West–east section through the portico and west side of western body

WRE/3/4/10

1685–86

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

Pen and brown ink over pencil under-drawing, with additions in pencil. Laid paper. 45.9 x 36.3 cm. Watermark: horn in shield, over 4/BG/WR; countermark: IP.

Drawn and annotated by Hawksmoor, but probably with some pencil-work by Wren, this long section is the companion to the neater preliminary drawing, WRE/3/4/9. Datable 1685-86. Drawn scale, 6 ft to 1 inch. Pencilled alterations indicate that this section is relatively early in the evolution of the design of the western body. Added to the square stairwell in the rear wall of the narthex is the diagonal line of a flight of steps to the upper portico. This sketching is preparatory for the plan of the square stairwell drawn in dotted outlines on WRE/3/4/2. Hawksmoor wrote in pencil above the diagonal line, ‘14 made steps’ [the ‘4’ written over a ‘5’]. On WRE/3/4/2, 11 steps rise from the well to the floor of the upper west portico. The four lowest steps of these straight flights were built in the mid-1690s, but carried no further than the west walls of the stairwells. Faint pencil lines within the well indicate steps which rise to a door in the flank wall. From here an L-plan staircase rises to a narrow door in the clerestory wall which gives access to the gallery above the main internal cornice. The door is at the base of the deep arch which spans the west side of the vestibule in front of the west wall. Shaded in pencil above the cornice of the main west door is the section of a relieving arch. It supports an architrave beneath an upper panel, and is shown in a part-elevation of the upper portico wall and doors at All Souls (Geraghty 2007, no.85). Within and above this relieving arch, Hawksmoor marked the vertical wall plan in pencil lines, the inner, lower one crossed out. The outer of the lower lines is below the line of the wall panel above the architrave, which is marked ‘A’ in pencil. Written in pencil at this level in the right half of the drawing, next to the arch of the arcade, is a gloss: ‘9 [?] if A shall project. / if B and ye Other Pannells should / not answer those below.’ The meaning is unclear, since ‘B’ is not marked on the drawing, and it is not certain that ‘9’ belongs to the note. The underlying concern appears to be the vertical relationships between the panels above the door cornice. The pencil scale bar at bottom left has comma and colon markings on the 5-ft divisions. It resembles Wren's on WRE/2/2/7 and suggests that the Surveyor may have set out the drawing in pencil.

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