Cross Section of a Giant Order Portico

A study-plan for a combined belfry/clock and lantern stage for the north-west tower, with coupled columns on the angles (stage 1), superimposed on a final plan of the upper chamber. Implied scale, 10 ft to 1 inch.

The ink inscription to the right of the central fold in an unidentified hand, 'Scethes of ye/West steeple'. indicated that the sheet was once used as a folder for tower studies.

The plan at triforium level is closer to the executed scheme, but still includes features which suggest a date before the start of construction at the west end in about March 1686. One in the inclusion of inner set-backs in the the cornice that runs around the tower. The cornice breaks back twice: once from the paired pilasters of the tower bays and again from the single pilasters that frame the bays themselves. In the fabric, the lower and upper entablatures do not break back above the inner pilasters. The second set-back is present in most early elevations of the west end up to c.1686. It had been abandoned by the time the wall elevations were begun above basement level in 1688. Another indication of an early date is the absence of the arched cross-wall that links the eastern wall of the tower with the upper wall of the nave. This arched wall first appears in a section of c.1686. It was built from c.1694.

Imposed on the plan above the upper cornice is a square clock/belfry stage with engaged columns at the angles and a square internal plan. The internal plan accommodates diagonal weight holes int he western angles. Pencil shading marks the wall edges and engaged columns of the clock/belfry. The columns are 2 ft 9 inches in diameter and imply a square tower about 30 ft high. Tapering blocks at the angles suggest scrolled buttresses, set diagonally. A revised inner wall line sets the splays back from the columns and a broken rule line appears to mark a revised internal plan. Another revision int eh south-west corner sets the columns against pilaster responds in a stepped configuration.

Sketched horizontally at right angles to the left of the plan is a schematic part-elevation of the columns and pilasters of the belfry. In frontal view, the columns would have aligned vertically with the wide pilasters of the upper storey of the west front to give the towers three superimposed orders. The facade would have resembled an unexecuted scheme of c.1620 for the entrance front of St Peter's in Rome, engraved by Martin Ferrobosco and first published by G.G. Costaguti in 1684, in which square belfry towers stand above the end-bays of the facade.

No other variant of this design exists. It combines a clock/belfry and lantern and probably postdates the circular colonnaded lantern in the 'Revised design' at All souls as these do not have a clock or belfry stage above the upper entablature.

Sketched length-ways by Wren in soft pencil, bottom left, is a section of the upper entablature and plinth course, including a recess for a gutter behind it. Written in pencil in reverse sense at the left edge, probably by Wren, is a group of additions of feet and inches, which may be connected with dimensions in the tower bays.