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Comparable Institutions: The Royal Hospital for Seamen and the Hôtel des Invalides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

John Bold
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Extract

When Nicholas Hawksmoor recalled the circumstances of the building of the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich (Fig. 1), begun in 1696, he twice made the point that the achievement of magnificence was part of the architectural brief. In his Remarks on the Founding and Carrying on the Buildings of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, published in 1728, he noted that it was the desire of the foundress, Queen Mary, ‘who had a great Passion for Building’, ‘to build the Fabrick with great Magnificence and Order’. Later, as if defending a position, Hawksmoor noted ‘her Majesty’s fixt Intention for Magnificence’. Queen Mary had died in 1694 but her husband King William III, respecting her wishes, had ensured the continuation of the project under the architectural guidance of Christopher Wren who was assisted by Hawksmoor in this great endeavour.

Type
Section 5: Britain and the Continent
Information
Architectural History , Volume 44 , 2001 , pp. 136 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2001

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References

Notes

1 Hawksmoor, N., Remarks on the Founding and Carrying on the Buildings of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich (1728), reprinted in Wren Society, VI (Oxford, 1929), pp. 17–27 Google Scholar.

2 Boswell, J., The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), I (London, 1906), p. 284 Google Scholar.

3 Stevenson, C., ‘Robert Hooke’s Bethlem’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, IV/3 (1996), pp. 254-75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Oxford English Dictionary.

5 Soo, L. M., Wren’s ‘Tracts’ on Architecture and Other Writings (Cambridge, 1998), p. 153 Google Scholar.

6 Hatton, E., A New View of London, 11 (London, 1708), p. 737 Google Scholar.

7 R. Bargrave, ‘A Relation of Sundry Voyages and Journeys’, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson C 799, fol. 138.

8 ‘I could not leave Paris, without carrying my wife and the girls to see the most remarkable places in and about this capital, such as the Luxemburg, the Palais-Royal, the Thuilleries, the Louvre, the Invalids, the Gobelins, &c. together with Versailles, Trianon, Marli, Meudon, and Choissi. . .’, Smollett, T., Travels through France and Italy (1766) (Oxford, 1981), p. 43 Google Scholar.

9 W. Mildmay, ‘The French Journal of William Mildmay’ (1730), Essex County Record Office, D/DMY 15 M 50/1302. Mildmay also visited the Collège des Quatre-Nations, the Sorbonne and the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière. I am grateful to Dr Ann Robey for this transcription from Mildmay’s unpublished journals.

10 Scott, J., A Visit to Paris in 1814 (London, 1815), p. 80 Google Scholar.

11 Newell, P., Greenwich Hospital: A Royal Foundation 1692–1983 (Greenwich, 1984), p. 8 Google Scholar.

12 Tenon, J., Journal d’observations sur les principaux hôpitaux et sur quelques prisons d’Angleterre (1787), ed. Carré, J. (Clermont-Ferrand, 1992)Google Scholar.

13 Perau, L’Abbé, Description Historique de l’Hôtel Royal des Invalides, (Paris, 1756), p. i Google Scholar.

14 Whinney, M. and Millar, O., English Art 1625-1714 (Oxford, 1957), p. 217 Google Scholar.

15 L’Abbé Perau, op. cit., pp. 31-32.

16 M.L.T., , Réflexions sur le projet de suppression de l’hôtel des Invalides (Paris, 1791)Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 5.

18 Hibbert, C. (ed.), Louis Simona: An American in Regency England (London, 1968), pp. 51–52 Google Scholar.

19 de Boulencourt, Le Jeune, Description générale de l’Hostel Royal des Invalides (Paris, 1683)Google Scholar.

20 Anon., A Pattern of a Well-Constituted and Well-Governed Hospital: or, a Brief Description of the Building, and Full Relation of the Establishment, Constitution, Discipline, Oeconomy and Administration of the Government of the Royal Hospital of the Invalids (London, 1695)Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., p. xiv.

22 Ibid., pp. iii-iv.

23 Ibid., p. iv.

24 Ibid., p. v.

25 Ibid., p. 148.

26 Ibid., p. 164.

27 Comparison of regulations, of types of bed and upholstery, of payments, of precautions against infection, etc.

28 Out-pensions were introduced in 1763. In 1803, about 3, 000 men were receiving these pensions. By 1813 this number had risen to 9,000.

29 Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into Greenwich Hospital (London, 1860), p. xlviii.

30 ‘Report of the Committee Appointed to Look into the Management of Greenwich Hospital and Schools’ (1868), House of Lords, Reportsfrom Commissioners, XVI (London, 1867-68), pp. 393–1021 Google Scholar.

31 Betham-Edwards, M. B. (ed.), Arthur Young’s Travels in France during the years 1787, 1788, 1789 (London, 1892), pp. 93 and 103 Google Scholar.

32 Jestaz, B., L’Hôtel et l’église des Invalides (Paris, 1990), p. 61 Google Scholar.