Abstract
The early lives of John Soane (1753–1837) and Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) ran remarkably parallel courses. Both could claim similar family backgrounds in the building trade: Soane's father was a humble Berkshire bricklayer, while Hardwick's progressed from the practice of mason to that of self-styled architect at New Brentford, Middlesex. Both young men entered prominent architectural offices of the day around the same time, 1767: Sir William Chambers's in the case of Hardwick, George Dance the Younger's, and subsequently Henry Holland's, in the case of Soane. Both also enrolled among the first students in architecture at the newly founded Royal Academy of Arts. Soane and Hardwick, in that institution's cramped quarters at Old Somerset House, must have known one another, even though there is no evidence that they were on particularly friendly terms.
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