• 1711
  Main Year

In this major revision, the 'Chapel Court' in [7/4] becomes oval and is enclosed on all but the north side, where it meets the central avenue. An enormous domed chapel takes replaces the Queen's House. The chapel has porticoed entrances on the west, north and south. The west portico, facing Greenwich town, is the principal entrance. It is on axis with an apsidal sanctuary at the east end. The north portico joins the arcaded loggia of the oval court to form a grand north vestibule, with its six giant columns following the curve of the colonnade. The ranges on each side of the oval court have radiating infirmary ranges, separated by courtyards.

The master plan for this scheme is a small-scale plan in the RIBA Drawings Collection from the reign of Queen Anne (SA 28/6; former E5/6; RIBA catalogue G-K, Hawksmoor, [1]/2; Hart 2002, fig. 8). This illustrates the proposed new officers' ranges on the west side, placed north and south of a large three-quarter circle walled court. Arthur Bolton, in Wren Society VI (1929), assumed that Vanbrugh was responsible for this scheme. He dated it 1702 on the basis of numerals written in a scribbled fashion on a pedestal on the right-hand side of the drawing. However, as Downes noted in 1979, this date appears to have been written in a deliberately vague manner. The last three digits are probably three 'c's rather than 'CII'. The earliest likely date for this scheme is soon after the Commission for Fifty New churches indicated its willingness to fund a church at Greenwich Hospital in April 1711 (see minutes of Fabric Committee for 5 April 1711, Wren Society, VI, p. 64, and Downes 1979, pp. 88-9).

On 8 May 1712, the Fabric Committee asked Hawksmoor 'to see what Ground shall be found necessary to be purchased on the West side of the Hospitall, and an Estimate of the charge of purchasing the same to be got ready against the next Meeting...'; on 16 May he 'presented a plan of the Hospitall, with the ground and houses adjoining on West Side, therein proposing what may be proper to be purchased for the use of the Hospitall, according to the Scheme proposed for finishing the Hospitall on that side'. (Wren Society, VI, p. 65). The drawings that Hawksmoor prepared for this meeting are probably the two site plans at Worcester College (Wren Society, VI, pl. 14).

Sub-scheme

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