View of the Naval Asylum, at Greenwich (Queen's House)

This is a rare view of the Queen's House with the Colonnades and 'hammer-head' balanced wings which Daniel Asher Alexander added to accommodate the Royal Naval Asylum from 1807, after the Asylum was granted use of the House and moved from Paddington in 1806. The west wing (left) is clearly seen in this original configuration, before the almost immediate addition of the long extension made to the north (and matched on the east wing, right), giving the buildings their modern form. John Bold (Greenwich: An Architectural History...[2000]) dates completion to present form as 1807-11, and a Laurie and Whittle print of 1814 (PAF7626) shows the east wing as complete.

While the artist has drawn what can be mistaken as a railing fence separating the buildings from the Park in the foreground, this is almost certainly the present brick wall, which can be seen curving and slightly rising round the west wing, on the left. This rising curve was cut back in further westward building extensions from 1862 and still further eastward to its present termination, level with the near edge of the wing, in the 1930s conversion of the complex to house the NMM. The matching curve still exists, however, at the east end of the wall (out of picture right). The slight rise at the west end here also shows the low wall is set down in the existing, though now partly filled, ha-ha ditch excavated at this time. This replaced an earlier and higher wall and central railings (see PAJ2659, which also shows the pre-1807 form of the House) and, while improving visibility to and from the Park, served to keep the then free-running deer in the Park out of the Asylum grounds. The ha-ha wall is better shown in PAF7626. The stone gate piers in the centre are almost certainly those still in place. This lower wall was built after the Naval Asylum was granted an extension of ground 50 feet into the Park by Royal Warrant in mid 1808: its predecessor (of which the 18th-century bricks were recycled in its constrction) only being 25 feet from the south side of the Queen's House. The purpose and origin of this print is not known. It is probably a test pull from the plate, however, on the wrapping paper of the quire being used, since the fragmentary markings on the left are likely to be an official Paper Duty stamp.