File:Greenwich Hospital - The Chapel Burning, 2 Jan 1779 RMG PZ1597.tiff

This somewhat crude but dramatic coloured print records the near-catastrophic fire that destroyed the original interior of Thomas Ripley's Chapel in the Queen Mary Court (1735-51) of Greenwich Hospital and severely damaged the dome over its vestibule. The Reverend Thomas Furbor, who seems to have been the artist, was at this time the headmaster of the Greenwich Hospital School, although whether he issued the print for commercial reasons or moral ones - as a dreadful warning - is unrecorded.

The fire broke out in a nearby ward, presumably at the east end, on the night of 2 January 1779 and, fanned by a strong easterly wind, rapidly ran through the Chapel to the dome as shown here. Around 500 Pensioners had to be rehoused and the Painted Hall used for Hospital services until repairs were complete. Stuart and Newton's new Greek-revival Chapel interior was finished in 1788.

The Hospital Governors regarded the incident so seriously that they called in the famous blind magistrate, Sir John Fielding, to investigate whether the cause was accidental or malicious. Apart from the belief that it was probably started by illicit smoking in the Hospital wards, nothing further was discovered. PAI0485 is another copy. The dates of the publisher John Harris are 1756-1846. These prints originally bore a two-line descriptive legend below the title, at the bottom, not always preserved [and TBC in this case].