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[2/3] 'Generall Plan' of a design for an enlarged hospital with a central domed hall and chapel range, datable 1695
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Reference number
SM volume 111/6
Purpose
[2/3] 'Generall Plan' of a design for an enlarged hospital with a central domed hall and chapel range, datable 1695
Aspect
Plan, annotated with letters
Scale
10 feet to ¼ inch
Inscribed
In pen and brown ink by Hawksmoor, vertically on centre line: Generall Plan of Greenwich Hospitall; and with letters A to M on plan; and in graphite on lane near top of right edge, Turnpi[n] (i.e. Turnpin Lane)
Medium and dimensions
Grey wash, with some pen and brown ink, over graphite under-drawing; laid paper, backed by modern tissue; 588 x 478
Hand
Hawksmoor
Verso
Inscribed in pencil in C18-19 hand, Gard
Watermark
Strasbourg Lily / 4WR; countermark, DS
Notes
This plan corresponds in overall layout to the second of Leonard Kynff's two aerial perspective views [2/1 and 2], which in turn relates to the set of large-scale, finished elevations at All Souls College (Geraghty 2007, nos. 190-92). This plan represents the next stage in the design, in which the end walls of the transepts of the hall and chapel ranges are three-windowed and do not have framing pairs of pilasters (these pilasters are visible in the under-drawing of this plan, but were elided in the application of wash). The wall elevations of the hall and chapel ranges were further revised in [2/4].
The plan has been trimmed at the top, as the watermark is at the edge of the sheet, and the lines of the two flanking roads are cut off. It was also trimmed at the bottom, although not by much, as the ends of the two of the walls are just on the edge of the sheet. The design at this northern end does not appear to acknowledge the river front, and the necessity for a new embankment wall. Three entrances are envisaged on the west and east sides: at the centre of the base wing of King Charles II Building (marked C and A), at the centre of the middle range (marked F on the court side), and at the centre of the southern base range (marked I). This upper entrance nearly aligns with Turnpin lane on the south boundary of the granted site. The block marked L has a niche drawn in graphite around its west end, presumably for a hall dais. The plan of the King Charles Building is marked in graphite with additional chimney breasts along its spine wall, and with partition walls on the west side of the spine wall of its base wing. The four base wings at the north and south ends are conceived as long, open wards, heated by corner chimney pieces. They would have offered accommodation of a lower status than that in the principal wards of the main building. The end pavilions are narrower than those shown on the two perspective views and in the revised elevation at [2/4].
The plan has been trimmed at the top, as the watermark is at the edge of the sheet, and the lines of the two flanking roads are cut off. It was also trimmed at the bottom, although not by much, as the ends of the two of the walls are just on the edge of the sheet. The design at this northern end does not appear to acknowledge the river front, and the necessity for a new embankment wall. Three entrances are envisaged on the west and east sides: at the centre of the base wing of King Charles II Building (marked C and A), at the centre of the middle range (marked F on the court side), and at the centre of the southern base range (marked I). This upper entrance nearly aligns with Turnpin lane on the south boundary of the granted site. The block marked L has a niche drawn in graphite around its west end, presumably for a hall dais. The plan of the King Charles Building is marked in graphite with additional chimney breasts along its spine wall, and with partition walls on the west side of the spine wall of its base wing. The four base wings at the north and south ends are conceived as long, open wards, heated by corner chimney pieces. They would have offered accommodation of a lower status than that in the principal wards of the main building. The end pavilions are narrower than those shown on the two perspective views and in the revised elevation at [2/4].
Literature
Bold, Greenwich, pp. 103-4, fig. 138; Wren Society, VI, p. 83; Geraghty 2007, p. 128.
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
Building a Dialogue: The Architect and the Client, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 17 February - 9 May 2015
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