THE PRIVATE BANKS OF JOHN SOANE

Whilst much attention has been paid to Sir John Soane’s public buildings, notably the Bank of England, the growing commercial and financial class in London also provided many opportunities for smaller-scale work in the private sphere. For example, his career mirrored the era of private banking in the metropolis, and his influence on the emergence of an architectural style appropriate for the London private banking house deserves greater attention. Drawing on new evidence from Soane’s office, this paper explores the ways Soane engaged with his private bank clients in the following ways: first, remodelling, where Ransom & Co. of Pall Mall and Down, Thornton & Free of Bartholomew Lane employed Soane to adapt their existing sites to meet changing requirements; second, rebuilding, where he worked for Prescott, Grote & Co. in Threadneedle Street to reconstruct their principal banking house and associated partners houses into a private bank compound around a small City court; third, reimagining, where Soane designed a new building for Praed & Co. in Fleet Street, unconstrained by pre-existing structures. In all these ways, Soane refined and refocused the Georgian town house model, integrating the banks’ public image with their distinctive requirements for business space and domestic residence.