(pencil) Eastward, Westward and dimensions given

Brown pen, some red pen and pencil on wove paper with two fold marks (206 x 204)

unidentified

The dimensions show that the main body of the obelisk-shaped termination of the spire was 20:0 with an overall height of 26 feet 10¾ inches plus the ball marked 7:3 cir.[cumference]. The verso of the drawing gives some measured details of the church while the recto presumably shows the proposed design for the reinstatement of the final stage of the spire. St Bride's was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London of 1666 to Sir Christopher Wren's design (1671 to the completion of the spire in 1703). On 18 June 1754, the spire was struck by lightning, the crowning obelisk was cracked which 'caused a violent explosion in the uppermost of the four octagonal stories'. Some 85 feet of the spire was rebuilt, 1764. Lightning struck again in 1803 though the damage was relatively slight. The church was gutted in 1940 and restored, 1955-7All of the several drawings and engravings reproduced in the Survey of London and the Wren Society volumes show the weathervane to be a conventional arrow-shaped one. The figure of a winged, scaley creature with an arrow-shaped tail and forked tongue (2:10 high by 8:9 wide) shown in the drawing may be intended to represent a salamander. These creatures were believed to be impervious to fire and moreover had the power of extinguishing flames (J.Hall, Hall's Dictionary of subjects & symbols, 1979).

Wren Society, Parochial churches of Sir Christopher Wren 1666-1718, volumes IX-X, 1932-3, passim; W.Godfrey (ed), Survey of London: St Bride, Fleet Street, monograph 15, 1946, pp.32-33, 45-6 et passim

Drawing

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