Designs for the Devonport Mechanics' Institute, Duke Street, Devonport, Plymouth: elevation of entrance front

NOTES: These designs illustrate the first part of the Devonport Mechanics' Institute which opened on Duke Street in 1844. An extension containing a large lecture hall to hold 1000 people opened in 1850 to designs by Wightwick & Damant. This design is one of a number of drawings bound into five volumes entitled 'Architectural works of George Wightwick', made between 1832 and 1850. Wightwick instructed his articled pupils to make this detailed set of retrospective drawings to illustrate every building of importance he had designed. The drawings were intended to serve both as a record of Wightwick's completed buildings and as a method of conveying to his students the design process from initial working design to finished structure.