St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's
Aerial view of St Paul's Cathedral
Basic information
Location	London, EC4
Religious affiliation	Church of England
Year consecrated	1697
Ecclesiastical status	Active
Website	stpauls.co.uk
Architectural description
Architect/s	Sir Christopher Wren
Architectural style	English Baroque
Year completed	1710
Specifications
Length	158 meters (520 ft)
Width	75 meters (250 ft)
Width (nave)	37 meters (120 ft)
Dome height (outer)	85 meters (280 ft)
Dome height (inner)	69 meters (230 ft)
Dome dia. (outer)	34 meters (110 ft)
Dome dia. (inner)	31 meters (100 ft)

St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London and serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is located on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London. Its dedication in honor of Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in 604 C.E. The present structure, which was completed in 1710, is a Grade I listed building that was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. The cathedral's reconstruction was part of a major rebuilding program initiated in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. The earlier Gothic cathedral (Old St Paul's Cathedral), largely destroyed in the Great Fire, was a central focus for medieval and early modern London, including Paul's walk and St Paul's Churchyard, being the site of St Paul's Cross.

The cathedral is one of the most famous and recognizable sights of London. Its dome, surrounded by the spires of Wren's City churches, has dominated the skyline for over 300 years. At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1963. St Paul's is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom, after Liverpool Cathedral.

Services held at St Paul's have included the funerals of Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

The cathedral is a working church with hourly prayer and daily services. No charges are made to worshipers attending services, or for private prayer. There is a tourist entry fee, which covers the costs associated with the functioning and upkeep of the building. With a long and fascinating history and awe-inspiring interior, the cathedral is a popular tourist attraction that inspires the religious and non-religious visitors alike.

History

The original church on this site, founded in 604 C.E., was dedicated in honor of Paul the Apostle The present structure, which was completed in 1710, is a Grade I listed building that was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. The earlier Gothic cathedral (Old St Paul's Cathedral), largely destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, was a central focus for medieval and early modern London, including Paul's walk and St Paul's Churchyard, being the site of St Paul's Cross.

Before the cathedral

The location of Londinium's original cathedral is unknown, but legend and medieval tradition claims it was St Peter upon Cornhill. St Paul is an unusual attribution for a cathedral, and suggests there was another one in the Roman period. Legends of St Lucius link St Peter upon Cornhill as the center of the Roman Londinium Christian community. It stands upon the highest point in the area of old Londinium, and it was given pre-eminence in medieval procession on account of the legends. There is, however, no other reliable evidence and the location of the site on the Forum makes it difficult for it to fit the legendary stories. In 1995, a large fifth-century building on Tower Hill was excavated, and has been claimed as a Roman basilica, possibly a cathedral.

Pre-Norman cathedral

There is evidence for Christianity in London during the Roman period, but no firm evidence for the location of churches or a cathedral. Bishop Restitutus is said to have represented London at the Council of Arles in 314 C.E. A list of the 16 "archbishops" of London was recorded by Jocelyn of Furness in the twelfth century, claiming London's Christian community was founded in the second century under the legendary King Lucius and his missionary saints Fagan, Deruvian, Elvanus, and Medwin. None of that is considered credible by modern historians but, although the surviving text is problematic, either Bishop Restitutus or Adelphius at the Council of Arles seems to have come from Londinium.

Bede records that in 604 C.E. Augustine of Canterbury consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberht's uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a church dedicated to St Paul in London, as the seat of the new bishop. It is assumed, although not proved, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the same site as the later medieval and the present cathedrals.

On the death of Sæberht in about 616, his pagan sons expelled Mellitus from London, and the East Saxons reverted to paganism. The fate of the first cathedral building is unknown. Christianity was restored among the East Saxons in the late seventh century and it is presumed that either the Anglo-Saxon cathedral was restored or a new building erected as the seat of bishops such as Cedd, Wine, and Erkenwald, the last of whom was buried in the cathedral in 693.

King Æthelred the Unready was buried in the cathedral on his death in 1016; the tomb is now lost. The cathedral was burnt, with much of the city, in a fire in 1087, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Old St Paul's

Reconstructed image of Old St Paul's before 1561, with intact spire

Shrine of St Erkenwald, relics removed 1550, lost as a monument in the Great Fire of London

The fourth St Paul's, generally referred to as Old St Paul's, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. A further fire in 1135 disrupted the work, and the new cathedral was not consecrated until 1240. During the period of construction, the style of architecture had changed from Romanesque to Gothic and this was reflected in the pointed arches and larger windows of the upper parts and East End of the building. The Gothic ribbed vault was constructed, like that of York Minster, of wood rather than stone.

An enlargement program commenced in 1256. This "New Work" was consecrated in 1300 but not completed until 1314. By the sixteenth century the building was deteriorating.

The English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI (accelerated by the Chantries Acts) led to the destruction of elements of the interior ornamentation and the chapels, shrines, and chantries. This also involved removal of the cathedral's collection of relics, which included:

• the body of St Erkenwald
• both arms of St Mellitus
• a knife thought to belong to Jesus
• hair of Mary Magdalene
• blood of St Paul
• milk of the Virgin Mary
• the head of St John
• the skull of Thomas Becket
• the head and jaw of King Ethelbert
• part of the wood of the cross,
• a stone of the Holy Sepulchre,
• a stone from the spot of the Ascension, and
• some bones of the eleven thousand virgins of Cologne.

Old St Paul's in 1656 by Wenceslaus Hollar, showing the rebuilt west facade

In October 1538, an image of St Erkenwald, probably from the shrine, was delivered to the master of the king's jewels. Other images may have survived, at least for a time. More systematic iconoclasm happened in the reign of Edward VI.

In late 1549, at the height of the iconoclasm of the reformation, Sir Rowland Hill altered the route of his Lord Mayor's day procession and said a de profundis at the tomb of Erkenwald. Later in Hill's mayoralty in 1550, the high altar of St Paul's was removed overnight to be destroyed, an occurrence that provoked a fight in which a man was killed.

Three years later, by October 1553, "Alle the alteres and chappelles in alle Powlles churche" were taken down.

Some of the buildings in the St Paul's churchyard were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by a lightning strike, an event that Roman Catholic writers claimed was a sign of God's judgment on England's Protestant rulers. Bishop James Pilkington preached a sermon in response, claiming that the lightning strike was a judgement for the irreverent use of the cathedral building. Immediate steps were taken to repair the damage, with the citizens of London and the clergy offering money to support the repairs.

In the 1630s a west front was added to the building by England's first classical architect, Inigo Jones. There was much defacing and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, and the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed.

In the Great Fire of London of 1666, Old St Paul's was gutted. While it might have been possible to reconstruct it, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style. This course of action had been proposed even before the fire.

Present St Paul's

St Paul's Cathedral c. 1754, by Canaletto

St Paul's Cathedral in 1896

The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren on July 30, 1669. He had previously been put in charge of the rebuilding of churches to replace those lost in the Great Fire. More than 50 city churches are attributable to Wren. Concurrent with designing St Paul's, Wren was engaged in the production of his five Tracts on Architecture.

Gilt statue of Saint Paul at the top of the monument to St Paul's Cross in the cathedral precinct

Wren had begun advising on the repair of the Old St Paul's in 1661, five years before the fire in 1666. The proposed work included renovations to interior and exterior to complement the classical facade designed by Inigo Jones in 1630. Wren planned to replace the dilapidated tower with a dome, using the existing structure as a scaffold. He produced a drawing of the proposed dome which shows his idea that it should span nave and aisles at the crossing. After the Fire, it was at first thought possible to retain a substantial part of the old cathedral, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s.

In July 1668 Dean William Sancroft wrote to Wren that he was charged by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in agreement with the Bishops of London and Oxford, to design a new cathedral that was "Handsome and noble to all the ends of it and to the reputation of the City and the nation." The design process took several years, but a design was finally settled and attached to a royal warrant, with the proviso that Wren was permitted to make any further changes that he deemed necessary. The result was the present St Paul's Cathedral, still the second largest church in Britain, with a dome proclaimed as the finest in the world. The building was financed by a tax on coal, and was completed within its architect's lifetime with many of the major contractors engaged for the duration.

The "topping out" of the cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place on October 26, 1708. The cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on December 25, 1711 (Christmas Day). In fact, construction continued for several years after that, with the statues on the roof added in the 1720s.

On December 2, 1697, 31 years and 3 months after the Great Fire destroyed Old St Paul's, the new cathedral was consecrated for use.

Opinions of Wren's cathedral differed, with some loving it, while others hated it: "There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals, the heavy arches ... They were unfamiliar, un-English."

St. Paul's was the target of two suffragette bombing attacks in 1913 and 1914 respectively. This was as part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign between 1912 and 1914, in which suffragettes from the Women's Social and Political Union, as part of their campaign for women's suffrage, carried out a series of politically motivated bombings and arson nationwide. Churches were explicitly targeted by the suffragettes as they believed the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage.

War damage

The cathedral survived the Blitz although struck by bombs on October 10, 1940 and April 17, 1941. The first strike destroyed the high altar, while the second strike on the north transept left a hole in the floor above the crypt. The latter bomb is believed to have detonated in the upper interior above the north transept and the force was sufficient to shift the entire dome laterally by a small amount.

On 12 September 1940 a time-delayed bomb that had struck the cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a bomb disposal detachment of Royal Engineers under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Robert Davies. Had this bomb detonated, it would have totally destroyed the cathedral; it left a 100-foot (30 m) crater when later remotely detonated in a secure location. As a result of this action, Davies and Sapper George Cameron Wylie were each awarded the George Cross. Davies' George Cross and other medals are on display at the Imperial War Museum, London.

One of the best known images of London during the war was a photograph of St Paul's taken on 29 December 1940 during the "Second Great Fire of London" by photographer Herbert Mason. from the roof of a building in Tudor Street showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke:

Wreathed in billowing smoke, amidst the chaos and destruction of war, the pale dome stands proud and glorious—indomitable. At the height of that air-raid, Sir Winston Churchill telephoned the Guildhall to insist that all fire-fighting resources be directed at St Paul's. The cathedral must be saved, he said, damage to the fabric would sap the morale of the country.

Wren's cathedral

Development of the design

Sir Christopher Wren Said, "I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls, Say I'm designing Saint Paul's." —A clerihew by Edmund Clerihew Bentley

In designing St Paul's, Christopher Wren had to meet many challenges. He had to create a fitting cathedral to replace Old St Paul's, as a place of worship and as a landmark within the City of London. He had to satisfy the requirements of the church and the tastes of a royal patron, as well as respecting the essentially medieval tradition of English church building which developed to accommodate the liturgy. Wren was familiar with contemporary Renaissance and Baroque trends in Italian architecture and had visited France, where he studied the work of François Mansart.

His design developed through five general stages. The first survives only as a single drawing and part of a model. The scheme (usually called the First Model Design) appears to have consisted of a circular domed vestibule (possibly based on the Pantheon in Rome) and a rectangular church of basilica form. The plan may have been influenced by the Temple Church. It was rejected because it was not thought "stately enough." Wren's second design was a Greek cross, which was thought by the clerics not to fulfill the requirements of Anglican liturgy.

Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great Model" of 1673. This design retained the form of the Greek-Cross design but extended it with a nave. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church, and clergy decried the design as too dissimilar to other English churches to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. The Great Model was Wren's favorite design; he thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty. After the Great Model, Wren resolved not to make further models and not to expose his drawings publicly, which he found did nothing but "lose time, and subject [his] business many times, to incompetent judges." The Great Model survives and is housed within the cathedral itself.

Wren's fourth design is known as the Warrant design because it received a Royal warrant for the rebuilding. In this design Wren sought to reconcile Gothic, the predominant style of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." It has the longitudinal Latin Cross plan of a medieval cathedral. It is of 1+¹⁄₂ storeys and has classical porticos at the west and transept ends, influenced by Inigo Jones's addition to Old St Paul's. It is roofed at the crossing by a wide shallow dome supporting a drum with a second cupola, from which rises a spire of seven diminishing stages. Vaughan Hart has suggested that influence in the design of the spire may have been drawn from the oriental pagoda. Not used at St Paul's, the concept was applied in the spire of St Bride's, Fleet Street. This plan was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned, not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration was informed by Wren's knowledge of astronomy.

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  The Greek Cross design

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  The Warrant design

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  St Paul's, as it was built

Final design

The final design as built differs substantially from the official Warrant design. Wren received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome. Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren describe this change:

He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure ... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern.

The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes over the nave were inspired by François Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665.

The date of the laying of the first stone of the cathedral is disputed. One contemporary account says it was June 21, 1675, another June 25, and a third on June 28. There is, however, general agreement that it was laid in June 1675. Edward Strong later claimed it was laid by his elder brother, Thomas Strong, one of the two master stonemasons appointed by Wren at the beginning of the work.

Structural engineering

Cross-section showing the brick cone between the inner and outer domes

William Dickinson's plan for the floor paving (1709–1710)

Wren's challenge was to construct a large cathedral on the relatively weak clay soil of London. St Paul's is unusual among cathedrals in that there is a crypt, the largest in Europe, under the entire building rather than just under the eastern end. The crypt serves a structural purpose. Although it is extensive, half the space of the crypt is taken up by massive piers which spread the weight of the much slimmer piers of the church above. While the towers and domes of most cathedrals are supported on four piers, Wren designed the dome of St Paul's to be supported on eight, achieving a broader distribution of weight at the level of the foundations. The foundations settled as the building progressed, and Wren made structural changes in response.

One of the design problems that confronted Wren was to create a landmark dome, tall enough to visually replace the lost tower of St Paul's, while at the same time appearing visually satisfying when viewed from inside the building. Wren planned a double-shelled dome, as at St Peter's Basilica. His solution to the visual problem was to separate the heights of the inner and outer dome to a much greater extent than had been done by Michelangelo at St Peter's, drafting both as catenary curves, rather than as hemispheres. Between the inner and outer domes, Wren inserted a brick cone which supports both the timbers of the outer, lead-covered dome and the weight of the ornate stone lantern that rises above it. Both the cone and the inner dome are 18 inches thick and are supported by wrought iron chains at intervals in the brick cone and around the cornice of the peristyle of the inner dome to prevent spreading and cracking.

The Warrant Design showed external buttresses on the ground floor level. These were not a classical feature and were one of the first elements Wren changed. Instead he made the walls of the cathedral particularly thick to avoid the need for external buttresses altogether. The clerestory and vault are reinforced with flying buttresses, which were added at a relatively late stage in the design to give extra strength. These are concealed behind the screen wall of the upper story, which was added to keep the building's classical style intact, to add sufficient visual mass to balance the appearance of the dome and which, by its weight, counters the thrust of the buttresses on the lower walls.

Designers, builders and craftsmen

During the extensive period of design and rationalization, Wren employed Nicholas Hawksmoor as his principal assistant. Between 1696 and 1711 William Dickinson was measuring clerk. Joshua Marshall (until his early death in 1678) and Thomas and his brother Edward Strong were master masons, the latter two working on the construction for its entirety. John Langland was the master carpenter for over thirty years. Grinling Gibbons was the chief sculptor, working in both stone on the building itself, including the pediment of the north portal, and wood on the internal fittings. The sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber created the pediment of the south transept while Francis Bird was responsible for the relief in the west pediment depicting the Conversion of St Paul, as well as the seven large statues on the west front.

The floor was paved by William Dickinson in black and white marble in 1709–1710 Jean Tijou was responsible for the decorative wrought ironwork of gates and balustrades. The ball and cross on the dome were provided by an armorer, Andrew Niblett. Following the war damage mentioned above, many craftsmen were employed to restore the wood carvings and stone work that had been destroyed by the bomb impact. One of particular note is Master Carver, Gino Masero who was commissioned to carve the replacement figure of Christ, an eight-foot sculpture in lime which currently stands on the High Altar.

Description

Floorplan

St Paul's Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style which represents Wren's rationalization of the traditions of English medieval cathedrals with the inspiration of Palladio, the classical style of Inigo Jones, the baroque style of seventeenth century Rome, and the buildings by Mansart and others that he had seen in France. It is particularly in its plan that St Paul's reveals medieval influences. Like the great medieval cathedrals of York and Winchester, St Paul's is comparatively long for its width, and has strongly projecting transepts. It has much emphasis on its facade, which has been designed to define rather than conceal the form of the building behind it. In plan, the towers jut beyond the width of the aisles as they do at Wells Cathedral. Wren's uncle Matthew Wren was the Bishop of Ely, and, having worked for his uncle, Wren was familiar with the unique octagonal lantern tower over the crossing of Ely Cathedral, which spans the aisles as well as the central nave, unlike the central towers and domes of most churches. Wren adapted this characteristic in designing the dome of St Paul's.

Exterior

The most renowned exterior feature is the dome, which rises 365 feet (111 m) to the cross at its summit, and dominates views of the city. The height of 365 feet is explained by Wren's interest in astronomy. Until the late twentieth century St Paul's was the tallest building on the City skyline, designed to be seen surrounded by the delicate spires of Wren's other city churches. The dome is described by Sir Banister Fletcher as "probably the finest in Europe," by Helen Gardner as "majestic," and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most perfect in the world." Sir John Summerson said that Englishmen and "even some foreigners" consider it to be without equal.

Dome

The dome

Wren drew inspiration from Michelangelo's dome of St Peter's Basilica, and that of Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which he had visited. Unlike those of St Peter's and Val-de-Grâce, the dome of St Paul's rises in two clearly defined storeys of masonry, which, together with a lower unadorned footing, equal a height of about 95 feet. From the time of the Greek Cross Design it is clear that Wren favored a continuous colonnade (peristyle) around the drum of the dome, rather than the arrangement of alternating windows and projecting columns that Michelangelo had used and which had also been employed by Mansart. Summerson suggests that he was influenced by Bramante's "Tempietto" in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. In the finished structure, Wren creates a diversity and appearance of strength by placing niches between the columns in every fourth opening. The peristyle serves to buttress both the inner dome and the brick cone which rises internally to support the lantern.

Above the peristyle rises the second stage surrounded by a balustraded balcony called the "Stone Gallery." This attic stage is ornamented with alternating pilasters and rectangular windows which are set just below the cornice, creating a sense of lightness. Above this attic rises the dome, covered with lead, and ribbed in accordance with the spacing of the pilasters. It is pierced by eight light wells just below the lantern, but these are barely visible. They allow light to penetrate through openings in the brick cone, which illuminates the interior apex of this shell, partly visible from within the cathedral through the ocular opening of the lower dome.

The lantern, like the visible masonry of the dome, rises in stages. The most unusual characteristic of this structure is that it is of square plan, rather than circular or octagonal. The tallest stage takes the form of a tempietto with four columned porticos facing the cardinal points. Its lowest level is surrounded by the "Golden Gallery" and its upper level supports a small dome from which rises a cross on a golden ball. The total weight of the lantern is about 850 tons.

West front

For the Renaissance architect designing the west front of a large church or cathedral, the universal problem was how to use a facade to unite the high central nave with the lower aisles in a visually harmonious whole. Since Alberti's additions to Santa Maria Novella in Florence, this was usually achieved by the simple expedient of linking the sides to the center with large brackets. This is the solution that Wren saw employed by Mansart at Val-de-Grâce. Another feature employed by Mansart was a boldly projecting Classical portico with paired columns. Wren faced the additional challenge of incorporating towers into the design, as had been planned at St Peter's Basilica. At St Peter's, Carlo Maderno had solved this problem by constructing a narthex and stretching a huge screen facade across it, differentiated at the center by a pediment. The towers at St Peter's were not built above the parapet.

Wren's solution was to employ a Classical portico, as at Val-de-Grâce, but rising through two storeys, and supported on paired columns. The remarkable feature here is that the lower story of this portico extends to the full width of the aisles, while the upper section defines the nave that lies behind it. The gaps between the upper stage of the portico and the towers on either side are bridged by a narrow section of wall with an arch-topped window.

The towers stand outside the width of the aisles, but screen two chapels located immediately behind them. The lower parts of the towers continue the theme of the outer walls, but are differentiated from them in order to create an appearance of strength. The windows of the lower story are smaller than those of the side walls and are deeply recessed, a visual indication of the thickness of the wall. The paired pilasters at each corner project boldly.

Above the main cornice, which unites the towers with the portico and the outer walls, the details are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance. The towers rise above the cornice from a square block plinth which is plain apart from large oculi, that on the south being filled by the clock, while that on the north is void. The towers are composed of two complementary elements, a central cylinder rising through the tiers in a series of stacked drums, and paired Corinthian columns at the corners, with buttresses above them, which serve to unify the drum shape with the square plinth on which it stands. The entablature above the columns breaks forward over them to express both elements, tying them together in a single horizontal band. The cap, an ogee-shaped dome, supports a gilded finial in the form of a pineapple.

The transepts each have a semi-circular entrance portico. Wren was inspired in the design by studying engravings of Pietro da Cortona's Baroque facade of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome.

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  The west front of St Paul's Cathedral at night

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  West front from the street, between encroaching buildings

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  St Paul's from the south-east, with the tower of the destroyed Church of St Augustine, Watling Street to the right

Walls

The building is of two storeys of ashlar masonry, above a basement, and surrounded by a balustrade above the upper cornice. The balustrade was added, against Wren's wishes, in 1718. The internal bays are marked externally by paired pilasters with Corinthian capitals at the lower level and Composite at the upper level. Where the building behind is of only one story (at the aisles of both nave and choir) the upper story of the exterior wall is sham. It serves a dual purpose of supporting the buttresses of the vault, and providing a satisfying appearance when viewed rising above buildings of the height of the seventeenth-century city. This appearance may still be seen from across the River Thames.

Between the pilasters on both levels are windows. Those of the lower storey have semi-circular heads and are surrounded by continuous moldings of a Roman style, rising to decorative keystones. Beneath each window is a floral swag by Grinling Gibbons, constituting the finest stone carving on the building and some of the greatest architectural sculpture in England. A frieze with similar swags runs in a band below the cornice, tying the arches of the windows and the capitals. The upper windows are of a restrained Classical form, with pediments set on columns, but are blind and contain niches. Beneath these niches, and in the basement level, are small windows with segmental tops, the glazing of which catches the light and visually links them to the large windows of the aisles.

Interior

The nave, looking towards the choir

The choir, looking towards the nave

Internally, St Paul's has a nave and choir in each of its three bays. The entrance from the west portico is through a square domed narthex, flanked by chapels: the Chapel of St Dunstan to the north and the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George to the south. The nave is 91 feet (28 m) in height and is separated from the aisles by an arcade of piers with attached Corinthian pilasters rising to an entablature. The bays, and therefore the vault compartments, are rectangular, but Wren roofed these spaces with saucer-shaped domes and surrounded the clerestory windows with lunettes. The vaults of the choir are decorated with mosaics by Sir William Blake Richmond. The dome and the apse of the choir are all approached through wide arches with coffered vaults which contrast with the smooth surface of the domes and punctuate the division between the main spaces. The transepts extend to the north and south of the dome and are called (in this instance) the North Choir and the South Choir.

The choir holds the stalls for the clergy, cathedral officers, and the choir, and the organ. These wooden fittings, including the pulpit and Bishop's throne, were designed in Wren's office and built by joiners. The carvings are the work of Grinling Gibbons whom Summerson describes as having "astonishing facility," suggesting that Gibbons' aim was to reproduce popular Dutch flower painting in wood. Jean Tijou, a French metalworker, provided various wrought iron and gilt grilles, gates and balustrades of elaborate design, of which many pieces have now been combined into the gates near the sanctuary.

Dome

The interior of the dome showing how Thornhill's painting continues an illusion of the real architectural features

This view of an arch spanning the aisle shows how Wren succeeded in giving an impression of eight equal arches.

The main internal space of the cathedral is that under the central dome which extends the full width of the nave and aisles. The dome is supported on pendentives rising between eight arches spanning the nave, choir, transepts, and aisles. The eight piers that carry them are not evenly spaced. Wren has maintained an appearance of eight equal spans by inserting segmental arches to carry galleries across the ends of the aisles, and has extended the moldings of the upper arch to appear equal to the wider arches.

Above the keystones of the arches, at 99 feet (30 m) above the floor and 112 feet (34 m) wide, runs a cornice which supports the Whispering Gallery so called because of its acoustic properties: a whisper or low murmur against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level.

The dome is raised on a tall drum surrounded by pilasters and pierced with windows in groups of three, separated by eight gilded niches containing statues, and repeating the pattern of the peristyle on the exterior. The dome rises above a gilded cornice at 173 feet (53 m) to a height of 214 feet (65 m). Its painted decoration by Sir James Thornhill shows eight scenes from the life of St Paul set in illusionistic architecture which continues the forms of the eight niches of the drum. At the apex of the dome is an oculus inspired by that of the Pantheon in Rome. Through this hole can be seen the decorated inner surface of the cone which supports the lantern. This upper space is lit by the light wells in the outer dome and openings in the brick cone.

Apse

The choir, looking east

The apse and high altar

The eastern apse extends the width of the choir and is the full height of the main arches across choir and nave. It is decorated with mosaics, in keeping with the choir vaults. The original reredos and high altar were destroyed by bombing in 1940. The present high altar and baldacchino are the work of W. Godfrey Allen and Stephen Dykes Bower.

The apse was dedicated in 1958 as the American Memorial Chapel. The three windows of the apse date from 1960 and depict themes of service and sacrifice, while the insignia around the edges represent the American states. The Roll of Honour, positioned in front of the chapel's altar, contains the names of more than 28,000 Americans who gave their lives while on their way to, or stationed in, the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

Artworks, tombs, and memorials

St Paul's, at the time of its completion, was adorned by sculpture in stone and wood: most notably that of Grinling Gibbons, by the paintings in the dome by Thornhill, and by Jean Tijou's elaborate metalwork. It has been further enhanced by Sir William Richmond's mosaics and the fittings by Dykes Bower and Godfrey Allen. Other artworks in the cathedral include, in the south aisle, William Holman Hunt's copy of his painting The Light of the World, the original of which hangs in Keble College, Oxford. The St. Paul's version was completed with a significant input from Edward Robert Hughes as Hunt was now suffering from glaucoma. In the north choir aisle is a limestone sculpture of the Madonna and Child by Henry Moore, carved in 1943. The crypt contains over 200 memorials and numerous burials. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723. On the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written in Latin: Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you").

Sarcophagus of Nelson in the crypt

The largest monument in the cathedral is that to the Duke of Wellington by Alfred Stevens. It stands on the north side of the nave and has on top a statue of Wellington astride his horse "Copenhagen." The Duke is buried in the crypt.

The tomb of Horatio, Lord Nelson is located in the crypt, next to that of Wellington. The marble sarcophagus which holds Nelson's remains was made for Cardinal Wolsey but not used as the cardinal had fallen from favor. At the eastern end of the crypt is the Chapel of the Order of the British Empire, instigated in 1917, and designed by John Seely, Lord Mottistone. There are many other memorials commemorating the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action.

Also remembered are Florence Nightingale, J. M. W. Turner, Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Samuel Johnson, Lawrence of Arabia, William Blake, William Jones and Sir Alexander Fleming as well as clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years. One of the most remarkable sculptures is that of the Dean and poet, John Donne. Before his death, Donne posed for his own memorial statue and was depicted by Nicholas Stone as wrapped in a burial shroud, and standing on a funeral urn. The sculpture, carved around 1630, is the only one to have survived the conflagration of 1666 intact.

The funerals of many notable figures have been held in the cathedral, including those of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, George Mallory, and Margaret Thatcher.

Clock

The south-west tower

A clock was installed in the south-west tower by Langley Bradley in 1709 but was worn out by the end of the nineteenth century. The present mechanism was built in 1893 by Smith of Derby incorporating a design of escapement by Edmund Denison Beckett similar to that used by Edward Dent on Big Ben's mechanism in 1895. The clock mechanism is 19 feet (5.8 m) long and is the most recent of the clocks introduced to St Paul's Cathedral over the centuries. Since 1969 the clock has been electrically wound with equipment designed and installed by Smith of Derby, relieving the clock custodian from the work of cranking up the heavy drive weights.

Bells

The north-west tower contains 13 bells. A ring of 12 bells by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough hung for change ringing, and the single communion bell. In January 2018 the bells were removed for refurbishment and were rehung in September that year, being rung again for the first time on All Saints' Day. The original service or "Communion" bell dating from 1700 and known as "the Banger" is rung before 8 a.m. services.

Great Paul

The south-west tower also contains four bells, of which Great Paul, cast in 1881 by J. W. Taylor of Taylor's bell foundry of Loughborough, at 16+1/2 long tons (520 kg) was the largest bell in the British Isles until the casting of the Olympic Bell for the 2012 London Olympics. The bell is traditionally sounded at 1 pm each day.

Great Tom

The clock bells include Great Tom, which was moved from St Stephen's Chapel at the Palace of Westminster and has been recast several times, the last time by Richard Phelps. It chimes the hour and is traditionally tolled on occasions of a death in the royal family, the Bishop of London, or the Lord Mayor of London. It was last tolled for the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, ringing once every minute along with other bells across the country in honor of the 96 years of her life.

Quarter-jacks

In 1717, Richard Phelps cast two more bells that were added as "quarter jacks" that ring on the quarter hour. Still in use today, the first weighs 1,500 lb (660 kg), is 41 inches (100 cm) in diameter and is tuned to A♭; the second weighs 3,900 lb (1,800 kg), is 58 inches (150 cm) in diameter and is tuned to E♭. They are sometimes known as Ding and Dong due to the way they sound.

Organs

The south choir organ

The Cathedral has four organs in total, including the spectacular Grand Organ. The second organ, affectionately known as the "Willis on Wheels' for its portability, was constructed in 1881, and the Continuo "Chamber" Organ was installed by the Kenneth Tickell in 1997. The OBE chapel organ was installed by the William Drake in 2012.

The original Grand Organ was commissioned from Bernard Smith in 1694. It was enclosed in an impressive case designed in Wren's workshop and decorated by Grinling Gibbons. In the 1870s, Henry Willis transformed the organ, dividing the original Wren case in half and placing it against the pillars on either side of the choir.

Ministry and functions

St Paul's during a special service in 2008

St Paul's Cathedral is a busy church with four or five services every day, including Matins, Eucharist, and Evening Prayer or Choral Evensong. The cathedral is generally open daily to tourists and has a regular program of organ recitals and other performances.

St Paul's charges an entrance fee for sightseers; admission to worship services is free. Outside service times, people seeking a quiet place to pray or worship are admitted to St Dunstan's Chapel free of charge. On Sundays people are admitted only for services and concerts and there is no sightseeing.

St Paul's Cathedral has a full professional choir, which sings regularly at services. The earliest records of the choir date from 1127. The choir historically consisted of up to 30 boy choristers, eight probationers and vicars choral of 12 professional male singers.

During 2022, St Paul’s announced that it would admit girls to its choir, breaking a tradition stretching back 900 years. On June 30, 2024, when two girls formally joined the Cathedral Choir as full choristers, having undertaken specialist training in preparation, the Sunday Choral Evensong service officially marked this historic event.

Many distinguished musicians have been organists, choir masters, and choristers at St Paul's Cathedral, including the composers John Redford, Thomas Morley, John Blow, Jeremiah Clarke, Maurice Greene, and John Stainer, while well-known performers have included Alfred Deller, John Shirley-Quirk, and Anthony Way, as well as the conductors Charles Groves and Paul Hillier, and the poet Walter de la Mare.

National events

The state funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852

The cathedral, as the largest church in London, has a role in many state functions. The size and location of St Paul's has made it an ideal setting for Christian services marking great national events. The opportunity for long processions culminating in the dramatic approach up Ludgate Hill, the open area and steps at the west front, the great nave and the space under the dome are all well suited for ceremonial occasions. St Paul's can seat many more people than any other church in London, and in past centuries, the erection of temporary wooden galleries inside allowed for congregations exceeding 10,000. In 1935, the dean, Walter Matthews, wrote:

No description in words can convey an adequate idea of the majestic beauty of a solemn national religious ceremony in St Paul's. It is hard to believe that there is any other building in the world that is so well adapted to be the setting of such symbolical acts of communal worship.

National events attended by the royal family, government ministers, and officers of state include national services of thanksgiving, state funerals and a royal wedding. Some of the most notable examples are: the funerals of Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer; the launch of the Festival of Britain; and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum Jubilees, and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II.

Depictions of St Paul's

St Paul's Cathedral has been depicted many times in paintings, prints, and drawings. Among the well-known artists to have painted it are Canaletto, Turner, Daubigny, Pissarro, Signac, Derain, and Lloyd Rees.

The cathedral has been the subject of many photographs, most notably the iconic image of the dome surrounded by smoke during the Blitz. It has also been used in films and TV programs (including Thames Television's most recognized ident), either as the focus of the film, as in the episode of Climbing Great Buildings; as a feature of the film, as in Mary Poppins; or as an incidental location such as Wren's Geometric Staircase in the south-west tower which has appeared in several films including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

• Paintings and engravings of St Paul's
• 

  Canaletto: The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746; Lobkowicz Collections, Prague)

• 

  nineteenth-century colored engraving from the south-west by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd

• 

  Romantic nineteenth-century engraving of St Paul's in the evening after rain by Edward Angelo Goodall

• 

  Oil painting, John O'Connor, Evening on Ludgate Hill (1887) St Paul's looms beyond St Martin's

• 

  St Paul's from Richmond House in Westminster by the Venetian painter Canaletto (1747)

• 

  St Paul's viewed from a loggia, a capriccio (1748c. 1748) by Antonio Joli who also worked in Venice

• 

  An Impressionist view of St Paul's from the River by Ernest Dade (before 1936)

• 

  St Paul's from Bankside, a watercolour by Frederick E. J. Goff (before 1931)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bede. Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Penguin Classics, 1991. ISBN 978-0140445657
• Campbell, James W.P. Building St Paul's. Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2008. ISBN 978-0500342442
• Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation. Penn State University Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0271028682
• Downes, Kerry. Sir Christopher Wren: the Design for St Paul's Cathedral. London: Trefoil Publications, 1990. ISBN 978-0862941567
• Dugdale, William. The history of St. Pauls cathedral in London from its foundation untill these times extracted out of originall charters, records, leiger books and other manuscripts. Beautified with sundry prospects of the church, figures of tombes and monuments. Isha Books, 2013 (original 1658). ISBN 978-9333108966
• Fletcher, Banister. A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method. Legare Street Press, 2022 (original 1896). ISBN 978-1015399334
• Garmonsway, G.N. (trans.). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. J.M. Dent; E.P. Dutton, 1972. ISBN 978-0460116244
• Harris, Brian L. Harris's Guide to Churches and Cathedrals. Ebury Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0091912512
• Hart, Vaughan. St Paul's Cathedral: Sir Christopher Wren. Phaidon Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0714829982
• Hart, Vaughan. Nicholas Hawksmoor: Rebuilding Ancient Wonders. Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0300135404
• Keene, Derek J., Arthur Burns, and Andrew Saint. St Paul's: The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004. Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0300092769
• Kleiner, Fred S., and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Thomson Wadsworth, 2004. ISBN 978-0155050907
• Lang, Jane. Rebuilding St Pauls: After the Great Fire of London. Oxford University Press, 1956. ASIN B0000CJIAO
• Lehmberg, Stanford E. English Cathedrals: A History. Bloomsbury Academic, 2006. ISBN 978-1852855055
• Pevsner, Nikolaus. An Outline of European Architecture. Penguin Books, 1950. ISBN 978-0140201093
• Sharpe, Reginald R. London and the Kingdom – Volume 1. Outlook Verlag, 2020. ISBN 978-3752422078
• Summerson, John. Architecture in Britain: 1530-1830. Yale University Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0300058864
• Thackeray, Francis. Researches Into the Ecclesiastical & Political State of Ancient Britain Under the Roman Emperors. Wentworth Press, 2019 (original 1843). ISBN 978-0526070435
• Tinniswood, Adrian. His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren. London: Jonathan Cape, 2001. ISBN 978-0224042987
• Ward, Lock & Co., Limited. A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London and Its Environs. Forgotten Books, 2018 (original 1907). ISBN 978-0331268089
• Webb, Simon. The Suffragette Bombers: Britain's Forgotten Terrorists. Pen and Sword History, 2021. ISBN 978-1526796677
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• Wren, Christopher. Parentalia, or, Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens. Legare Street Pres, 2023 (1750). ISBN 978-1019704127

External links

All links retrieved January 16, 2025.

• St Paul's Cathedral Official website
• St Paul's Cathedral Lonely Planet
• St Paul's Cathedral City of London
• St. Paul's Cathedral Google Arts & Culture
• St. Paul's Cathedral Frommers
• St. Paul's Cathedral Condé Nast Traveler

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