
Thomas Lawrence:
Portrait of Sir John Soane
Sir John Soane (
10 September 1753 –
20 January 1837) was an
English architect who specialised in the
Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources. The influence of his work, coming at the end of the Georgian era, was swamped by the Revival styles of the 19th century. It was not until the late 19th century that the influence of Sir John's architecture was widely felt.
His best-known work was the
Bank of England, a building which had widespread effect upon commercial architecture until its demolition in the late 1920s.
Biography
Soane was born in
Goring-On-Thames and educated in nearby
Reading, the son of a bricklayer. He changed his birth name
Soan to
Soane to make it look more sophisticated. He trained as an architect, first under
George Dance the Younger, and then
Henry Holland, whilst also studying at the
Royal Academy Schools, which he entered in
1771. During his studies at the Royal Academy, he won the Academy's silver medal (1772), gold medal (1776) and finally a travelling scholarship in
1777, which he spent on developing his style in
Italy.
When in
Rome, Soane travelled around with his old classmate, the architect
Thomas Hardwick, and also met the builder and
Bishop of
Derry,
Frederick Augustus Hervey, whom he accompanied to
Ireland. However, he failed to find work there, so returned to England in
1780 and settled in
East Anglia where he established a small architectural practice.
In
1788, he succeeded
Sir Robert Taylor as Architect and Surveyor to the
Bank of England, the exterior of the Bank being his most famous work. Sir
Herbert Baker's rebuilding of the Bank, 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". The Bank job, and especially the personal contacts arising from it, increased the success of Soane's practice, and he became Associate
Royal Academician (ARA) in
1795, then full Royal Academician (RA) in
1802. He was made Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy in
1806, a post which he held until his death. Then, in
1814, he was appointed to the
Metropolitan Board of Works, where he remained until his retirement in
1832. In
1831 Soane received a
knighthood.
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.
During his time in London, Soane ran a lucrative architectural practice, remodelling and designing country homes for the
landed gentry. Among Soane's most notable works are the dining rooms of both numbers
10 and
11 Downing Street for the Prime Minister and Chancellor of Britain, the
Dulwich Picture Gallery which is the archetype for most modern art galleries, and his country home at
Pitzhanger Manor in
Ealing.
Soane died, a widower and estranged from his surviving son (who he felt had betrayed him, contributing to his own mother's death), in
London in 1837. He is buried in a vault of his own design in the churchyard of
St Pancras Old Church. The design of the vault was a direct influence on
Giles Gilbert Scott's design for the
Red telephone box.
Sir John Soane's Museum
In
1792, Soane bought a house at 12
Lincoln's Inn Fields,
London. He used the house as his home and library, but also entertained potential clients in the drawing room. It is now a museum open to the public, packed with artefacts.
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 and architectural salvage. As his practice prospered, Soane was able to collect objects worthy of the
British Museum, including the sarcophagus of
Seti I, Roman bronzes from
Pompeii, several
Canaletto's and a collection of paintings by
Hogarth. In
1833 he obtained an
Act of Parliament 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.
Selected list of architectural works
- Aynhoe Park, Aynhoe, Banbury, Oxfordshire
- Bank of England
- Chillington Hall
- Cricket House, Somerset
- Dulwich Picture Gallery
- Moggerhanger House, Bedfordshire
- Piercefield House
- Pitzhanger Manor
- The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
- St John's Church, Bethnal Green
- Holy Trinity Church Marylebone
- Tyringham Hall, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire
- St. Peter's Church, Walworth
- Soane's house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, now a museum
- South Hill Park
- Wimpole Hall, Arrington, Royston, Cambridgeshire
- Wokefield Park
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No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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An architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a building's construction. The word "architect" (Latin: architectus) derives from the Greek arkhitekton (arkhi (chief) + tekton (builder))")[1]
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Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque.
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Bank of England
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Headquarters London
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Governor Mervyn King
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Goring-on-Thames
Goring-on-Thames ()
|240px|Goring-on-Thames (
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Reading, Berkshire (United Kingdom)
Reading shown within the United KingdomPopulation borough 143,096 (2001)
Urban sub-area 232,662 (2001)
..... Click the link for more information. George Dance the Younger (1741 - 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor. The fifth and youngest son of George Dance the Elder, he came from a distinguished family of architects, artists and dramatists.
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Henry Holland (July 20, 1745 – June 17, 1806) was an architect to the English nobility who trained under Capability Brown and later married his daughter. Sir John Soane was one of his students.
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Royal Academy of ArtsEstablished 1768
Location Piccadilly, London W1, England
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Nickname: "The Eternal City"
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Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an eminent English architect and was a founding member of the Architect's Club in 1791.
Early life and career
Hardwick was born in Brentford, the son of a master mason turned architect, also named Thomas Hardwick, who worked with the
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..... Click the link for more information. Frederick Augustus Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, PC (1 August 1730 – 8 July 1803), known as The Earl-Bishop, was Bishop of Cloyne from 1767 to 1768 and Bishop of Derry from 1768 to 1803.
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Sir Robert Taylor (1714 – 1788) was a notable English architect of the mid-late 18th century.
Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stone-mason and sculptor, spending time as a pupil of Sir Henry Cheere.
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Bank of England
The Bank of England
Headquarters London
Coordinates Coordinates:
Governor Mervyn King
Central Bank of United Kingdom
Currency Pound sterling
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Sir Herbert Baker 9 June 1862 Cobham, Kent - 4 February 1946 Cobham, Kent, was the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, 1892–1912. He designed the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa; and with Edwin Lutyens was instrumental in designing New
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Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, (January 30, 1902 – August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture. He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England
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