diff --git a/libs/canvas/canvas/item.h b/libs/canvas/canvas/item.h
index a480ec38a1..517b4401ba 100644
--- a/libs/canvas/canvas/item.h
+++ b/libs/canvas/canvas/item.h
@@ -136,18 +136,7 @@ public:
 
 	ScrollGroup* scroll_parent() const { return _scroll_parent; }
 
-	/* item implementations can override this if they need to */
-	virtual Rect size_request() const { return bounding_box (true); }
-	void size_allocate (Rect const&);
-
-	/** bounding box is the public API to get the size of the item.
-	   If @param for_own_purposes is false, then it will return the
-	   allocated bounding box (if there is one) in preference to the
-	   one that would naturally be computed by the item.
-	*/
-	Rect bounding_box (bool for_own_purposes = false) const;
-	Rect allocation() const { return _allocation; }
-
+	Rect bounding_box () const;
         Coord height() const;
         Coord width() const;
 
@@ -292,7 +281,6 @@ protected:
 	mutable Rect _bounding_box;
 	/** true if _bounding_box might be out of date, false if its definitely not */
 	mutable bool _bounding_box_dirty;
-	Rect _allocation;
 
 	/* XXX: this is a bit grubby */
 	std::map<std::string, void *> _data;
diff --git a/libs/canvas/item.cc b/libs/canvas/item.cc
index 589f1214b7..06ad24f2e6 100644
--- a/libs/canvas/item.cc
+++ b/libs/canvas/item.cc
@@ -571,15 +571,9 @@ Item::grab_focus ()
 	/* XXX */
 }
 
-void
-Item::size_allocate (Rect const & r)
-{
-	_allocation = r;
-}
-
 /** @return Bounding box in this item's coordinates */
 ArdourCanvas::Rect
-Item::bounding_box (bool for_own_purposes) const
+Item::bounding_box () const
 {
 	if (_bounding_box_dirty) {
 		compute_bounding_box ();
@@ -587,12 +581,6 @@ Item::bounding_box (bool for_own_purposes) const
 		add_child_bounding_boxes ();
 	}
 
-	if (!for_own_purposes) {
-		if (_allocation) {
-			return _allocation;
-		}
-	}
-
 	return _bounding_box;
 }