Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Martin wrote:

Kit Bartlett wrote: It was such a huge area; someone once told me that it was one of the largest buildings in the country unsupported by pillars.

About 50 years ago, I think that the Dining Hall was the second largest such building. Westminster Hall, in the Houses of Parliament was then the largest. Perhaps it’s still true.

I have discovered the origin of this notion. In D'Arcy W. Thompson's 'Wayside Thoughts', on a page quoted in the Christ's Hospital Book, p.236, there occurs the sentence: 'Our dining-hall was, with the exception of Westminster-hall, the largest room in Great Britain unsupported by pillars.'

Thompson's book, though, was published in 1868, so the reference is clearly to the hall in London (presumably the 'new', Victorian, hall).

The Hall at Horsham must be at least as large as, and probably larger than, than the one in London was (it had to accommodate the Hertford boys). But there are probably larger unsupported halls by now.

Quite unconnected, at the 50Years+ day a while ago we were told that the filming company wanted to use the Dining Hall to film part of the first Harry Potter film. They would have needed to widen the doors to get their equipment in but as the Dining Hall is a Class 1 listed building (I can't remember the UK wording) the school had to turn down a decent size cheque.

It was such a huge area; someone once told me that it was one of the largest buildings in the country unsupported by pillars.

When built in the 1950s, I believe that the bus garage in Chichester took this record! It's certainly a vast structure, still standing though I think its days are numbered...

On its Wikipedia page, Marlborough College's 1960s Dining Hall is claimed to be the largest unsupported roof in the country, but this is obviously nonsense if you look at pictures of Stockwell Bus Depot (see https://www.google.de/search?q=stockwel ... =538&dpr=1), which was built in 1952.

Terminal 5 at Heathrow claims the current record, which is credible.