architecture came from the Greek-speaking people (''Hellenic'' people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC unti ...
. From Agrigento the party headed for
Licata
Licata (, ; grc, Φιντίας, whence la, Phintias or ''Plintis''), formerly also Alicata (), is a city and ''comune'' located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River (the ancient ''Himera''), about midway between Ag ...
, where they sailed for
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
and
Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
returning on 2 June, to
Syracuse, Sicily. Moving on to
Catania and
Palazzo Biscari
The Palazzo Biscari is a monumental private palace located on Via Museo Biscari in Catania, Sicily, southern Italy. The highly decorative interiors are open for guided tours, and used for social and cultural events.
History and Description
Afte ...
then
Mount Etna,
Taormina
Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...
,
Messina and the
Lepari Islands. They were back in Naples by 2 July where Soane purchased books and prints, visiting
Sorrento
Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana ra ...
before returning to Rome. Shortly after, John Patterson returned to England via Vienna, from where he sent Soane the first six volumes of ''
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'', also known as ''Tristram Shandy'', is a novel by Laurence Sterne, inspired by '' Don Quixote''. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others follow ...
'', delivered by
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...
.
[Darley, 1999, p. 49]
In Rome Soane's circle now included
Henry Tresham
Henry Tresham (c.1751 – 17 June 1814) was an Irish-born British historical painter active in London in the late 18th century. He spent some time in Rome early in his career, and was professor of painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London ...
,
Thomas Jones (artist)
Thomas Jones (26 September 1742 – 29 April 1803) was a Welsh landscape painter. He was a pupil of Richard Wilson and was best known in his lifetime as a painter of Welsh and Italian landscapes in the style of his master. However, Jones's rep ...
and
Nathaniel Marchant.
Soane continued to study the buildings of Rome, including the
Basilica of St. John Lateran
The Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran ( it, Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), also known as the Papa ...
. Soane and Rowland Burdon set out in August for
Lombardy. Their journey included visits to
Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...
,
Rimini
Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...
,
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
,
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
and its Accademia,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
,
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan.
Vicenza is a thr ...
and its buildings by
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of ...
,
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, the
Brenta (river)
The Brenta is an Italian river that runs from Trentino to the Adriatic Sea just south of the Venetian lagoon in the Veneto region, in the north-east of Italy.
During the Roman era, it was called Medoacus (Ancient Greek: ''Mediochos'', ''Μηδ ...
with its villas by Palladio,
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. Then back to Bologna where Soane copied designs for completing the west front of
San Petronio Basilica
The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius ...
including ones by Palladio,
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola ( , , ; 1 October 15077 July 1573), often simply called Vignola, was one of the great Italian architects of 16th century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Churc ...
and
Baldassare Peruzzi. Then to
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
and the
Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of which he was later, in January 1780 elected a member; then returned to Rome.
Soane continued his study of buildings, including
Villa Lante
Villa Lante is a Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola.
Villa Lante did not become so known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere, Duke of Bomarzo, in the 1 ...
,
Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and currently serves as the French emb ...
,
Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
The Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy.
History
The palace was designed by Baldassarre Peruzzi in 1532–1536 on a site of three contiguous palaces owned by the old Roman Massimo family and built after arson de ...
, the
Capitoline Museums
The Capitoline Museums ( Italian: ''Musei Capitolini'') are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The historic seats of the museums are Palazzo dei Conservatori and Pal ...
and the
Villa Albani
The Villa Albani (later Villa Albani-Torlonia) is a villa in Rome, built on the Via Salaria for Cardinal Alessandro Albani. It was built between 1747 and 1767 by the architect Carlo Marchionni in a project heavily influenced by otherssuch as G ...
. That autumn he met
Henry Bankes
Henry Bankes (1757–1834) was an English politician and author.
Life
Bankes was the only surviving son of Henry Bankes and the great-grandson of Sir John Bankes, chief justice of the common pleas in the time of Charles I.
Bankes was educated ...
, Soane prepared plans for the Banke's house
Kingston Lacy, but these came to nothing. Early in 1780 Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol wrote to Soane offering him various architectural commissions, Soane decided to return to England and began to organise his return journey. He left Rome on 19 April 1780, travelling with the Reverend George Holgate and his pupil Michael Pepper. They visited the
Villa Farnese
The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a pentagonal mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farnese a ...
, then on to
Siena
Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.
The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centur ...
. Then Florence where they visited the
Palazzo Pitti
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
,
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
,
Santo Spirito, Florence
The Basilica di Santo Spirito ("Basilica of the Holy Spirit") is a church in Florence, Italy. Usually referred to simply as Santo Spirito, it is located in the Oltrarno quarter, facing the square with the same name. The interior of the building ...
,
Giotto's Campanile
Giotto's Campanile (, also , ) is a free-standing campanile that is part of the complex of buildings that make up Florence Cathedral on the Piazza del Duomo in Florence, Italy.
Standing adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore and the ...
and other sites.
Performing at the
Teatro della Pergola
The Teatro della Pergola is an historic opera house in Florence, Italy. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name. It was built in 1656 under the patronage of Cardinal Gian Carlo de' Med ...
was
Nancy Storace
Anna (or Ann) Selina Storace (; 27 October 176524 August 1817), known professionally as Nancy Storace, was an English operatic soprano. The role of Susanna in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'' was written for and first performed by her.
Born in ...
with whom Soane formed a lifelong friendship. Their journey continued on via Bologna, Padua, Vicenza, Verona,
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
where he sketched
Palazzo del Te
or is a palace in the suburbs of Mantua, Italy. It is a fine example of the mannerist style of architecture, and the acknowledged masterpiece of Giulio Romano. Although formed in Italian, the usual name in English of Palazzo del Te is not that ...
, Parma,
Piacenza
Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
. Milan where he attended
La Scala, the theatre was a growing interest,
Lake Como from where they began their crossing of the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
via the
Splügen Pass
The Splügen Pass (german: Splügenpass; it, Passo dello Spluga; rm, Pass dal Spleia ) is an Alpine mountain pass of the Lepontine Alps. It connects the Swiss, Grisonian Splügen to the north below the pass with the Italian Chiavenna to the ...
. They then passed on to
Zurich,
Reichenau, Switzerland,
Wettingen
Wettingen is a residential community in the district of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau. With a population about 20,000, Wettingen is the second-largest municipality in the canton.
Geography
Wettingen is located on the right bank of the Li ...
,
Schaffhausen
Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...
,
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
on the way to which the bottom of Soane's trunk came loose on the coach and spilled the contents behind it, he thus lost many of his books, drawings, drawing instruments, clothes and his gold and silver medals from the Royal Academy (none of which was recovered). He continued his journey on to
Freiburg im Breisgau,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
,
Liège,
Leuven and
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
before embarking for England.
Struggle to establish architectural practice
![Ceiling in the Bourgeois Mausoleum, Dulwich House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Ceiling_in_the_Bourgeois_Mausoleum%2C_Dulwich_House.JPG)
He reached England in June 1780, thanks to his Grand Tour he was £120 in debt.
[Darley, 1999, p. 59] After a brief stop in London, Soane headed for Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol's estate at
Ickworth House
Ickworth House is a country house at Ickworth, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. It is a neoclassical building set in parkland. The house was the residence of the Marquess of Bristol before being sold to the National Trust in 1998.
H ...
in Suffolk, where the Earl was planning to build a new house. But immediately the Earl changed his mind and dispatched Soane to
Downhill House
Downhill House was a mansion built in the late 18th century for Frederick, 4th Earl of Bristol and Lord Bishop of Derry (popularly known as 'the Earl-Bishop'), at Downhill, County Londonderry. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 18 ...
, in
County Londonderry, Ireland, where Soane arrived on 27 July 1780. The Earl had grandiose plans to rebuild the house, but Soane and the Earl disagreed over the design and parted company, Soane receiving only £30 for his efforts. He left via
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
sailing to
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
From Glasgow he travelled to
Allanbank, Scottish Borders, home of a family by the name of Stuart he had met in Rome, he prepared plans for a new mansion for the family, but again the commission came to nothing. In early December 1780 Soane took lodgings at 10 Cavendish Street, London. To pay his way his friends from the Grand Tour, Thomas Pitt and Philip Yorke, gave him commissions for repairs and minor alterations.
Anna, Lady Miller, considered building a temple in her garden at
Batheaston
Batheaston is a village and civil parish east of the English city of Bath, on the north bank of the River Avon. The parish had a population of 2,735 in 2011. The northern area of the parish, on the road to St Catherine, is an area known as No ...
to Soane's design and he hoped he might receive work from her circle of friends. But again this was not to be.
[Darley, 1999, p. 62] To help him out, George Dance gave Soane a few measuring jobs, including one in May 1781 on his repairs to
Newgate Prison of damage caused by the
Gordon Riots.
To give Soane some respite, Thomas Pitt invited him to stay in 1781 at his Thamesside villa of
Petersham Lodge, which Soane was commissioned to redecorate and repair.
[Darley, 1999, p. 63] Also in 1781 Philip Yorke gave Soane commissions: at his home, Hamels Park in
Hertfordshire, he designed a new entrance gate and lodges, followed by a new dairy and alterations to the house, and in London alterations and redecoration of 63 New Cavendish Street. Increasingly desperate for work Soane entered a competition in March 1782 to design a prison, but failed to win.
Soane continued to get other minor design work in 1782.
Success at last
From the mid-1780s on Soane would receive a steady stream of commissions until his semi-retirement in 1832.
Early domestic works
It was not until 1783 that Soane received his first commission for a new country house,
Letton Hall in Norfolk. The house was a fairly modest villa but it was a sign that at last Soane's career was taking off and led to other work in
East Anglia:
Saxlingham Rectory in 1784, Shotesham Hall in 1785, Tendring Hall in 1784–86, and the remodelling of
Ryston
Ryston is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It once had its own railway station.
The villages name means 'Brushwood farm/settlement'.
It covers an area of and had a population of 93 in 34 households at the 200 ...
Hall in 1787.
![Bank of England - Soane's south facade edited](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Bank_of_England_-_Soane%27s_south_facade_edited.jpg)
At this early stage in his career Soane was dependent on domestic work, including:
Piercefield House
Piercefield House is a largely ruined neo-classical country house near St Arvans, Monmouthshire, Wales, about north of the centre of Chepstow. The central block of the house was designed in the very late 18th century, by, or to the designs of, ...
(1784), now a ruin; the remodelling of
Chillington Hall (1785);
[Stroud, 1984, p. 246] The Manor,
Cricket St Thomas
Cricket St Thomas is a parish in Somerset, England, situated in a valley between Chard and Crewkerne within the South Somerset administrative district.
The A30 road passes nearby. The parish has a population of 50. It is noted for the historic ...
(1786);
Bentley Priory
Bentley Priory is an eighteenth to nineteenth century stately home and deer park in Stanmore on the northern edge of the Greater London area in the London Borough of Harrow.
It was originally a medieval priory or cell of Augustinian Canons in ...
(1788);
the extension of the Roman Catholic Chapel at
New Wardour Castle
New Wardour Castle is a Grade I listed English country house at Wardour, near Tisbury in Wiltshire, built for the Arundell family. The house is of Palladian style, designed by the architect James Paine, with additions by Giacomo Quarenghi, w ...
(1788). An important commission was alterations to
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
's
Holwood House
Holwood House is a country house in Keston, near Hayes, in the London Borough of Bromley, England. The house was designed by Decimus Burton, built between 1823 and 1826 and is in the Greek Revival style. It was built for John Ward who later em ...
in 1786, Soane had befriended William Pitt's uncle Thomas on his grand tour. In 1787 Soane remodelled the interior of Fonthill Splendens (later replaced by
Fonthill Abbey
Fonthill Abbey—also known as Beckford's Folly—was a large Gothic Revival country house built between 1796 and 1813 at Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Thomas Beckford and architect James Wyatt. It was b ...
) for Thomas Beckford, adding a picture gallery lit by two domes and other work.
Bank of England
On 16 October 1788 he succeeded
Sir Robert Taylor
Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England.
Early life
Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor ...
as architect and surveyor to the Bank of England. He would work at the bank for the next 45 years, resigning in 1833. Given Soane's youth and relative inexperience, his appointment was down to the influence of William Pitt, who was then the Prime Minister and his friend from the Grand Tour, Richard Bosanquet whose brother was
Samuel Bosanquet, Director and later Governor of the Bank of England.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 60] His salary was set at 5% of the cost of any building works at the Bank, paid every six months. Soane would virtually rebuild the entire bank, and vastly extend it. The five main banking halls were based on the same basic layout, starting with the Bank Stock Office of 1791–96, consists of a rectangular room, the centre with a large lantern light supported by piers and
pendentive
In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...
s, then the four corners of the rectangle have low vaulted spaces, and in the centre of each side compartments rising to the height of the arches supporting the central lantern, the room is vaulted in brick and windows are iron framed to ensure the rooms are as fire proof as possible.
![Aerial cutaway view of Soane's Bank of England by JM Gandy 1830](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Aerial_cutaway_view_of_Soane%27s_Bank_of_England_by_JM_Gandy_1830.jpg)
His work at the bank was:
*Erection of Barracks for the Bank Guards and rooms for the Governor, officers and servants of the Bank (1790).
[Schumann-Bacia, p. 48]
*Between 1789 and February 1791 Soane oversaw acquisition of land northwards along Princes Street.
*The erection of the outer wall along the newly acquired land (1791).
*Erection of the Bank Stock Office the first of his major interiors at the bank, with its fire proof brick vault (1791–96).
*The erection of The Four Percent Office (replacing Robert Taylor's room) (1793).
*The erection of the Rotunda (replacing Robert Taylor's rotunda) (1794).
*The erection of the Three Percent Consols Transfer Office (1797–99).
*Acquisition of more land to the north along Bartholomew Lane,
Lothbury
Lothbury is a short street in the City of London. It runs east–west with traffic flow in both directions, from Gresham Street's junction with Moorgate to the west, and Bartholomew Lane's junction with Throgmorton Street to the east.
History ...
and Prince's Street (1792).
[Schumann-Bacia, p. 77]
*Erection of outer wall along the north-east corner of the site, including an entrance arch for carriage (1794–98).
*Erection of houses for the Chief Accountant and his deputy (1797).
*The erection of the Lothbury Court within the new gate, leading to the inner courtyard used to receive
Bullion (1797–1800).
*Extension of the Bank to the north-west, the exterior wall was extended around the junction of Lothbury and Princes Street, forming the 'Tivoli Corner' which is based on the
Temple of Vesta, Tivoli
The Temple of Vesta is a Roman temple in Tivoli, Italy, dating to the early 1st century BC. Its ruins sit on the acropolis of the city, overlooking the falls of the Aniene that are now included in the Villa Gregoriana.
History
It is not known ...
that Soane had visited and much admired, halfway down Princes street he created the
Doric Vestibule as a minor entrance to the building and within two new courtyards that were surrounded by the rooms he built in 1790 and new rooms including printing offices for
banknote
A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand.
Banknotes were originally issued ...
s, the £5 Note Office and new offices for the Accountants, the Bullion Office off the Lothbury Court (1800–1808).
*Rebuilding of the vestibule and entrance from Bartholmew Lane (1814–1818).
*The rebuilding of Robert Taylor's 3 Percent Consols Transfer Office and 3 Percent Consols Warrant Office and completion of the exterior wall around the south-east and south-west boundaries including the main-entrance in the centre of
Threadneedle Street
Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, England, between Bishopsgate at its northeast end and Bank junction in the southwest. It is one of nine streets that converge at Bank. It lies in the ward of Cornhill.
History
The stree ...
(1818–1827).
In 1807 Soane designed New Bank Buildings on Princes Street for the Bank, consisting of a terrace of five mercantile residences, which were then leased to prominent city firms.
The Bank being Soane's most famous work, Sir
Herbert Baker
Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He wa ...
's rebuilding of the Bank, demolishing most of Soane's earlier building was described by
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
as "the greatest architectural crime, in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
, of the twentieth century".
Architects' Club
A growing sign of Soane's success was an invitation to become a member of the Architects' Club that was formed on 20 October 1791. Practically all the leading practitioners in London were members, and it combined a meeting to discuss professional matters, at 5:00 pm on the first Thursday of every month with a dinner. The four founders were Soane's former teachers George Dance and Henry Holland with
James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
and
Samuel Pepys Cockerell
Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1753–1827) was an English architect.
He was a son of John Cockerell, of Bishop's Hull, Somerset, and the elder brother of Sir Charles Cockerell, 1st Baronet, for whom he designed the house he is best known for, Sezinc ...
. Other original members included: Sir William Chambers, Thomas Sandby,
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
,
Matthew Brettingham the Younger
Matthew Brettingham the Younger (1725 – 18 March 1803) was an architect. He was the eldest son of Matthew Brettingham the Elder and worked also in Palladian style.
He travelled to Italy in 1747, where he purchased sculptures and artwork for his ...
,
Thomas Hardwick
Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an English architect and a founding member of the Architects' Club in 1791.
Early life and career
Hardwick was born in Brentford, Middlesex the son of a master mason turned architect also named Thomas Hard ...
and
Robert Mylne. Members who later joined included
Sir Robert Smirke
Sir Robert Smirke (1 October 1780 – 18 April 1867) was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works, he designed several major ...
and
Sir Jeffrey Wyattville.
Royal Hospital Chelsea
On 20 January 1807 Soane was made clerk of works of Royal Hospital Chelsea. He held the post until his death thirty years later; it paid a salary of £200 per annum. His designs were: built 1810 a new infirmary (destroyed in 1941 during
The Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
), a new stable block and extended his own official residence in 1814; a new bakehouse in 1815; a new gardener's house 1816, a new guard-house and Secretary's Office with space for fifty staff 1818; a Smoking Room in 1829 and finally a garden shelter in 1834.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 200]
Freemasons' Hall, London
Soane, who was a
UGLE
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic grand lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron ...
Freemason, was employed to extend Freemasons' Hall, London in 1821 by building a new gallery; later in 1826 he prepared various plans for a new hall, but it was only built in 1828–31, including a council chamber, and smaller room next to it and a staircase leading to a kitchen and scullery in the basement. The building was demolished to make way for the current building.
Official appointments
In October 1791 Soane was appointed
Clerk of Works
A clerk of works or clerk of the works (CoW) is employed by an architect or a client on a construction site. The role is primarily to represent the interests of the client in regard to ensuring that the quality of both materials and workmanship are ...
with responsibility for
St James's Palace,
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...
and The
Palace of Westminster. Between 1795 and 1799 Soane was Deputy Surveyor of His Majesty's Woods and Forest, on a salary of £200 per annum.
James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
's death in 1813 led to Soane together with
John Nash and
Robert Smirke, being appointed official architect to the
Office of Works
The Office of Works was established in the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Reven ...
in 1813, the appointment ended in 1832, at a salary of £500 per annum. As part of this position he was invited to advise the Parliamentary
Commissioners on the building of new churches from 1818 onward. He was required to produce designs for churches to seat 2000 people for £12,000 or less though Soane thought the cost too low, of the three churches he designed for the Commission all were classical in style. The three churches were:
St Peter's Church, Walworth (1823–24), for £18,348;
Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone
Holy Trinity Church, in Marylebone, Westminster, London, is a Grade I listed former Anglican church, built in 1828 and designed by John Soane. In 1818 Parliament passed an act setting aside one million pounds to celebrate the defeat of Napoleo ...
(1826–27), for £24,708;
St John on Bethnal Green
St John on Bethnal Green is an early 19th-century church near Bethnal Green, London, England, and is located on the Green itself. It was constructed 1826–28 to the design of the architect Sir John Soane (1753–1837). It is an Anglican church ...
(1826–28), for £15,999.
Public buildings
Soane designed several public buildings in London, including: National Debt Redemption Office (1817) demolished 1900; Insolvent Debtors Court
[Stroud, 1984, p. 219] (1823) demolished 1861; Privy Council and Board of Trade Offices,
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...
(1823–24), remodelled by Sir
Charles Barry
Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also respons ...
, the building now houses the
Cabinet Office; in a new departure for Soane he used the
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
style for The New State Paper Office, (1829–30) demolished 1868 to make way for the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office building.
His commissions in Ireland included:
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
, Soane was commissioned by the
Bank of Ireland to design a new headquarters for the triangular site on Westmoreland Street now occupied by the Westin Hotel. However, when the Irish Parliament was abolished in 1800, the Bank abandoned the project and instead bought the former Parliament Buildings. In 1808 he started work on the design of the
Royal Belfast Academical Institution
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...
, for which he refused to charge. Building work began on 3 July 1810 and was completed in 1814. The remodelling of the interior has left little of Soane's work.
Later domestic work
![Moggerhangerhouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Moggerhangerhouse.jpg)
Country homes for the
landed gentry included: new rooms and remodelling of
Wimpole Hall
Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its of parkland and farmland are owned ...
and garden buildings, (1790–94) for his friend Philip Yorke whom he met on his Grand Tour; remodelling of
Baronscourt
Baronscourt, Barons-Court or Baronscourt Castle is a Georgian country house and estate 4.5 km southwest of Newtownstewart in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and is the seat of the Duke of Abercorn. It is a Grade A-listed building.
The Ba ...
, County Tyrone, Ireland (1791);
Tyringham
Tyringham (/ˈtiːrɪŋəm/) is a village in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile and a half north of Newport Pagnell.
The village name is an Old English language word, an ...
Hall (1792–1820); and the remodelling of
Aynhoe Park
Aynhoe Park, is a 17th-century country estate consisting of land and buildings that were rebuilt after the English Civil War on the southern edge of the stone-built village of Aynho, Northamptonshire, England. It overlooks the Cherwell valley tha ...
(1798).
In 1804, he remodelled
Ramsey Abbey (none of his work there now survives); the remodelling of the south front of
Port Eliot
Port Eliot in the parish of St Germans, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, is the ancestral seat of the Eliot family, whose present head is Albert Eliot, 11th Earl of St Germans.
Port Eliot comprises a stately home with its own church, which ...
and new interiors (1804–06); the Gothic Library at
Stowe House (1805–06);
Moggerhanger House
Moggerhanger House is a Listed building, Grade I-listed country house in Moggerhanger, Bedfordshire, England, designed by the eminent architect John Soane. The house is owned by a Christian charity, Harvest Vision, and the Moggerhanger House Pres ...
(1791–1809); for
Marden Hill, Hertfordshire, Soane designed a new porch and entrance hall (1818); the remodelling of
Wotton House
Wotton House, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England, is a stately home built between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House. The house is an example of English Baroque and a Grade I ...
after damage by fire (1820); a terrace of six houses above shops in
Regent Street London (1820–21), demolished; and
Pell Wall Hall (1822). Among Soane's most notable works are the dining rooms of both Numbers
10 and
11 Downing Street
11 Downing Street (sometimes referred to as just Number 11) is the official residence of Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer (who traditionally also has the title of Second Lord of the Treasury). The residence, in Downing Street in London, ...
(1824–26) for the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively of Great Britain.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
![Dulwich-picture-gallery-interior](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Dulwich-picture-gallery-interior.JPG)
In 1811, Soane was appointed as architect for Dulwich Picture Gallery, the first purpose-built public
art gallery in Britain, to house the Dulwich collection, which had been held by art dealers Sir
Francis Bourgeois
Sir Peter Francis Lewis Bourgeois RA (November 1753 – 8 January 1811) was a landscape painter and history painter, and court painter to king George III of the United Kingdom.
In the late 18th century he became an art dealer and collector in ...
and his partner Noel Desenfans. Bourgeois's will stipulated that the Gallery should be designed by his friend John Soane to house the collection. Uniquely the building also incorporates a
mausoleum containing the bodies of Francis Bourgeois, and Mr and Mrs Desenfans.
The Dulwich Picture Gallery was completed in 1817. The five main galleries are lit by elongated
roof lanterns.
New Law Courts
![Brayley Plate II](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Brayley_Plate_II.jpg)
As an official architect of the Office of Works Soane was asked to design the New Law Courts at
Westminster Hall
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...
, he began surveying the building on 12 July 1820. Soane was to extend the law courts along the west front of Westminster Hall providing accommodation for five courts: The Court of Exchequer, Chancery, Equity, King's Bench and Common Pleas. The foundations were laid in October 1822 and the shell of the building completed by February 1824. Then
Henry Bankes
Henry Bankes (1757–1834) was an English politician and author.
Life
Bankes was the only surviving son of Henry Bankes and the great-grandson of Sir John Bankes, chief justice of the common pleas in the time of Charles I.
Bankes was educated ...
launched an attack on the design of the building, as a consequence Soane had to demolish the facade and set the building lines back several feet and redesign the building in a
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
style instead of the original classical design, Soane rarely designed gothic buildings. The building opened on 21 January 1825, and remained in use until the
Royal Courts of Justice
The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...
opened in 1882, after this the building was demolished in 1883 and the site left as lawn. All the court rooms displayed Soane's typically complex lighting arrangements, being top lit by
roof lanterns often concealed from direct view.
Palace of Westminster
In 1822 as an official architect of the Office of Works, Soane was asked to make alteration to the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster. He added a curving gothic arcade with an entrance leading to a courtyard, a new Royal Gallery, main staircase and Ante-Room, all the interiors were in a grand neo-classical style, completed by January 1824. Later four new committee rooms, a new library for the House of Lords and for the House of Commons alterations to the
Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings.
Systems that have such a position include:
* Speaker of ...
house, and new library, committee rooms, clerks' rooms and stores, all would be destroyed in the fire of 1834.
Design for a Royal Palace
One of Soane's largest designs was for a new Royal Palace in London, a series of designs were produced c. 1820–30. The design was unusual in that the building was triangular, there were grand porticoes at each corner and in the middle of each side of the building, the centre of the building consisted of a low dome, with ranges of rooms leading to the entrances in each side of the building, creating three internal courtyards. As far as is known it is not related to an official commission and was merely a design exercise by Soane, indeed the various drawings he produced date over several years, he first produced a design for a Royal Palace while in Rome in 1779.
Royal Academy
![Somerset House Strand Block](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Somerset_House_Strand_Block.JPG)
The Royal Academy was at the very centre of Soane's architectural career, in the sixty four years from 1772 to 1836 there were only five years, 1778 and 1788–91, in which he did not exhibit any designs there. Soane had received part of his architectural education at the Academy and it had paid for his Grand Tour. On 2 November 1795 Soane was elected an Associate Royal Academician and on 10 February 1802 Soane was elected a full
Royal Academician
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
,
[Bingham, 2011, p. 66] his diploma work being a drawing of his design for a new House of Lords. There were only ever a maximum of forty Royal Academicians at any one time. Under the rules of the Academy Soane automatically became for one year a member of the Council of the Academy, this consisted of the President and eight other Academicians.
After Thomas Sandby died in 1798, George Dance, Soane's old teacher was appointed professor of architecture at the Academy, but during his tenure of the post failed to deliver a single lecture. Naturally this caused dissatisfaction, and Soane began to manoeuver to obtain the post for himself. Eventual Soane succeeded in ousting Dance and became professor on 28 March 1806. Soane did not deliver his first lecture until 27 March 1809 and did not begin to deliver the full series of twelve lectures until January 1810. All went well until he reached his fourth lecture on 29 January 1810, in it he criticised several recent buildings in London, including George Dance's
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. T ...
and his former pupil Robert Smirke's
Covent Garden Theatre.
Royal Academicians
Robert Smirke (painter)
Robert Smirke (15 April 1753 – 5 January 1845) was an English painter and illustrator, specialising in small paintings showing subjects taken from literature. He was a member of the Royal Academy.
Life
Smirke was born at Wigton near Carlisle ...
father of the architect and his friend
Joseph Farington
Joseph Farington (21 November 1747 – 30 December 1821) was an 18th-century English landscape painter and diarist.
Life and work
Born in Leigh, Lancashire, Farington was the second of seven sons of William Farington and Esther Gilbody. His ...
led a campaign against Soane, as a consequence the Royal Academy introduced a rule forbidding criticism of a living British artist in any lectures delivered there. Soane attempted to resist what he saw as interference and it was only under threat of dismissal that he finally amended his lecture and recommenced on 12 February 1813 the delivery of the first six lectures. The rift that all this caused between Soane and George Dance would only be healed in 1815 after the death of Mrs Soane.
The twelve lectures, they were treated as two separate courses of six lectures, were all extensively illustrated with over one thousand drawings and building plans, most of which were prepared by his pupils as part of their lessons. The lectures were:
*Lecture I – traced 'architecture from its most early periods' and covered the origin of civil, military and naval architecture.
*Lecture II – outlined the
Classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect ...
of the ancient world continuing on from the first lecture.
*Lecture III – an analysis of the five
Classical orders, their application and the use of
Caryatid
A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...
s.
*Lecture IV – use of the classical orders structurally and decoratively and for
commemorative monuments.
*Lecture V – the history of architecture from
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...
and the
Decline of the Roman Empire to the rise of
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
, followed by a survey of British architecture from
Inigo Jones to
William Chambers (architect)
__NOTOC__
Sir William Chambers (23 February 1723 – 10 March 1796) was a Swedish-Scottish architect, based in London. Among his best-known works are Somerset House, and the pagoda at Kew. Chambers was a founder member of the Royal Academy.
Bio ...
.
*Lecture VI – covered
arches, bridges the theory and symbolism of architectural ornament.
*Lecture VII – appropriate character in architecture and the correct use of decoration.
*Lecture VIII – the distribution and planning of rooms and
staircases
Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...
.
*Lecture IX – the design of
window
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mat ...
s,
doors,
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s, roofs and
chimney-shafts.
*Lecture X –
landscape architecture and
garden building
A garden building is a structure built in a garden or backyard.
Such structures include:
* cabanas
* follies
* garden offices
* gazeboes
* gloriette
* greenhouses
* nymphaea
* orangeries
* pavilions
* pergolas
* Scandinavian grillhouses
* ...
s.
*Lecture XI – a discussion of the architecture and planning of London contrasting it with Paris.
*Lecture XII – a discussion of construction methods and standards.
Soane's library
![Antiquités judaiques et la guerre des juifs de Flavius Josephus - Soane Museum Ms1 f11 (Meurtre d'Aristobule)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Antiquit%C3%A9s_judaiques_et_la_guerre_des_juifs_de_Flavius_Josephus_-_Soane_Museum_Ms1_f11_%28Meurtre_d%27Aristobule%29.jpg)
Soane over the course of his career built up an extensive library of 7,783 volumes,
[Dorey et al., (1991), p. 86] this is still housed in the library he designed in his home, now a museum, of 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields. The library covers a wide range of subjects: Greek and Roman classics, poetry, painting, sculpture, history, music, drama, philosophy, grammars, topographical works, encyclopaedias, runs of journals and contemporary novels.
Naturally architectural books account for a large part of the library, and were very important when he came to write his lectures for the Royal Academy. The main architectural books include: several editions of
Vitruvius
Vitruvius (; c. 80–70 BC – after c. 15 BC) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled '' De architectura''. He originated the idea that all buildings should have three attribut ...
's ''
De architectura'', including Latin, English, French and Italian editions, including the commentary on the work by
Daniele Barbaro
Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro (also Barbarus) (8 February 1514 – 13 April 1570) was an Italian cleric and diplomat. He was also an architect, writer on architecture, and translator of, and commentator on, Vitruvius.
Barbaro's fame is chief ...
.
Julien-David Le Roy
French engraver
Julien-David Le Roy or Leroy (; 6 May 1724 in Paris – 28 January 1803 in Paris) was an 18th-century French architect and archaeologist, who engaged in a rivalry with
Britons James Stuart and Nicholas Revett over who woul ...
's ''Les Ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce'',
Johann Joachim Winckelmann
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (; ; 9 December 17178 June 1768) was a German art historian and archaeologist. He was a pioneering Hellenist who first articulated the differences between Greek, Greco-Roman and Roman art. "The prophet and foundin ...
's ''Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums'', in its French translation bought in 1806 just before Soane was appointed to the professorship. Also
Marc-Antoine Laugier
Marc-Antoine Laugier (Manosque, Provence, January 22, 1713 – Paris, April 5, 1769) was a Jesuit priest until 1755 than a Benedictine monk. He was one of the first architectural theorist.
Laugier is best known for his ''Essay on Architectur ...
's ''Essai sur l'Architecture'', and
Jacques-François Blondel
Jacques-François Blondel (8 January 1705 – 9 January 1774) was an 18th-century French architect and teacher. After running his own highly successful school of architecture for many years, he was appointed Professor of Architecture at the Acad ...
's nine volumes of ''Cours d'architecture ou traité de la décoration, distribution et constructions des bâtiments contenant les leçons données en 1750, et les années suivantes''.
Soane also acquired several
illuminated manuscripts:
a 13th-century English
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
Bible; a 15th-century
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
copy of
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
's works; four
books of hours
The book of hours is a Christian devotional book used to pray the canonical hours. The use of a book of hours was especially popular in the Middle Ages and as a result, they are the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript ...
, two Flemish of the 15th century and early 16th century, Dutch of the late 15th century and French 15th century; a French
missal dated 1482; ''Le Livre des Cordonniers de Caen'', French 15th century; and
Marino Grimani's commentary of the Epistle of St Paul to the Romans, the work of
Giulio Clovio
Giorgio Giulio Clovio or Juraj Julije Klović (1498 – 5 January 1578) was an illuminator, miniaturist, and painter born in the Kingdom of Croatia, who was mostly active in Renaissance Italy. He is considered the greatest illuminator of the It ...
.
[Dorey, 2018, p. 151]
Other manuscripts include:
Francesco di Giorgio
Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was an Italian architect, engineer, painter, sculptor, and writer. As a painter, he belonged to the Sienese School. He was considered a visionary architectural theorist—in Nikolaus Pevsner's terms ...
's mid-16th century ''Treatise of Architecture'';
Nicholas Stone
Nicholas Stone (1586/87 – 24 August 1647) was an English sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I, and in 1626 to Charles I.
During his career he was the mason responsible for not only the building of ...
's two account books covering 1631–42, and his son also Nicholas Stone's sketch book (France and Italy) 1648 and Henry Stone's sketch book 1638;
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 15 December 1673) was an English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer and playwright.
Her husband, William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was Royalist co ...
's The Second Epistle;
James Gibbs
James Gibbs (23 December 1682 – 5 August 1754) was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transi ...
's ''A few short cursory remarks on buildings in Rome'';
Joshua Reynolds's two sketch books from Rome; and
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
's early manuscript of ''Gerusalemme Liberata''.
Incunabula in the library include:
Cristoforo Landino
Cristoforo Landino (1424 in Pratovecchio, Casentino, Florence – 24 September 1498 in Borgo alla Collina, Casentino) was an Italian humanist and an important figure of the Florentine Renaissance.
Biography
From a family with ties to th ...
's ''Commentario sopra la Comedia di
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
'', 1481; S. Brant ''Stultifera Navis'', 1488; and
Boethius
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480 – 524 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, ''magister officiorum'', historian, and philosopher of the Early Middle Ages. He was a central figure in the tr ...
's ''De Philosophico Consolatu'', 1501. Other early printed books include: J.W. von Cube, ''Ortus Saniatis'', 1517, and ''Portiforium seu Breviarum ad Sarisbursis ecclesiae usum'', 1555; and
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''Comedies, Histories and Tragedies'' of 1623, the
First Folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
.
Sir John Soane's Museum
![Soane Museum 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Soane_Museum_1.jpg)
In 1792, Soane bought a house at 12
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
, London. Later purchasing 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, he used the house as his home and library, but also entertained potential clients in the drawing room. The houses along with 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields, is now Sir John Soane's Museum and is open to the public for free.
Antiquities, medieval and non-western objects
Between 1794 and 1824 Soane remodelled and extended the house into two neighbouring properties – partly to experiment with architectural ideas, and partly to house his growing collection of
antiquities
Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...
and architectural salvage. As his practice prospered, Soane was able to collect objects worthy of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, including the
Sarcophagus of Seti I
The sarcophagus of Seti I is a life-size sarcophagus of the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh that was discovered in 1817 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni in tomb KV17 in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt. Seti I is believed to have died in 127 ...
in 1824.
After the Seti sarcophagus arrived at his house in March 1825, Soane held a three-day party, to which 890 people were invited, the basement where the sarcophagus was housed was lit by over one hundred lamps and candelabra, refreshments were laid on and the exterior of the house was hung with lamps. Among the guests were the Prime Minister
Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, and his wife;
Robert Peel,
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, (27 January 1773 – 21 April 1843) was the sixth son and ninth child of King George III and his queen consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was the only surviving son of George III who did not ...
,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
,
J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbule ...
,
Sir Thomas Lawrence,
Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough
Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough (2 January 1760 – 17 January 1838) was an English politician and connoisseur of the arts.
Early life
Born in London, he was the fourth surviving son of West Indies merchant Beeston Long and his wife Sara ...
,
Benjamin Haydon
Benjamin Robert Haydon (; 26 January 178622 June 1846) was a British painter who specialised in grand historical pictures, although he also painted a few contemporary subjects and portraits. His commercial success was damaged by his often tactle ...
as well as many foreign dignitaries.
He also bought Greek and Roman bronzes,
cinerary urn
An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...
s, fragments of
Roman mosaic
A Roman mosaic is a mosaic made during the Roman period, throughout the Roman Republic and later Empire. Mosaics were used in a variety of private and public buildings, on both floors and walls, though they competed with cheaper frescos for the ...
s,
Greek vases many displayed above the bookcases in the library, Greek and Roman busts, heads from statues and fragments of sculpture and architectural decoration, examples of
Roman glass
Roman glass objects have been recovered across the Roman Empire in domestic, industrial and funerary contexts. Glass was used primarily for the production of vessels, although mosaic tiles and window glass were also produced. Roman glass productio ...
. Medieval objects include: architectural fragments, tiles and
stained glass. Soane acquired 18th century
Chinese ceramics
Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since Chinese Neolithic, pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the List of Palaeolithic sites in China, ...
as well as
Peruvian pottery
Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century; Peruvian p ...
.
[Dorey et al., (1991), p. 85] Soane also purchased four Indian
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...
chairs and a table.
Sculpture
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...
carved a white marble
bust
Bust commonly refers to:
* A woman's breasts
* Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders
* An arrest
Bust may also refer to:
Places
* Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France
*Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically
Media
* ''Bust'' (magazin ...
of Soane. Soane acquired Sir
Richard Westmacott
Sir Richard Westmacott (15 July 17751 September 1856) was a British sculptor.
Life and career
Westmacott studied with his father, also named Richard Westmacott, at his studio in Mount Street, off Grosvenor Square in London before going t ...
's plaster model for ''Nymph unclasping her Zone'' and the plaster model of John Flaxman's memorial sculpture of William Pitt the Younger. Of the ancient sculptures, a miniature copy of the famous sculpture of
Diana of Ephesus is one of the most important in the collection. After the death of his teacher Henry Holland, Soane bought part of his collection of ancient marble fragments of architectural decoration. He also acquired Plastercasts of famous antique sculptures include.
Paintings and drawings
![Soane Breakfast Room ILN 1864](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Soane_Breakfast_Room_ILN_1864.jpg)
Soane's paintings include: four works by
Canaletto
Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.
Painter of city views or ...
and paintings by
Hogarth: the eight canvases of the ''
A Rake's Progress
''A Rake's Progress'' (or ''The Rake's Progress'') is a series of eight paintings by 18th-century English artist William Hogarth. The canvases were produced in 1732–1734, then engraved in 1734 and published in print form in 1735. The series ...
'' the four canvases of the ''
Humours of an Election
''The Humours of an Election'' is a series of four oil paintings and later engravings by William Hogarth that illustrate the election of a member of parliament in Oxfordshire in 1754. The oil paintings were created in 1755.
The first three pain ...
''. Soane acquired three works by his friend
J. M. W. Turner.
Thomas Lawrence
Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at ...
painted a three quarter length portrait of Soane, that hangs over the Dining Room fireplace.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 109] Soane acquired 15 drawings by
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian Classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric ...
.
A sketch of Soane's wife by Soane's friend
John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several ye ...
is framed and displayed in the museum.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 101]
Architectural drawings and architectural models
There are over 30,000
architectural drawings in the collection. Of Soane's drawings of his own designs (many are by his assistants and pupils, most notably
Joseph Gandy
Joseph Michael Gandy (1771–1843) was an English artist, visionary architect and architectural theorist, most noted for his imaginative paintings depicting Sir John Soane's architectural designs. He worked extensively with Soane both as ...
), there are 601 covering the Bank of England, 6,266 of his other works and 1,080 prepared for the Royal Academy lectures.
There are an additional 423 Soane drawings in the collection of the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
.
Other architects with drawings in the collection are by
Christopher Wren, there are 8,856 drawings by
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
and
James Adam,
John Thorpes book of architecture,
George Dance the Elder
George Dance the Elder (1695 – 8 February 1768) was a British architect. He was the City of London surveyor and architect from 1735 until his death.
Life
Originally a mason, George Dance was appointed Clerk of the city works to the City of ...
's 293 and George Dance the younger's 1,303, housed in a specially designed cabinet, Sir William Chambers,
James Playfair,
Matthew Brettingham, Thomas Sandby, etc.
There are a large number of Italian drawings. Of the 252
architectural models in the collection, 118 are of Soane's own buildings.
Legal creation of the Museum
In 1833, he obtained an
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
, sponsored by
Joseph Hume
Joseph Hume FRS (22 January 1777 – 20 February 1855) was a Scottish surgeon and Radical MP.Ronald K. Huch, Paul R. Ziegler 1985 Joseph Hume, the People's M.P.: DIANE Publishing.
Early life
He was born the son of a shipmaster James Hume ...
to bequeath the house and collection to the British Nation to be made into a museum of architecture, now the
Sir John Soane's Museum
Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane. It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects, and ...
.
George Soane, realising that if the museum was set up he would lose his inheritance, persuaded
William Cobbett
William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign ...
to try and stop the bill, but failed.
Awards, official posts and recognition
* On 10 December 1772 Soane was awarded the Royal Academy's Silver Medal.
* On 10 December 1776 Soane was awarded the Royal Academy's Gold Medal.
* On 10 December 1777 Soane was awarded the Royal Academy's travelling scholarship.
* On 16 October 1788 Soane was appointed architect to the Bank of England
* On 2 November 1795 Soane was elected an Associate
Royal Academician
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
.
* On 21 May 1796 Soane was elected to the
Society of Antiquaries of London
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...
.
* In May 1800 Soane was one of the 280 proprietors of the
Royal Institution.
* On 10 February 1802 Soane was elected a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy.
* On 28 March 1806, Soane was made Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy, a post which he held until his death.
* In 1810 Soane was made a
Justice of the Peace for the county of
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
.
* On 15 November 1821 Soane was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
.
* On 21 September 1831, Soane received a
knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
from
King William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...
.
* On 20 June 1835, Soane was presented by Sir
Jeffry Wyattville
Sir Jeffry Wyatville (3 August 1766 – 18 February 1840) was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatvill ...
with a Gold Medal, from the 'Architects of England', modelled by
Francis Leggatt Chantrey
Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (7 April 1781 – 25 November 1841) was an English sculptor. He became the leading portrait sculptor in Regency era Britain, producing busts and statues of many notable figures of the time. Chantrey's most notable w ...
it showed the likeness of Soane on one side and the north-west corner of the Bank of England on the other.
Personal life
Marriage and children
![George Soane John Soane Jr Owen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/George_Soane_John_Soane_Jr_Owen.jpg)
On 24 June 1781 Soane leased rooms on the first floor of 53 Margaret Street,
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
, for £40 per annum.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 54] It was here he would live for the first few years of his married life and where all his children would be born.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 58] In July 1783 he bought a grey
mare
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than fo ...
that he stabled nearby.
On 10 January 1784 Soane took a Miss Elizabeth Smith to the theatre, then on 7 February she took tea with Soane and friends, and they began attending plays and concerts together regularly. She was the niece and ward of a London builder George Wyatt, whom Soane would have known as he rebuilt Newgate Prison. They married on 21 August 1784 at
Christ Church, Southwark. He always called his wife Eliza, and she would become his confidante.
Their first child John was born on 29 April 1786.
[Darley, 1999, p. 76] His second son George was born just before Christmas 1787 but the boy died just six months later. The third son, also called George, was born on 28 September 1789. Their final son Henry was born on 10 October 1790, but died the following year from
whooping cough
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by two or t ...
.
Soane's various houses
![2778soaneMausoleumOldStPancrasChurchyard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/2778soaneMausoleumOldStPancrasChurchyard.jpg)
On the death of George Wyatt in February 1790 the Soanes inherited money and property, including a house in Albion Place,
Southwark, where Soane moved his office.
On 30 June 1792 Soane purchased 12
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
for £2100. He demolished the existing house and rebuilt it to his own design, the Soanes moving in on 18 January 1794.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 65] By 1800 Soane was rich enough to purchase
Pitzhanger Manor
Pitzhanger Manor is an English country house famous as the home of neoclassical architect, Sir John Soane. Built between 1800 and 1804 in Walpole Park Ealing, to the west of London), the Regency Manor is a rare and spectacular example of a b ...
Ealing as a country retreat, for £4,500 on 5 September 1800. Apart from a wing designed by George Dance, Soane demolished the house and rebuilt it to his own design and was occupied by 1804, Soane used the manor to entertain friends and used to go fishing in the local streams. The building was not only designed to showcase Soane's work, but also as a pedagogical environment for his young son George, who Soane hoped would follow in his professional footsteps. Undeterred by his child's reluctance, Soane only grew more dedicated to establishing a professional legacy and established a formalised program of architecture education when he purchased his house at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in London.
In June 1808 Soane purchased 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields for £4,200, initially renting the house to its former owner and extending his office over the garden to the rear. On 17 July 1812 number 13 was demolished, the house was rebuilt and the Soanes moved in during October 1813. In 1823, Soane purchased 14 Lincoln's Inn Fields, he demolished the house, building the Picture Room attached to No. 13 over the site of the stables, in March 1825 he rebuilt the house to externally match No. 12.
Family problems
Soane hoped that one or both of his sons would also become architects. His purchase of Pitzhanger Manor was partially an inducement to this end. But both sons became increasingly wayward in their attitude and behaviour, showing not the slightest interest in architecture. John was lazy and suffered from ill health, whereas George had an uncontrollable temper. As a consequence Soane decided to sell
Pitzhanger in July 1810.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 81]
John was sent to
Margate
Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook.
The town has been a significan ...
in 1811 to try to help his illness and it was here that he became involved with a woman called Maria Preston.
Soane agreed reluctantly to John's and Maria's marriage on 6 June, on the agreement that her father would produce a
dowry
A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...
of £2000, which failed to happen. Meanwhile, George who had been studying law at
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
developed a friendship with
James Boaden
James Boaden (23 May 1762 – 16 February 1839) was an English biographer, dramatist, and journalist.
Biographer
He was the son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russia trade. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 23 May 1762, and at ...
. George developed a relationship with Boaden's daughter Agnes and one month after his brother's wedding married her on 5 July. He wrote to his mother 'I have married Agnes to spite you and father'.
George Soane tried to extort money from his father in March 1814 by demanding £350 per annum, and claiming he would otherwise be forced to become an actor. Agnes gave birth to twins in September, one child died shortly after. By November her husband George Soane had been imprisoned for debt and fraud. In January 1815 Eliza paid her son's debts and repaid the person he had defrauded to ensure his release from prison.
In 1815 an article was published in the ''Champion'' for 10 to 24 September entitled ''The Present Low State of the Arts in England and more particularly of Architecture''. In the article Soane was singled out for personal attack; although anonymous it soon emerged that his son George had written the article. On 13 October, Mrs Soane wrote 'Those are George's doing. He has given me my death blow. I shall never be able to hold up my head again'. Soane's wife died on 22 November 1815, she had been suffering from ill health for some time.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 100] His wife's body was interred on 1 December in the churchyard of
St Pancras Old Church. He wrote in his diary for that day 'The burial of all that is dear to me in this world, and all I wished to live for!' George and Agnes had another child, this time a son, Frederick (born 1815).
In 1816 Soane designed the tomb above the vault his wife was buried in it is built from
Carrara marble
Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...
and
Portland Stone. The tomb avoids any Christian symbolism, the roof has a pine cone finial the symbol in
Ancient Egypt for regeneration, below which is carved a serpent swallowing its own tail, symbol of eternity, there are also carvings of boys holding extinguished torches symbols of death. The inscription is:
The design of the tomb was a direct influence on
Giles Gilbert Scott
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (9 November 1880 – 8 February 1960) was a British architect known for his work on the New Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Cathedral, and ...
's design for the
red telephone box
The red telephone box, a telephone kiosk for a public telephone designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is a familiar sight on the streets of the United Kingdom, Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar.
Despite a reduction in their numbers in recent years, ...
. Soane's elder son John died on 21 October 1823, and was also buried in the vault. Maria, Soane's daughter-in-law, was now a widow with young children including a son also called John in need of support. So Soane set up a
trust
Trust often refers to:
* Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality
It may also refer to:
Business and law
* Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another
* Trust (bus ...
fund of £10,000 to support the family.
Soane found out in 1824 that his son George was living in a
Ménage à trois
A () is a domestic arrangement and committed relationship with three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together; typically a traditional marriage between a man and woman along with anothe ...
with his wife and her sister by whom he had a child called George Manfred.
Soane's grandson Fred and his mother were both subjected to
domestic violence by George Soane, including beatings and in Agnes's case being dragged by her hair from a room. Soane initially refused to help them while they remained living with his son, who was in debt. However, by February 1834 Soane relented and was paying Agnes £200 per annum, also paying for Fred's education. In the hope that Fred would become an architect, after he left school, Soane placed him with architect
John Tarring. In January 1835 Tarring asked Soane to remove Fred, who was staying out late often in the company of a Captain Westwood, a known homosexual.
Maria, Soane's daughter-in-law, lived until 1855 and is buried on the edge of the south roundel in
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Establ ...
.
Personal beliefs, travels and health
On Monday 6 August 1810 Soane and his wife set off on a thirteen-day tour of England and Wales.
[Darley, 1999, p. 198] They normally rose at five or six in the morning and would visit many towns and monuments a day. Starting in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
they visited
New College, Oxford,
Merton College, Oxford,
Blenheim Palace and
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a market town and civil parish, north-west of Oxford in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 3,100.
Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is next to W ...
, where they stayed the night.
Next day they went to
Stratford-upon-Avon and
Shakespeare's Birthplace
Shakespeare's Birthplace is a restored 16th-century half-timbered house situated in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, where it is believed that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his childhood years. ,
Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon
The Collegiate Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.
It is often known simply as Holy Trinity Church or as Shak ...
, to visit
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's tomb,
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is a castle in the town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire, England managed by English Heritage; much of it is still in ruins. The castle was founded during the Norman conquest of England; with development through to the Tudor pe ...
,
Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William the Conqueror during 1068. Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire, England, situated on a meander of the River Avon. The original wooden motte-an ...
,
Whitley Abbey,
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
and on to
Lichfield
Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...
. They next travelled to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, staying for four nights at the Liverpool Arms near
Liverpool Town Hall
Liverpool Town Hall stands in High Street at its junction with Dale Street, Castle Street, and Water Street in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed build ...
. They attended a performance of ''
Othello'', with
George Frederick Cooke
George Frederick Cooke (17 April 1756 in London – 26 September 1812 in New York City) was an English actor. As famous for his erratic habits as for his acting, he was largely responsible for initiating the romantic style in acting that was ...
as
Iago
Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago ha ...
. Among the people they visited was Soane's former assistant
Joseph Gandy
Joseph Michael Gandy (1771–1843) was an English artist, visionary architect and architectural theorist, most noted for his imaginative paintings depicting Sir John Soane's architectural designs. He worked extensively with Soane both as ...
, then living in the city. Their son John was living and studying with Gandy, in a failed attempt to become an architect. They visited
John Foster (architect). Leaving Liverpool on Saturday 11 August, they crossed the
River Mersey
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed par ...
to the
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to ...
and on to
Chester where they saw the Rows and greatly admired
Thomas Harrison's work at
Chester Castle
Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls. The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining part ...
. From Chester they visited
Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
, and
Ellesmere, Shropshire. On Sunday they moved on to
Shrewsbury, visiting architect George Steuart's
St Chad's Church.
On Monday 13 August they headed for
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge.
This is where iron ore was first s ...
, with
The Iron Bridge
The Iron Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. Its success inspired the widespread use of cast iron as a st ...
then on to
Buildwas Abbey. The journey continued down the
River Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
to
Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079.
Histor ...
then
Ludlow
Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The ...
and
Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle is a ruined medieval fortification in the town of the same name in the English county of Shropshire, standing on a promontory overlooking the River Teme. The castle was probably founded by Walter de Lacy after the Norman conqu ...
, and
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
. On Wednesday 15 August, they were in
Hereford, where they visited
Hereford Cathedral and the gaol designed by his friend John Nash. Continuing on they reached
Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye ( Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye ...
, from where they journeyed down the
River Wye stopping at
Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey ( cy, Abaty Tyndyrn ) was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow. It is situated adjacent to the village of Tintern in Monmouthshire, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye, which at this location forms the bo ...
, glimpsed
Piercefield House
Piercefield House is a largely ruined neo-classical country house near St Arvans, Monmouthshire, Wales, about north of the centre of Chepstow. The central block of the house was designed in the very late 18th century, by, or to the designs of, ...
– one of Soane's designs – and arrived in
Chepstow
Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the wester ...
, before moving on to
Gloucester Cathedral and
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
where they spent the night. The next day they headed for
Cheltenham, returning through the
Cotswolds. Where they visited
Northleach
Northleach is a market town and former civil parish, now in parish Northleach with Eastington, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England. The town is in the valley of the River Leach in the Cotswolds, about northeast of Cirenceste ...
and
Witney
Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...
where they spent their last night on the tour. Next day they travelled via
High Wycombe
High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...
and
Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...
, on to their home at
Pitzhanger Manor
Pitzhanger Manor is an English country house famous as the home of neoclassical architect, Sir John Soane. Built between 1800 and 1804 in Walpole Park Ealing, to the west of London), the Regency Manor is a rare and spectacular example of a b ...
in
Ealing for a day of
angling
Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techni ...
. They returned at nine o'clock at night on Monday, 17 August, to their home in
Lincoln's Inn Fields
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...
.
Soane was initiated on 1 December 1813 as a
freemason under the newly established
United Grand Lodge of England
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic grand lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron ...
. By 1828 he had been given notable responsibilities for the fabric of
Freemasons' Hall, and had been appointed as a Grand Officer of UGLE, with the rank of Grand Superintendent of Works. A portrait depicting Soane in the regalia of this rank hangs in the collection at Sir John Soane's Museum, London.
Soane did not like organised religion and was a
Deist
Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin '' deus'', meaning "god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation ...
. Soane was influenced by the ideas that belonged to the
enlightenment, and had read
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
's and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
's works. He was taken ill on 27 December 1813 and was incapacitated until 28 March 1814, when he underwent an operation by
Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (23 August 176812 February 1841) was a British surgeon and anatomist, who made contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the patholog ...
on his bladder to remove a
fistula
A fistula (plural: fistulas or fistulae ; from Latin ''fistula'', "tube, pipe") in anatomy is an abnormal connection between two hollow spaces (technically, two epithelialized surfaces), such as blood vessels, intestines, or other hollow or ...
. For the first time since his Grand Tour Soane decided to travel abroad, he set off on 15 August 1815 for Paris returning on 5 September. In the summer of 1816, a friend,
Barbara Hofland
Barbara Hofland (1770 – 4 November 1844) was an English writer of some 66 didactic, moral stories for children, and of schoolbooks and poetry. She was asked by John Soane to write a description of his still extant museum in London's Lincoln's ...
, persuaded him to take a holiday in
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa w ...
,
[Darley, 1999, p. 258] there they visited
Knaresborough
Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate.
History
Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenares ...
,
Plompton
Plompton (formerly also spelt Plumpton) is a hamlet and civil parish south of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. It is close to the A661.
Plompton Hall is a Grade II* listed building designed by the architect John Carr and built about 17 ...
and its rocks,
Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
,
Newby Hall
Newby Hall is a country house beside the River Ure in the parish of Skelton-on-Ure in North Yorkshire, England. It is 3 miles south-east of Ripon and 6 miles south of Topcliffe Castle, by which the manor of Newby was originally held. A Grade ...
,
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for 40 ...
and
Studley Royal Park,
Castle Howard
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, within the civil parish of Henderskelfe, located north of York. It is a private residence and has been the home of the Carlisle branch of the Howard family for more than 300 years ...
,
Harewood House
Harewood House ( , ) is a country house in Harewood, West Yorkshire, England. Designed by architects John Carr and Robert Adam, it was built, between 1759 and 1771, for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy West Indian plantation ...
and
Masham
Masham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It had a population of 1,205 at the 2011 census.
Etymology
In Wensleydale, on the western bank of the River Ure, the name derives from the An ...
.
Soane visited Paris again in 1819, setting off on 21 August, he travelled via
Dunkirk,
Abbeville
Abbeville (, vls, Abbekerke, pcd, Advile) is a commune in the Somme department and in Hauts-de-France region in northern France.
It is the chef-lieu of one of the arrondissements of Somme. Located on the river Somme, it was the capital of ...
and
Beauvais arriving in Paris. He stayed at 10 rue Vivienne, over the following days he visited, the
Pont de Neuilly
The Pont de Neuilly (English: Bridge of Neuilly) is a road and rail bridge carrying the Route nationale 13 (N13) and Paris Métro Line 1 which crosses the Seine between the right bank of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Courbevoie and Puteaux on the left b ...
,
Les Invalides, Palais du Roi de Rome,
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...
,
Étienne-Louis Boullée
Étienne-Louis Boullée (12 February 17284 February 1799) was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects.
Life
Born in Paris, he studied under Jacques-François Blondel, Germain Bof ...
's chapel at Sainte-Roche, the
Arc de Triomphe,
Vincennes
Vincennes (, ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is next to but does not include the Château de Vincennes and Bois de Vincennes, which are attache ...
and the
Château de Vincennes,
Sèvres
Sèvres (, ) is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Île-de-France region. The commune, which had a population of 23,251 as of 2018, is known for ...
,
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthiest tow ...
,
Arcueil
Arcueil () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.
Name
The name Arcueil was recorded for the first time in 1119 as ''Arcoloï'', and later in the 12th ...
with its ancient
Roman aqueduct,
Basilica of St Denis,
Chamber of Deputies of France
Chamber of Deputies (french: Chambre des députés) was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
* 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of ...
,
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont,
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel () ( en, Triumphal Arch of the Carousel) is a triumphal arch in Paris, located in the Place du Carrousel. It is an example of Neoclassical architecture in the Corinthian order. It was built between 1806 and 1808 ...
,
Musée du Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
,
Luxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of th ...
,
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...
with the
Grand Trianon
The Grand Trianon () is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of King Louis XIV of France as a retreat for himself and his '' maîtresse- ...
and
Petit Trianon
The Petit Trianon (; French for "small Trianon") is a Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of King Louis XV of France. ...
with its
Hameau de la reine
The Hameau de la Reine (, ''The Queen's Hamlet'') is a rustic retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette in 1783 near the Petit Trianon in Yvelines, France. It served as a private meeting place for the Queen and ...
,
Halle aux blés, Halle aux vins,
Jardin des Plantes,
Bassin de la Villette
The Bassin de la Villette (La Villette Basin) is the largest artificial lake in Paris. It was filled with water on 2 December 1808. Located in the 19th arrondissement of the capital, it links the Canal de l'Ourcq to the Canal Saint-Martin, and ...
with its Rotonde de la Villette by
Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (21 March 1736 – 18 November 1806) was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not only domestic architecture but also town planning; as ...
,
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, f ...
,
Château de Malmaison
The Château de Malmaison () is a French château situated near the left bank of the Seine, about west of the centre of Paris, in the commune of Rueil-Malmaison.
Formerly the residence of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, along with the Tui ...
, he failed to gain admission to the
Château de Bagatelle
The Château de Bagatelle is a small Neoclassical style château with several small formal French gardens, a rose garden, and an ''orangerie''. It is set on 59 acres of gardens in French landscape style in the Bois de Boulogne, which is loca ...
, he travelled home via
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
and
Amiens Cathedral
, image = 0 Amiens - Cathédrale Notre-Dame (1).JPG
, imagesize = 200px
, img capt = Amiens Cathedral
, pushpin map = France
, pushpin label position = below
, coordinates =
, country ...
, Abbeville, stopping of to visit
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...
and
Canterbury Cathedral.
On 24 December 1825 Soane underwent an operation to have a
cataract
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...
removed from his eye.
In 1835 Soane had this to say: "Devoted to Architecture from my childhood, I have through my life pursued it with the enthusiasm of a passion."
Friends
![Soane Museum 5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Soane_Museum_5.jpg)
Soane counted many members of the Royal Academy as friends, including
J. M. W. Turner, with whom he spent the Christmas after his wife's death;
Soane also owned three works by the artist.
John Flaxman
John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several ye ...
, professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy, was an old friend and Soane also acquired several plaster-casts of Flaxman's work for his museum. Soane also counted
Thomas Banks
Thomas Banks (29 December 1735 – 2 February 1805) was an important 18th-century English sculptor.
Life
The son of William Banks, a surveyor who was land steward to the Duke of Beaufort, he was born in London. He was educated at Ross-on-Wye ...
as a friend (and owned sculptures by him),
and
Thomas Lawrence
Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at ...
, who painted Soane's portrait.
Despite the professional falling-out with his old master, George Dance the Younger, they remained firm friends. After Dance's death Soane purchased his drawings. After the death of his other teacher,
Henry Holland, Soane tried to buy his drawings and papers, but found they had been destroyed; he did however purchase some of his antique sculptures. Despite being professional rivals, Soane got on with fellow architect
John Nash; they often dined together. Soane called on
William Thomas Beckford
William Thomas Beckford (29 September 1760 – 2 May 1844) was an English novelist, art collector, patron of decorative art, critic, travel writer, plantation owner and for some time politician. He was reputed at one stage to be England's riches ...
both in London and when he was taking the waters in
Bath in 1829.
Soane had other friends including
James Perry,
Thomas Leverton Donaldson
Thomas Leverton Donaldson (19 October 1795 – 1 August 1885) was a British architect, notable as a pioneer in architectural education, as a co-founder and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a winner of the RIBA Royal Gold ...
,
Barbara Hofland
Barbara Hofland (1770 – 4 November 1844) was an English writer of some 66 didactic, moral stories for children, and of schoolbooks and poetry. She was asked by John Soane to write a description of his still extant museum in London's Lincoln's ...
and
Rowland Burdon, whose friendship was formed while on the Grand Tour.
Death and funeral
Soane died a widower, estranged from his surviving son, George, whom he felt had betrayed him, having contributed to his wife's death. Having caught a chill, Soane died in 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields at half past three on Friday 20 January 1837.
[Stroud, 1984, p. 115] His
obituary appeared in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' on Monday 23 January. Following a private funeral service, at his own request 'plain without ostentation or parade', he was buried in the same vault as his wife and elder son.
Within days of his father's death George Soane, left an annuity of £52 per annum, challenged Soane's will. Soane stated that he was left so little because 'his general misconduct and constant opposition to my wishes evinced in the general tenor of his life'. To his daughter-in-law Agnes he left £40 per annum 'not to be subject to the debts or control of her said husband'. The grounds for overthrowing the will were that his father was insane. On 1 August 1837 the judge at the
Prerogative court
In law, a prerogative is an exclusive right bestowed by a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law. It was a common facet of feudal law. The ...
rejected the challenge. George appealed but on 26 November dropped his suit.
Pupils and assistants
From 1784 Soane took a new pupil on roughly ever other year,
these were:
[Colvin, 1978, P.767] J. Adams, George Bailey,
George Basevi
Elias George Basevi FRS (1 April 1794 – 16 October 1845) was a British architect who worked in both Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles. A pupil of Sir John Soane, his designs included Belgrave Square in London, and the Fitzwilliam Mus ...
, S. Burchell, H. Burgess, J. Buxton,
Robert Dennis Chantrell
Robert Dennis Chantrell ( Newington, Surrey 14 January 1793 – Norwood, 4 January 1872) was an English church architect, best-known today for designing Leeds Parish Church, now Leeds Minster.
Early life
Chantrell was born in Newington, So ...
, Thomas Chawner, F. Copland, E. Davis, E. Foxall, J.H. Good, Thomas Jeans,
David Laing,
Thomas Lee, C. Malton, John McDonnell, Arthur Patrick Mee, Frederick Meyer,
David Mocatta
David Alfred Mocatta (1806–1882) was a British architect and a member of the Anglo-Jewish Mocatta family.
Early career
David Alfred Mocatta was born to a Sephardic Jewish family in 1806, the son of the licensed bullion broker Moses Mocat ...
,
Henry Parke,
Charles Edward Ernest Papendiek, David Richardson, W.E. Rolfe,
John Sanders (his first pupil, taken on 1 September 1784),
Henry Hake Seward,
Thomas Sword, B.J. Storace, Charles Tyrrell and Thomas Williams. His most famous and successful pupil was
Sir Robert Smirke
Sir Robert Smirke (1 October 1780 – 18 April 1867) was an English architect, one of the leaders of Greek Revival architecture, though he also used other architectural styles. As architect to the Board of Works, he designed several major ...
(who, as a consequence of a personality contradictory to that of Soane, stayed less than a year).
Among the more renowned architects who attended Soane's lectures at the Royal Academy, but weren't actually articled to him as a student was
Decimus Burton,
who was one of the most famous and most successful architects of the 19th century.
Other successful architects who as students attended the lectures were
James Pennethorne,
George Gilbert Scott,
Owen Jones
Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' and '' Tribune.'' He has two ...
and
Henry Roberts.
Soane's main assistants he employed at various times were:
Joseph Gandy
Joseph Michael Gandy (1771–1843) was an English artist, visionary architect and architectural theorist, most noted for his imaginative paintings depicting Sir John Soane's architectural designs. He worked extensively with Soane both as ...
, who prepared many of the perspective drawings of Soane's designs, Christopher Ebdon, J.W. Hiort, G.E. Ives, William Lodder, R. Morrison, D. Paton,
George Allen Underwood
George Allen Underwood (1793 – 1 November 1829, Bath) was an architect in Cheltenham.
He was a pupil of Sir John Soane from 1807 to 1815 and then started his own practice in Cheltenham. He was Surveyor for Somerset, Dorset and the Dean an ...
and
George Wightwick
George Wightwick (26 August 1802 – 9 July 1872) was a British architect based in Plymouth, and possibly the first architectural journalist.
In addition to his architectural practice, he developed his skills and the market for architectural ...
.
The office routine for both assistants and pupils was in summer to work from seven in the morning to seven at night Monday to Saturday and in winter eight to eight, often assistants and pupils would be sent out to supervise building work on site.
Students would be given time off to study at the Royal Academy and for holidays.
The Students' room at the museum still exists, it is a
mezzanine at the rear of the building, lined with two long wooden benches with stools, surrounded by plaster casts of
classical architectural details and lit by a long
skylight. The students were trained in surveying, measuring, costing, superintendence and draftsmanship, normally a student stayed for five to seven years.
[Kostof, 2000, P.197]
As an example Robert Dennis Chantrell's indentures were signed on 14 January 1807 just after he was fourteen (a typical age to join the office), his apprenticeship was to last for seven years, at a cost of one hundred
Guineas
The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...
(early in Soane's career he charged £50 and this grew to 175 guineas),
Soane would provide 'board, lodgings and wearing apparel'; Chantrell only arrived in the office on 15 June 1807. It was normal to serve a probationary period of a few weeks.
In 1788 Soane defined the professional responsibility of an architect:
The business of the architect is to make the designs and estimates, to direct the works and to measure and value the different parts; he is the intermediate agent between the employer, whose honour and interest he is to study, and the mechanic, whose rights he is to defend. His situation implies great trust; he is responsible for the mistakes, negligences, and ignorances of those he employs; and above all, he is to take care that the workmen's bills do not exceed his own estimates. If these are the duties of an architect, with what propriety can his situation and that of the builder, or the contractor be united?
Soane's published writings
Soane published several books related to architecture and an autobiography:
*''Designs in Architecture, Consisting of Plans for Temples, Baths, Casines, Pavilions, Garden-Seats, Obelisks and Other Buildings'', 1778, 2nd Edition 1797
*''Plans, Elevations and Sections of Buildings Erected in the Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, etc.'', 1788
*''Sketches in Architecture Containing Plans of Cottages, Villas and Other Useful Buildings'', 1793
*''Plans, Elevations and Perspective Views of Pitzhanger Manor House'', 1802
*''Designs for Public and Private Buildings'', 1828
*''Descriptions of the House and Museum Lincoln's Inn Fields'', editions: 1830, 1832 and 1835–6
*''Memoirs of the Professional Life of an Architect'', 1835
The director of the Soane Museum, Arthur T. Bolton, edited and published Soane's twelve Royal Academy lectures in 1929 as ''Lectures on Architecture by Sir John Soane''.
[Soane, 1929]
Selected list of architectural works
File:Letton Hall Christian Centre - geograph.org.uk - 955229.jpg, Letton Hall, 1783
File:Front Door of Tendring Hall.jpg, Tendring Hall, 1784, the remaining porch after demolition in 1955
File:Ryston Hall.jpg, Ryston Hall, remodelled 1786
File:Cricketstthomas.jpg, Cricket St. Thomas House, 1786
File:Piercefield House Chepstow.jpg, Piercefield House, 1788–93
File:Bentley Priory c 1800.jpg, Bentley Priory, 1788–1801, shown c.1800; it was later remodelled
File:Cmglee_Wimpole_Hall_Yellow_Drawing_Room.jpg, Yellow Drawing Room, Wimpole Hall, 1791–93
File:Cmglee Wimpole Hall bath.jpg, Plunge Pool, Wimpole Hall, 1791–93
File:Home Farm, Wimpole Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1214788.jpg, Home Farm, Wimpole Hall, 1793
File:Tyringham Lodges Geograph-4160400-by-Stephen-Richards.jpg, Gatehouse, Tyringham, 1792
File:Tyringham Hall - geograph.org.uk - 195373.jpg, Tyringham Hall, 1793–1800
File:Bank of England - Soane's rotunda edited.jpg, Bank of England rotunda, 1794
File:Bank Thomas Malton Jr. pub 1801 edited.jpg, Lothbury Court, Bank of England, 1797–1800
File:Gate House - geograph.org.uk - 1271205.jpg, The Barn, Malvern Hall, 1798
File:Aynho - geograph.org.uk - 2934.jpg, Aynho Park, Northamptonshire, remodelled 1798
File:Pitz gate 641.JPG, Gateway at Pitzhanger Manor, c.1803
File:Simeon Monument, Market Place, Reading.jpg, Simeon Monument, Market Place, Reading, 1804
File:Bank of England (soane) - North West Angle by JM Gandy.jpg, Bank of England 'Tivoli Corner', 1805
File:The entrance front of Moggerhanger House.jpg, Moggerhanger, entrance front, 1809
File:RBAI, Belfast, October 2010 (02).JPG, Belfast, Royal Belfast Academical Institution, 1809–14
File:Dulwich Picture Gallery.jpg, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1811–17
File:Dulwich Picture Gallery exterior.jpg, Entrance, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1811–17
File:Dulwich Picture Gallery mausoleum.jpg, Interior of the Mausoleum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1811–17
File:Dulwich Picture Gallery tomb ceiling.jpg, Interior of the lantern of the Mausoleum, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1811–17
File:Dulwich picture gallery at sunset.jpg, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1811–17
File:Soane museum gallery.jpg, The Dome, Soane Museum, 1813
File:Bank looking towards Mansion House.jpg, Bank of England, main facade on Threadneedle Street, 1818–27
File:Bank of England - Soane's dividend office edited.jpg, Dividend Office, Bank of England, 1818–27
File:Wotton House cropped.jpg, Wotton House, Buckinghamshire, remodelled 1820
File:PellWall.jpg, Pellwall House, Staffordshire, 1822
File:St Peter's Church, Walworth.jpg, St Peter's Walworth, west front, 1822–23
File:St Peter's Walworth - south side - geograph.org.uk - 1495390.jpg, St Peter's Walworth, south side, 1822–23
File:St Peter Walworth Interior.JPG, St Peter's Walworth, interior looking east, 1822–23
File:The New Treasury, Whitehall - Shepherd, Metropolitan Improvements (1828), p239.jpg, Former Treasury, Whitehall, 1823–24
File:Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone - geograph.org.uk - 1269717.jpg, Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone, west front, 1824–26
File:St John Bethnal.jpg, St John, Bethnal Green, 1826–28
*
Aynhoe Park
Aynhoe Park, is a 17th-century country estate consisting of land and buildings that were rebuilt after the English Civil War on the southern edge of the stone-built village of Aynho, Northamptonshire, England. It overlooks the Cherwell valley tha ...
,
Aynho, Northamptonshire (1799–1804); remodelled the interior
*
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
, London (1788–1833)
*
Chillington Hall, Staffordshire (1785–89); remodelled.
*
Cricket House, Somerset (1794 and 1801–04)
*
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest pub ...
, London (1811–14)
*
Freemasons' Hall, London (1828); demolished 1864.
*
Holy Trinity Church, Marylebone
Holy Trinity Church, in Marylebone, Westminster, London, is a Grade I listed former Anglican church, built in 1828 and designed by John Soane. In 1818 Parliament passed an act setting aside one million pounds to celebrate the defeat of Napoleo ...
(1826–27)
*
Honing Hall, Norfolk
*
Kelshall
Kelshall is a small village in North East Hertfordshire, England. It is near the town of Royston. It has a village hall and the local church is St Faith's. Kelshall is also the name of the civil parish. Kelshall also has a major road running alo ...
Rectory, Hertfordshire (1788)
*
Moggerhanger House
Moggerhanger House is a Listed building, Grade I-listed country house in Moggerhanger, Bedfordshire, England, designed by the eminent architect John Soane. The house is owned by a Christian charity, Harvest Vision, and the Moggerhanger House Pres ...
, Bedfordshire (1809–11)
*
Pell Wall Hall,
Market Drayton
Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "D ...
, Shropshire (1822–28)
*
Piercefield House
Piercefield House is a largely ruined neo-classical country house near St Arvans, Monmouthshire, Wales, about north of the centre of Chepstow. The central block of the house was designed in the very late 18th century, by, or to the designs of, ...
, Monmouthshire, Wales (1785–83)
*
Pitzhanger Manor
Pitzhanger Manor is an English country house famous as the home of neoclassical architect, Sir John Soane. Built between 1800 and 1804 in Walpole Park Ealing, to the west of London), the Regency Manor is a rare and spectacular example of a b ...
, Ealing (1800–03)
*
Royal Belfast Academical Institution
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...
(1809–14)
*
Royal Hospital Chelsea
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. It is an ...
(1809–17)
*
Ryston Hall, Norfolk (1780), alterations
*
St. John's Church, Bethnal Green (1826–28)
*
St Peter's Church, Walworth (1823–24)
*
Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, a museum (originally Soane's home); various remodellings from 1792 to 1824
*
South Hill Park
South Hill Park is a English country house and its grounds, now run as an arts centre. It lies in the Birch Hill estate to the south of Bracknell town centre, in Berkshire.
History
Construction by Watts
The original South Hill Park mans ...
, Berkshire (1801)
*
Tyringham Hall, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire (1793–1800)
*
Wimpole Hall
Wimpole Estate is a large estate containing Wimpole Hall, a country house located within the civil parish of Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England, about southwest of Cambridge. The house, begun in 1640, and its of parkland and farmland are owned ...
, Arrington, Royston, Cambridgeshire (1791–93)
*
Wokefield Park
Wokefield Park is an 18th-century country house, situated in the parish of Wokefield, near Mortimer, in the English county of Berkshire. It is currently run as an events venue.
History
Wokefield park was first mentioned in 1319 as a deer p ...
, Berkshire (1788–89)
*
Wotton House
Wotton House, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England, is a stately home built between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House. The house is an example of English Baroque and a Grade I ...
, Buckinghamshire (1821–22)
Notes
References
*Bingham, Neil, (2011) ''Masterworks Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts'', Royal Academy of Arts,
*Bradley, Simon, and Pevsner, Nikolaus, (1997) ''Buildings of England: London 1 The City of London'', Penguin Books,
*Buzas, Stefan and Richard Bryant, ''Sir John Soane's Museum, London'', (Tübingen: Wasmuth, 1994)
*Cole, David, (1980). ''The Work of Sir Gilbert Scott'', The Architectural Press,
*Colvin, Howard, 2nd Edition (1978) ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840'', John Murray,
*Chaney, Edward, 2nd Edition (2000) ''The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance'', Routledge,
*
Curl, James Stevens, (1999) ''A Dictionary of Architecture'', Oxford University Press,
* Curl, James Stevens, (1983) ''The Life and Works of Henry Roberts 1803–1876'', Philimore,
*Darley, Gillian, (1999) ''John Soane An Accidental Romanti''c, Yale University Press,
*de la Ruffinière du Prey, Pierre, (1982) ''John Soane the Making of an Architect'', Chicago University Press,
*de la Ruffinière du Prey, Pierre, (1985) ''Sir John Soane Catalogues of Architectural Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum'', Victoria and Albert Museum,
*Dorey, Helen, et al., (1991) 9th Revised Edition ''A New Description of Sir John Soane's Museum'', The Trustees of the Sir John Soane's Museum
*Dorey, Helen, et al., (2018) 13th Revised Edition ''A Complete Description of Sir John Soane's Museum'', The Trustees of the Sir John Soane's Museum
*Feinberg, Susan G. ''The Genesis of Sir John Soane's Museum Idea: 1801–1810'' Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 43, no. 4 (October 1984): pp. 225–237
*Flores, Carol A. Hrvol (2006), ''Owen Jones: Design, Ornament, Architecture and Theory in an Age in Transition'' Rizzoli International,
*Knox, Tim, (2009) ''Sir John Soane's Museum London'', Merrell,
*Kostof, Spiro (Editor), (2000) 2nd Edition ''Architect Chapters in the History of the Profession'', University of California,
*Lever, Jill, (2003) ''Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741–1825) and of George Dance the Elder (1695–1768) from the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum'', Azimuth Editions,
*Port, M.H., (2006) ''Six Hundred New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818–1856'', 2nd Ed, Yale University Press,
*Reid, Rosamund, (1996) ''The Architectural Work of George Wightwick in Plymouth and the County of Devon'' in Volume 128 of The Transactions of the Devonshire Association
*Richardson, Margaret, and Stevens, Mary Anne (Editors), (1999) ''John Soane Architect Master of Light and Space, The Royal Academy of Arts'',
*Schumann-Cacia, Eva, (1991) ''John Soane and The Bank of England'', Longman,
*Soane, John, (1929) ''Lectures on Architecture'' edited by Arthur T. Bolton, Sir John Soane's Museum
*Stroud, Dorothy, (1961) ''The Architecture of Sir John Soane'', Studio Books Ltd
*Stroud, Dorothy, (1966) ''Henry Holland His Life and Architecture'', Country Life
*Stroud, Dorothy, (1984) ''Sir John Soane Architect'', Faber & Faber,
*
Summerson, John, (1966) ''The Fortieth Volume of the Walpole Society 1964–1965, The Book of John Thorpe in Sir John Soane's Museum'', The
Walpole Society
The Walpole Society, named after Horace Walpole, was founded in 1911 to promote the study of the history of British art and artists.
From 1762 on, Walpole had published the first history of art in Britain, based on the manuscript notebooks of G ...
*Tait, A.A., (2008) ''The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour'', Scala Publishers Ltd,
*Tyack, Geoffrey, (1992) ''Sir James Pennethorne and the making of Victorian London'', Cambridge University Press,
*Waterfield, Giles (Editor), (1996) ''Soane and Death'', Dulwich Picture Gallery,
*Watkin, David, (1996) ''Sir John Soane Enlightenment Thought and the Royal Academy Lectures'', Cambridge University Press,
*Webster, Christopher, (2010) ''R.D. Chanterell (1793–1872) and the Architecture of a Lost Generation'', Spire Books Ltd,
*Whitbourn Philip, (2003) ''Decimus Burton Esquire Architect and Gentleman (1800–1830)'', The Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society,
External links
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Sir John Soane's MuseumCatalogue of Library and MuseumJohn Soane & the Palace of Westminster - UK Parliament Living HeritageParliamentary Archives, John Soane
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soane, John
1753 births
1837 deaths
British neoclassical architects
Burials at St Pancras Old Church
Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England
Fellows of the Royal Society
Knights Bachelor
People from South Oxfordshire District
People from Reading, Berkshire
Royal Academicians
18th-century English architects
19th-century English architects
17th-century English people
Architects from Oxfordshire
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London