Guildhall, City of London: cresting with the arms of the City of London

NOTES: The original medieval court hall, or 'bury', of 1411 was badly damaged during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The surviving exterior walls were heightened and the repair and embellishement of the hall was completed in 1673 under the supervision of Wren. This sketch is one of a number of preliminary studies of English Baroque architecture made by Charles Cockerell in preparation for his watercolour composition 'A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren' (1838). It was formerly part of an album of drawings entitled 'Ichnographia Publica', compiled by Cockerell from 1825 as a private 'scrapbook' containing his measured drawings, notes and studies relating to the architecture of public buildings. The bracketed numbers which accompany many of the sketches refer to the numbered 'key' to the engraved version of 'A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren'.