Project Soane continues to surprise me with new twists and turns. The Slack group we started a few weeks ago has proved very fertile. I do encourage more people to join (or rejoin) our little endeavour. If you have any interest at all in History, Buildings, Architecture, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution … this is a splendid way to pursue that interest in a very practical way.
We have been exploring the broader sweep of John Soane’s career, and in particular his work in and around Whitehall, an area of Westminster which has become synonymous with the executive arm of government in the UK. He built Law Courts, nestled into the ancient buttresses of Westminster Hall, produced numerous schemes for alterations to the old Houses of Parliament, repaired and maintained the Banqueting House (Inigo Jones) and the Old Treasury (William Kent)
The Law Courts project is fascinating, but was demolished in Victorian times. Even shorter lived was his Board of Trade building,…