Competition drawing
C.R. Cockerell and assistants, 1836
Pencil and wash on thick paper mounted on board. Previously framed. 98.6×65
MS. Add.9272/4/39

The design of the facade worked out in Add.9272/4/50 (see above) is here finished and rendered in an enormous perspective drawing. We know from accounts of his studio that for works such as this Cockerell would have a pupil render the outline before he came in to finish the details and add coloured washes. In terms of scale and level of finish it is unique in his work on the Cambridge project, and demonstrates Cockerell’s determination to win the 1836 competition. Indeed it seems to have been set apart from the other drawings, hanging in the staircase of his son, and being presented mounted and framed to the university by his grandson. Once it arrived in Cambridge, however, the frame was removed and it joined the other drawings, becoming lost in the library archives for many decades.