This aerial perspective is almost entirely based on conceptual plans since at the time it was printed, only the main range of the King Charles Court (lower right) was standing, with its smaller western (right) 'base-block' and the King William Court (under the right dome) under construction from 1696. The outlying buildings and apsidally-ended parterre in the right middle distance appear on a plan now in the RIBA collection, London, but were not executed. Both the domed King William and Queen Mary Courts are here shown in Wren's early design of three parallel ranges rather than as open courtyards, as shown in a plan engraved by J. Nutting in 1699, also now in the RIBA. Wren's original lower west range of King Charles, seen here, was replaced in John Yenn's rebuild of 1812-15. Both this perspective view and the Nutting plan were made at the instigation of the Directors of Greenwich Hospital as part of the campaign to promote the project and raise contributions, three years after the foundations had been laid out in 1696. On 2 June 1699 they ordered '100 sheets of the prospect of the Hospital to be printed off and 2 dozen black frames provided; and as many of the sheets pasted on cloth and fitted in. Mr Hawkesmoor [Wren's assistant and Clerk of Works] to hasten the finishing of this plate’ (TNA ADM67/266, p. 6). A hundred copies of the much plainer Nutting ground plan were also ordered to be printed on 12 September 1699. [PvdM: amended 3/14]