The edifice was consequently begun in the year 1682, but was not completed till 1690. King Charles II., attended by a great number of the principal nobility and gentry, laid the first stone of this magnificent structure on the 16th of February, 1682. The whole expense of the building is computed to have amounted to £150,000.
Sir Christopher Wren, to whose genius and abilities we owe the grandest edifices of which our metropolis can boast, gave the original design, and conducted the building to its completion.
Chelsea Hospital is generally considered to be a fine specimen of Sir Christopher Wren’s professional abilities. It possesses a superior air of grandeur, more spacious arrangement of the principal parts, greater attention to the central points, for grace and effect, and a higher degree of chastity maintained in the whole structure than any public design entered into by Sir Christopher Wren, or his immediate successors.
At the grand entrance, from the King’s Road, are four detached stone piers, with breaks, with an entablature, on which are military trophies. These piers, by their disposure, give three passes; the iron gates much modernised; dwarf walls, having cornices in succession, containing small door-ways. Two lodges, right and left, carry on the line, containing four compartments, or blank windows each.
The central approach, from the King’s Road to the north general front of the Hospital, including the Royal Avenue, has a very imposing effect, with trees on either side.
It would be impossible to give in this work an architectural description of Chelsea Hospital, or of its arrangements. It is within the reach of every inhabitant of London, and now as our country friends have the benefit of frequent railway excursions, almost every person in the country, may at any time give this home of England’s worn out and gallant defenders a personal inspection. Still it is necessary that a general sketch of the building and grounds should be given. I have therefore extracted most of the following particulars from Mr. Gleig’s admirable work.
Chelsea Hospital occupies, with the buildings, courts, gardens, and offices attached, an area of something more than 54 square acres. Its principal courts, or quadrangles, are three in number; of which the central alone existed in 1690, though the good taste of a modern architect has provided that no discordance in style should be anywhere perceptible between the nucleus and the additions which have, from to time, gathered round it. Over the whole, there hangs an air of sobered and collegiate repose, as far removed from gloom on the one hand, as from garishness on the other; a character every way suitable to the purposes to which the edifice has been set apart, and in strict accordance with the habits and condition of its inmates.
The central court, which is open towards the south, and separated from what are called the water-gardens only by an iron railing, is closed in on the east and west by two ranges of buildings 365ft. in length by 40 in width; on the north and south by the hall and chapel, divided one from the other by a handsome cupola and gateway. In these long buildings, or wings, to the extent at least of 200ft. the old soldiers are chiefly housed—that is to say, such of them as are rated in the hospital books as privates, corporals, and sergeants. Sixteen wards or barracks arranged each into 26 bed places, furnish the men with adequate accommodation; while the sergeants occupy cabins, closed in, one at each extremity of the ward, in which it is their duty to preserve order. For the captains and light-horse distinct lodgings are provided. At the southern extremity of each wing, so as to project into the water-gardens, are the apartments of the Governor and the Lieutenant-Governor, both comfortable dwellings, altogether free from ostentation, yet well fitted for the uses of the distinguished officers to whom the honour of presiding over the first of England’s military establishments may be assigned.
“Go with old Thames, view Chelsea’s glorious pile,
And ask the shatter’d hero whence his smiles;
Go view the splendid domes of Greenwich—go,
And own what raptures from reflection flow.”—Rogers.
The Chapel and Hall present, when examined from without, a perfect uniformity of appearance. Each has its plain brick front, indented with tall arched windows; and each appears to lean upon the noble stone pillars that flank the central gateway; while along that face that looks in upon the square, is a piazza, or covered gallery. Beneath are benches, on which the old men may occasionally be seen smoking their pipes in the heat of a summer’s day; while from either end branches off a passage, opening out a communication with the lesser or flanking quadrangles. Moreover, the cornice of this piazza bears a neat inscription, indicative of the purpose which the hospital is meant to serve, and partly commemorative of the names of the sovereigns to whom the country stands indebted for so noble an institution.