page_title: John Soane
section_title: Palace of Westminster
hierarchical_section_title: John Soane / Success at last / Palace of Westminster
caption_attribution_description: English: John Soane. Design for a Royal Palace, bird's-eye view. 1821. London, Soane Museum. Nederlands: John Soane. Ontwerp voor een koninklijk Paleis, vogelvluchtperspectief. 1821. Londen, Soane Museum.
context_page_description: Sir John Soane RA FSA FRS was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the Royal Academy and an official architect to the Office of Works. He received a knighthood in 1831.
  His best-known work was the Bank of England, a building which had a widespread effect on commercial architecture. He also designed Dulwich Picture Gallery, which, with its top-lit galleries, was a major influence on the planning of subsequent art galleries and museums. His main legacy is the eponymous museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields in his former home and office, designed to display the art works and architectural artefacts that he collected during his lifetime. The museum is described in the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture as "one of the most complex, intricate, and ingenious series of interiors ever conceived".
context_section_description: 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 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 would be destroyed in the fire of 1834.
caption: 1821 Design for new Royal Palace probably on the site of Green Park London
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