Issue 42 summer 24 web - Flipbook - Page 74
Above, figure 4
cook and socialise. Inspired by the monastery dormitories
of Benedictine tradition, the splendid proportion of the
12x200’ corridors at the Royal Hospital provided the
veterans a space to enjoy that was grand but also scaled
to their needs, with warm panelling, magnificent
fireplaces, and frugal furniture and benches for resting.
It was careful observation and research which highlighted
the significance of Wren’s social corridors; reinstatement
to their full width and opening the ceilings of the panelled
berths was central to the success of the project (Fig 3).
The final proposal was a dramatic one. It entirely sacrificed one of the social corridors, using the gained space to
form a separate bedroom and bathroom to one side, accessed through openings in the spine wall. The original
berths would be used as studies, opened to the corridor
as semiprivate spaces (Figure 4 opposite).
Wren’s original plan had set out the pensioners’ Long
Ward accommodation as 6’-square, oak panelled cubicles,
set back-to-back along a central spine wall. On either side
of the building, between the berths and the external walls,
two wide corridors ran its length, lit by large sash windows
providing borrowed light and ventilation to the pensioners’ berths. Several options were explored for expanding
the berths with minimal adjustment, but were found to
be either against the essence of Wren’s design, or to
fall-short of satisfying the brief.
Reduction of the berths to their original dimensions
allowed in turn for restoration of the remaining corridor
to Wren’s original proportions. Those corridors facing the
central Figure Court were retained, perpetuating the
uniformity of key elevations. This allowed the principal
windows to be unencumbered by curtains, while bedrooms faced the more private outer courts. Such an
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