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 Hall in 1787. At this early stage in his career Soane was dependent on domestic work, including:
Piercefield House (1784), now a ruin; the remodelling of
Chillington Hall (1785); The Manor,
Cricket St Thomas (1786);
Bentley Priory (1788); An important commission was alterations to
William Pitt the Younger's
Holwood House 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) 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 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. 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
pendentives, 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. , 1830.
Sir John Soane's Museum, London. 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). • Between 1789 and February 1791 Soane oversaw acquisition of land northwards along Princes Street. • 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 and Prince's Street (1792). • Erection of outer wall along the north-east corner of the site, including an entrance arch for carriage (1794–98). • 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 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
banknotes, 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 (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's rebuilding of the Bank after demolishing most of Soane's earlier building was described by
Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest architectural crime, in the
City of London, 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 and
Samuel Pepys Cockerell. Other original members included: Sir William Chambers, Thomas Sandby,
Robert Adam,
Matthew Brettingham the Younger,
Thomas Hardwick and
Robert Mylne. Members who later joined included
Sir Robert Smirke 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: a new infirmary (built 1810; destroyed in 1941 during
The Blitz), a new stable block and extension of his own official residence in 1814; a new bakehouse in 1815; a new gardener's house in 1816; a new guard-house and Secretary's Office with space for fifty staff in 1818; a Smoking Room in 1829 and finally a garden shelter in 1834.
Freemasons' Hall, London Soane, who was a
UGLE 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 1828–1831, 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 1824–6 In October 1791 Soane was appointed
Clerk of Works with responsibility for
St James's Palace,
Whitehall 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's death in 1813 led to Soane together with
John Nash and
Robert Smirke, being appointed official architect to the
Office of Works 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 (1826–27), for £24,708;
St John on Bethnal Green (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 (1823) demolished 1861; Privy Council and Board of Trade Offices,
Whitehall (1823–24), remodelled by Sir
Charles Barry, the building now houses the
Cabinet Office; in a new departure for Soane he used the
Italianate 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, 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, 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 in Bedfordshire (1809) Country homes for the
landed gentry included: new rooms and remodelling of
Wimpole Hall and garden buildings (1790–1794) for his friend Philip Yorke whom he met on his Grand Tour; remodelling of
Baronscourt, County Tyrone, Ireland (1791);
Tyringham Hall (1792–1820); and the remodelling of
Aynhoe Park (1798). In 1804, he remodelled
Ramsey Abbey (none of his work there now survives); the remodelling of the south front of
Port Eliot and new interiors (1804–06); the Gothic Library at
Stowe House (1805–06);
Moggerhanger House (1791–1809); for
Marden Hill, Hertfordshire, Soane designed a new porch and entrance hall (1818); the remodelling of
Wotton House 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 (1824–26) for the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively of Great Britain.
Dulwich Picture Gallery interior, 1811–1817 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 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. 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 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 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 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 he added 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 house, and new library, committee rooms, clerks' rooms and stores. All were destroyed in the fire of 1834. ==Royal Academy==