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[8/10] Preparatory design for a four-stage tower, possibly for Observatory Hill in Greenwich Park, at the end of an extension of the main axis of the hospital into the royal park in the second enlargement scheme
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Reference number
SM volume 109/73
Purpose
[8/10] Preparatory design for a four-stage tower, possibly for Observatory Hill in Greenwich Park, at the end of an extension of the main axis of the hospital into the royal park in the second enlargement scheme
Aspect
Part elevation, drawn in part-perspective view, with quarter-plan above
Scale
About 20 feet to 1 inch
Inscribed
In brown ink in C19 hand at top right, 73.
Signed and dated
- Undated, but datable c.1711-13
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink over graphite under-drawing; on laid paper, laid down; 297 x 197
Hand
Hawksmoor
Verso
Sketch by Hawksmoor in pen and brown ink for a draped female standing figure, presumably a design for a statue.
Watermark
Pro Patria
Notes
A quarter-plan at the top of the sheet indicates a scheme for a four-stage tower, each stage having a central square peristyle of columns. In the lower two stages are four-column corner projections linked by arches on the diagonal axis to the central peristyle. Further arches on the same diagonal axis link the outer square of columns to an inner square. This consists of a diagonal wall mass with a column attached on each side, making eight columns in all. The diagonal lines of arches from the buttresses to the central core are poorly expressed in perspective, so that the design as a whole resembles a scheme with columns in arches all round. In fact, however, the scheme is for a mostly columnar tower, set on the ground, and built around a framework of arches on the diagonal axes. It is crowned by a large pineapple finial.
If scaled at 20 feet to 1 inch, the columns would be 3 feet in diameter (as in [8/4]) and the tower would be about 160 feet high. In plan it is not far removed from the square structure with extruded square corner bastions and a central four-column structure in the RIBA block plan of the second enlargement scheme (reprd. Hart 2002, fig. 8).
Similarities between this design and the plan of the dome in [8/4, 5 and 6] led Arthur Bolton to speculate that it was intended for the chapel [8/1] and [8/3] (109/64 and 61). The draughtsman T. Raffles Davison reconstructed the tower in this context in Wren Society, VI, p. 86.
On the back of the sheet is a sketch by Hawksmoor in pen and brown ink of a draped female standing figure. It may be a design for a statue on the tower.
If scaled at 20 feet to 1 inch, the columns would be 3 feet in diameter (as in [8/4]) and the tower would be about 160 feet high. In plan it is not far removed from the square structure with extruded square corner bastions and a central four-column structure in the RIBA block plan of the second enlargement scheme (reprd. Hart 2002, fig. 8).
Similarities between this design and the plan of the dome in [8/4, 5 and 6] led Arthur Bolton to speculate that it was intended for the chapel [8/1] and [8/3] (109/64 and 61). The draughtsman T. Raffles Davison reconstructed the tower in this context in Wren Society, VI, p. 86.
On the back of the sheet is a sketch by Hawksmoor in pen and brown ink of a draped female standing figure. It may be a design for a statue on the tower.
Literature
Downes 1979, cat. no. 346 Wren Society, VI, p. 91, left
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