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Proposal for new buildings for housing prisoners of state in the Outer Ward of the Tower of London, April 1695
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Reference number
SM volume 165, fo. 159
Purpose
Proposal for new buildings for housing prisoners of state in the Outer Ward of the Tower of London, April 1695
Aspect
6 Plan
Scale
10 ½ feet to 1 inch
Inscribed
In unidentified clerk's hand, in pen and brown ink, at bottom of plan, The Chappell; at side of plan, End of the store houses; and at top of plan, Tower Wall; and with 'court orders' on the recto and verso of the sheet.
Signed and dated
- April 1695
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink over pencil, with some pen and pencil shading; on lower half of fo. 159, beneath text; on writing paper, 227 x 356 (whole page).
Hand
Hawksmoor
Watermark
Strasbourg Lily / 4WR
Notes
The proposed new building (which appears not to have been constructed) would have stood against the inner face wall of the Outer Wall, at the north-west angle, beneath Devereux Tower, directly behind the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula (see S. Bradley and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 1: The City of London (1997), p. 358. The main block is seven windows wide, with a central three-bay projection. Reading the plan with Wren's estimate of 17 April on the verso of the sheet (fo. 159 v.; Wren Society, XVIII, p. 118), the new building would have provided three heated rooms on three floors, with a cellar below and a garret above. The plan shows the building at ground-floor level. A narrow staircase behind a cross-corridor in the rear centre of the plan provides vertical communication. The outbuilding to the right is presumably a kitchen. There appears to be no other record of this proposed new building in the Outer Ward of the Tower of London.
Literature
Wren Society, XVIII, p. 119 (where redrawn)
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk