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“A further stage in Soane’s development of an ideal smaller house plan came at Burn Hall in County Durham. The owner, George Smith, had first intended a simple cow barn on the property. Soane’s arrival at Burn Hall on 22 July 1783 probably had to do with laying out this farm building, but at the same time he took a measured plan of the existing ‘premises.’ Out of this grew a scheme to rebuild, extend, or replace an existing mansion nearby. The letterpress accompanying Soane’s published plan of 1788 is characeristically unclear. It states that ‘the eating room had been built for some time’ but does not say whether it was the one designed by Soane or another predecessor. By 1785 an elevation of the intended structure was in existence and went on display at the Royal Academy. Meanwhile, Soane had purchased for Smith the Piercefield estate in Monmouthshire, where he proceeded to build a house. This acquisition made a total of three Smith properties on different parts of Briain in different stages of construction. His mania for building was his undoing and led to the sale of Burn Hall. According to Soane, the Burn Hall scheme had been abandoned long before.

“Soane’s elevation for Burn Hall ranks among the boldest examples of his early domestic architecture The grandiose appearance is misleading, attributable in part to the rather strident watercolor draftsmanship, probably by a Soane apprentice. This is still a smaller type of house. As with Spencers Wood and the Pepper villa, the magic dimension at Burn Hall is 60 feet on a side. Perhaps Soane need not take complete blame for the facade if it was question of extending the mansion. For his sake one would happily excuse him from responsibility for the round-headed statuary niches blocking the light from a rectangular window, or the disproportionate centerpiece. Here, on a larger scale than at the poarch of Malvern Hall, he tried to convey the appearance of the Vesta Temple at Tivoli but miscalculated the ponderous effect it would have.

The real significance of the centerpiece at Burn Hall is the way it relates to what lies behind. In the arrangement of the interior, Soane joined back-to-back two versions of his favorite hunting casino. The arrangement in this case becomes, of necessity, more complex. The circular entrance vestible communicates with a curving stairhall, and culminates in the bow of a large drawing room, creating for the first time a long processional axis. A less well defined axis also exists here for the first time. It stretches from the stairhead via a ‘corridore’ to the lady’s round-ended dressing room, or to a semicircular balcony overlooking a view of the valley below. The essence of the plan prepared the way for Tendring Hall, Soane’s largest country-house commission of the period.”

— Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey. John Soane: The Making of an Architect. p281.

The Creator's Words

“To a mind naturally active no torture is like the pain of idleness.”

“If you are a young man…seek the acquaintance of such as are your superiors, men of undoubted sense and abilities; and be swift to hear everything that may tend to give you the least instruction; always taking care to behave with the greatest respect to them.”

— John Soane. from Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey. John Soane: The Making of an Architect. p3, 21.