Morning Prayer Chapel, c.1693–94

WRE/4/3

3 drawings

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang2057{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Microsoft Sans Serif;}{\f1\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 System;}} {\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue128;} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\f0\fs20 The Morning Prayer Chapel, renamed St Dunstan\rquote s Chapel in 1905, is on the north side of the west end. In the early 1870s the cathedral\rquote s surveyor F.C. Penrose removed the stalls on the east side to create a small sanctuary with an altar. Before then, the layout was close to that shown in Hawksmoor\rquote s initial plan of c.1693-94 for fitting out the chapel, WRE/4/3/1. A reading desk - for leading the cathedral\rquote s clergy in morning and evening prayers from the daily litany - occupied the middle stall on the north side and two lines of stalls and benches ran round the interior. \par \par When Wren extended the plan of the new cathedral westwards in 1685-86 he provided a generous space for a Morning Prayer Chapel in one of the two apse-ended chambers on the north or south sides; see WRE/3/4/3. On 7 July 1692, when construction was half-way up the lower storey of the west end, the Building Committee ordered Wren \lquote to hasten as much as he can the Morning Prayer Chappell\rquote (Wren Society 16, p.70). At this stage the position of the chapel had not been settled. Several references in the accounts from 1688 to 1691 anticipate a chapel on the south side and an ecclesiastical or Consistory Court on the north (see Wren Society 14, pp.46, 81). In September 1694, Edward Strong\rquote s masons on the north side were paid for finishing carving the vaulting and ribs in the \lquote Consistory [Court] or Morning Prayer Chapell\rquote (\i ibid\i0 ., p.137). Wren may have waited until Bishop Henry Compton had issued a new set of regulations governing the cathedral\rquote s daily and weekly liturgy in March 1696 before deciding on the position of the chapel (Newman 2004, p.223). One practical advantage of placing the chapel on the north side was its proximity to the ringing chamber for the prayer bell in the north-west tower. \par \par The earliest designs for fitting out of the Morning Prayer Chapel are contemporary with those for the choir in 1693-94 and could have been for either of the two western chapel spaces. The colour-coding and annotations on Hawksmoor\rquote s seating plan, WRE/4/3/1, explain the layout of stalls, partitions and flooring. Complementing this is a half-elevation of the wrought-iron entrance screen and section across the stalls on the reading-desk side, WRE/4/3/2. The substitution of a timber entrance screen in WRE/4/3/3 led to small changes in the positions of the stalls on the south side of the chapel. The chapel was fitted out by the joiners Roger Davies and Hugh Webb and the carver Jonathan Maine in 1697-98 (Wren Society 15, p. 41). The completed layout is shown in William Dickinson\rquote s floor plan of c.1709-10, WRE/7/2/7.\cf0\b\f1\par }

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.