PAPERS PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

(SOANE, John).PAPERS PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, RELATING TO THE BUILDING A NEW INFIRMARY AND LEASING OF GROUND AT CHELSEA HOSPITAL; with FURTHER PAPERS...ORDERED...TO BE PRINTED, 10TH MAY       1809; with FURTHER PAPERS...ORDERED...TO BE PRINTED, 8TH JUNE 1809.

London: (Luke Hansard), 1809. Folio. Later cloth spine, boards. 12 pages; 1-24 pages; 25-32 pages; with 2 folding plans with hand coloring, 7 folding plans (2 with hand coloring), 3 hand colored plans for a total of 12 plates (one quite large). First edition.

Three folio papers together in modern cloth backed boards with printed label.  A rare set with only one copy of the first portion recorded on OCLC -- Columbia University; and only one copy of the Further Papers recorded on OCLC -- at Canadian Center for Architecture.  The two parts of Further Papers are separate printings but consecutively paginated.  Top edge gilt, the others uncut; a rather good copy (short tears at folds of a few plates).  "Soane became Clerk of Works to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea in 1807.  Within two years the first major building project of Soane's Chelsea career materialized, though its beginnings were marred by bureaucratic maneuverings.  The Chelsea Board proposed to replace the inadequate accommodation for the Infirmary then located over the Great Hall by adapting the newly acquired, early eighteenth-century Walpole House (known at the time at the premises lately occupied by Lord Yarborough) for this purpose.  Soane found the residence unsuitable and instead introduced an entirely new building, design for a monumental arcaded building facing the river.  His selected site for this new building, however, had been clandestinely leased by the Governor, and another architect (Thomas Leverton) had been hired to build a villa for a high-ranking official (Colonel Gordon).  Deliberations over the project continued for a year.  Ultimately Soane was forced to modify his design to create a smaller building incorporating Walpole House."  (Heather Ewing on the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, in John Soane Architect: Master of Space and light), 1999).  The three papers offered here record in detail these "Bureaucratic maneuverings," with the various plans allowing one to follow the course of affairs, offering a fascinating glimpse into how the designs for the new Infirmary evolved.  Very good and rare.

 

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