West–east section through the north-west tower and north library chamber

WRE/3/4/13

1685–86

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

Pen and brown ink over pencil with additions in pencil and some pencil shading. Thick smooth laid paper. 32.2 x 48.2 cm. Countermark: PVL conjoined.

Developed from WRE/3/4/11 and 12, this section through the north library chamber and half the north-west tower belongs with WRE/3/4/14 and 15 and the lower part of WRE/6/1/2. Drawn by Hawksmoor. Datable 1685-86. Implied scale, c.6.5 ft to 1 inch. In this and the next two drawings the library chambers have cantilevered galleries carried on console brackets. The galleries were probably intended to be built in stone. Only the south chamber was fitted with a gallery for use as a library. It was executed in timber by Charles Hopson and Jonathan Maine in 1708-09 (Wren Society 15, pp.175, 183-84). A rectangular saucer dome rises from pendentives and transverse barrel vaults, replacing the canopy vault in the earlier design (the latter was adopted in the fabric). The section through the north-west tower on the left has been reduced for convenience to fit the sheet (which was later trimmed). An octagonal belfry chamber is shown at upper mezzanine level, on a floor just above the lintel of the tower window. A bell is sketched in pencil outline. Gaps between the consoles in the frieze are the louvres of the belfry. The floor was left unbuilt in 1700 when a belfry platform was laid higher up, level with the architrave of the external entablature (see WRE/6/1/3, which is contemporary with this section and has a similar pencil-sketched bell at upper mezzanine level). The octagonal plan implies a circular drum rising above the entablature, as in the Revised design at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, nos 81, 82). Hawksmoor wrote in pencil on the right side of the drawing, above two baselines: ‘Top of outside Cornice / under side of inner cornice’. The pencilled lower baseline denotes the floor of the library. In this design, as in WRE/3/4/11 and 12, the floor is level with the bottom of the inner cornice: Hawksmoor’s note in pencil above the right half of the section, ‘This side 2’, probably refers to his corresponding elevation of the east half of the library on the south side, WRE/3/4/14. An identical note in his hand on WRE/3/4/9 corresponds to another mirror-image half-section, WRE/3/4/16. These annotations reinforce connections between all the drawings in the group, WRE3/4/9-16.

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