The west portion of the north half of the western body at crypt and church-floor levels, overlaid with sketch plans for library chambers at triforium level

WRE/3/4/1

1685

Sir Christopher (1632–1723) Wren, Nicholas (c.1662–1736) Hawksmoor

Pen and brown ink over pencil under-drawing and some incised lines, with pencil shading and additions in pencil and red and black chalk. Laid paper. 43.7 x 33.9 cm. Countermark: IHS surmounted by a cross, over CDG

A preparatory study, drawn in ink and revised in red chalk by Hawksmoor, with further amendments in black chalk and pencil, probably by Wren. Datable 1685. Scale (on companion sheet at All Souls), just under 6 ft to 1 inch. This is the west half of a complete plan of the north side of the western body up to the middle of the adjoining nave bay. The other half is at All Souls and has a scale bar with Hawksmoor’s triple-dot marking (Geraghty 2007, no.89; see also WRE/3/3/5); it bears a sketched half-plan by Hawksmoor of the stalls and screens of the Morning Prayer Chapel in c.1696, by which time the two halves had been separated. The plan records several levels of design before Edward Strong’s team began construction in the north-east quarter in about March 1686 (see Wren Society 14, pp.12-13). The church-floor plan is in solid outlines with pencil shading, and the crypt-level plan is in broken outlines. Similar dashed lines mark the diagonal axes of the north-west tower and the centre-lines of the north side of the western body, the north aisle and nave. Ruled pencil lines mark the footings of the tower, walls and portico columns. Overlaid on the plan are sketched outlines and shading in red chalk, black chalk and pencil for at least two alternative schemes for the layout of library chambers, stairs and passages at triforium level. Pencil-drawn concentric circles over the north-west tower probably represent the plan of a belfry or lantern. The church-floor and crypt-level plans do not conform with the built fabric and must predate the start of construction. There is a shortfall of nearly 1 ft between the centre-lines of the aisle and nave (just over 38 ft instead of 39 ft). The narthex of the portico 2 feet too narrow, a shortfall that allowed Wren to space the paired columns regularly. Thus the central intercolumniation is 9 ft wide instead of 11 ft as built, the saucer dome over the western vestibule is 2 ft too narrow (46 ft instead of 48 ft in diameter), and the columnar responds on the piers that flank the western vestibule and chapels are each 1 ft too wide (8 ft rather than 7 ft across). This variant in the plan of the west end is found in a sequence of early schemes embodying a two-storey portico; see WRE/3/3/10, 11, 13, 15; WRE/3/4/2, 3, 9-12. Dimensionally, the plan corresponds to an early, pencil-drawn elevation of the west front at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, no.83). In both drawings, the external walls of the towers are 45 ft between the outside edges of the paired pilasters; in the designs with a giant-order west portico these towers are about 1.5 ft wider; see WRE/3/3/1- 3. Within the narthex, additional columns frame the central bay of the portico, behind the outer columns of the inner pair and in front of the pilaster respond next to the west door. They would have allowed Wren to roof the lower portico with flat beams or a shallower vault and set the floor of the upper portico level with the upper cornice, an arrangement found in the plan and west elevation of the Revised design at All Souls (see Geraghty 2007, nos.80, 82). Wren soon opted for a vaulted lower portico, without the intermediate columns. This scheme involved the square stairwells sketched in pencil on the plan (see below). Sketched in red-chalk is an ambitious scheme for adjoining north library rooms at triforium level: one in the main chamber and the other in the adjoining gallery. This would have extended about 128 ft to the middle of the adjoining nave bay (see Geraghty 2007, no.89). Columnar bays marked ‘Open’ (in Hawksmoor’s handwriting) frame openings to the north tower room and the main library room. Dashed red lines between pier-projections on the plan mark the fronts of shelving recesses. The opening to the main library chamber aligns with a columnar bay on the north side of this room and with another bay in the nave clerestory. A similar opening from the western gallery is on axis with the opening to the tower bay and suggests that the library would have been approached from a staircase in the south-west tower. A reduced version of this scheme is known from two long sections on a sheet at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, no.90). Drawn freehand over the red-chalk is a variant plan in black-chalk and pencil, probably in Wren’s hand. This introduces the main lines of the built plan: square-ended recesses in the library chamber and a second spiral staircase at its west end east wall, a narrower triforium gallery with its walls above the inner columns of the pier responds at church-floor level, and three staircases in the L-shaped wall mass behind the narthex. One of these rises from the triforium gallery to the west gallery, another is a square stairwell in the narthex wall, and a third descends in an L-shape from the north clerestory gallery. In the fabric this stair stairwell connects with the square spiral stair to provide a direct route from the west door to the clerestory gallery. The black sketching also shows an opening and staircase in the central rear wall of the upper of the upper portico and indicates a door in the side wall. All these features were included in subsequent plans and sections of the western body; see especially WRE/3/4/2 and 10.

Access to the Wren office drawings held at London Metropolitan Archives is available only with advance notice and at the discretion of the Heritage Services Director, London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB.

item

WRE/3/3/5, WRE/3/3/10, WRE/3/3/11, WRE/3/3/13, WRE/3/3/15, WRE/3/3/1, WRE/3/3/2, WRE/3/3/3, WRE/3/4/8