Early study for a top-lit library chamber on the north side, in east–west section, looking south

WRE/3/4/8

1685

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

Pen and brown ink over pencil and some incised lines, with pencil shading and additions. Thin, smooth laid paper; central vertical fold. 36.2 x 47.2 cm. Watermark: Strasbourg lily (no WR); countermark: GI.

An unfinished preliminary study for a library chamber at triforium level in east-west section. Drawn by Hawksmoor, and complementing his more detailed north-south section at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, no.88). Datable 1685. Drawn scale, just under 6 ft to 1 inch (10 ft = 43. 5 cm). This section is in two halves, either side of a pencilled centre-line: the section in the left half is taken through the centre-line of a top-lit bay (one of two either side of a central arch); that on the right is taken through the central arch that separates the two top lit bays. The view in the drawing is southwards across a space that would have extended two bays on the north-south axis, from the north side towards the upper nave wall, including the triforium aisle. The companion drawing at All Souls is a cross-section through the north side of west end at upper level: each bay is 18 ft wide, divided by a 6-ft central pier, and the western vestibule is crowned by a saucer dome with a glazed domical toplight (Geraghty 2007, no.88). Dimensionally, the All Souls drawing implies a west front 175 ft across, 2 ft short of the built plan (and presumably with equally-spaced columns in the portico). The present drawing is likely to be earlier than most of the schemes which predate the start of construction on the western body in the spring of 1686; see WRE/3/4/1. No other early scheme envisages top-lighting over the main library chamber and western vestibule, and no plan shows the space at triforium level subdivided in two equal bays between the outer wall and the upper nave wall. The clerestory bay in the centre of the south wall has a lower, narrower window opening within it, shaded in pencil, and beneath this a door enclosing steps in the wall thickness which rise to the gallery above the main internal cornice of the nave. Either side of the door are book shelves: in the All Souls drawing these continue around side walls at both levels. Access to the library gallery would have been via the doors shown in the piers in this drawing. The All Souls drawing has two round windows in the east end-wall, above the imposts of the two arched bays. No window is shown in the east (left) end-wall on this drawing. Inscribed by Hawksmoor in pencil on the lower left side of the elevation, ‘East’, and on the lower right side, ‘Towers’. Reverse: On the left side, a rough pencil sketch of a semi-circular lunette with two mullions (a 'Diocletian window'), possibly for an upper opening on the east side.

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.

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