Preparatory half-plan of the choir enclosure and altar, within a plan of the south side of the eastern arm and south-east quarter of the crossing

WRE/4/1/5

c.1693–94

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

Pencil over divider marks on two joined sheets of thick laid paper. 52.6 x 113.0 cm. Left and right sheet watermarks: Strasbourg lily WR; right sheet countermark: DS

An early half-plan of the choir and altar surround, altered several times to incorporate variant schemes. Drawn by Wren, probably in collaboration with Hawksmoor. Datable 1693-94. Drawn scale, about 5 ft 8 inches to 1 inch (this scale is about 5% too small: choir bays which should measure 34 ft centre-to-centre are 32 ft 6 inches.) Wren's hand is apparent from the scale bar (compare WRE/2/2/7 and WRE/6/1/1) and the many reworkings in light pencil in the plan of the choir enclosure; Hawksmoor may have drawn the overall floor plan. The choir and altar enclosures evolved in several stages from 1693 to 1694. This drawing embodies two versions of the choir screen, at least two versions of the return stalls on the west side, an early version of the Bishop’s Throne at the east end, and a scheme for a reredos-canopy similar to that on the plan of the whole choir enclosure at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, no.93). Visible in the under-drawing in lighter pencil is an earlier half-plan of the west front of the choir screen with single rather than paired attached columns at the outer end. It repeats the arrangement in the sketched half-plan on the pencil half-elevation, WRE/4/1/4. This arrangement is also found on the early full-height elevation of the screen and organ at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, no.95). The revision in the over-drawing involved doubling the outer columns and repeating these on the choir-aisle screens. Wren also thickened the timber structure of the whole enclosure and narrowed the central opening by about 1 ft 6 inches. The All Souls plan (Geraghty 2007, no.93) incorporates these revisions. However, as noted in WRE/4/1/4, the All Souls plan is itself a revision, for it conceals beneath a pasted overlay an earlier scheme in red ink with semi-circular rather than straight western stalls. The west range of this plan embodies an initial study for curved return stalls and curved gallery panelling at the upper level. Wren developed this alternative in two elevational drawings for the west range, WRE/4/1/8 and 9. The apse is enclosed by a balustraded altar rail three steps above the narrow bay at the east end of choir. The front of the platform aligns with the pilasters flanking the entrance to the narrow bay and it curves out in the centre. It was built with one straight step and set back in line with the plinth of the half pilaster on the chord of the apse. The altar was built against the apse wall, without a reredos-canopy (see Trevitt’s view of the choir on 31 December 1706, Wren Society 14, pl.18). The columns of the reredos-canopy in this design stand on L-shaped pedestals, linked by a panel behind the altar, and connected to the side pilasters of the apse by curved walls. Measuring about 1 ft 9 inches in diameter, these columns would have been about 17 ft 6 inches high. The surviving timber model of a variant of this design in the cathedral’s Trophy Room has two pairs of Corinthian columns each side of the altar space, square behind and twisted, or Solomonic, in front. Placed on large rectangular pedestals and scaling at 17 ft 6 inches (17.5 inches high in the model), they carry a shallow segmental canopy above an arched opening that would have framed the window of the apse (see Wren Society 13, pl.27). Sketched as an addition at the east end of the south range is an early scheme for a Bishop’s Throne. It is level with the floor of the narrow bay, now three steps up from the floor of the choir, rather than two steps in the All Souls plan and in a related study for the stalls, WRE/4/1/13. The extra step created a common level for the throne, the narrow bay, and the floor of the lower stalls. The steps were built on a straight line rather than curved and the throne was elevated further on its own four-step platform.

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.

وعاء

WRE/5/1/2, WRE/7/2/5, WRE/2/2/7