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St Paul's Cathedral

January 26, 2023

This article is about St Paul's cathedral in London, England. For other cathedrals of the same name, see St. Paul's Cathedral (disambiguation).
"Saint Paul's" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint Paul (disambiguation).

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade I listed building. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604.[1] The present structure, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren's lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the city after the Great Fire of London.[2] 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.

St Paul's
Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle
Aerial view
St Paul's
Interactive fullscreen map
51°30′49″N 0°05′53″W / 51.513611°N 0.098056°W / 51.513611; -0.098056Coordinates: 51°30′49″N 0°05′53″W / 51.513611°N 0.098056°W / 51.513611; -0.098056
LocationLondon, EC4
CountryUnited Kingdom
DenominationChurch of England
Previous denominationRoman Catholicism
Websitestpauls.co.uk
History
StatusActive
Consecrated1697; 326 years ago (1697)
Architecture
Heritage designationGrade I Listed
Previous cathedrals4
Architect(s)Sir Christopher Wren
StyleEnglish Baroque
Years built1675–1710
Groundbreaking1675
Completed1710
Specifications
Length518 ft (158 m)
Nave width121 ft (37 m)
Width across transepts246 ft (75 m)
Height365 ft (111 m)
Dome height (outer)278 ft (85 m)
Dome height (inner)225 ft (69 m)
Dome diameter (outer)112 ft (34 m)
Dome diameter (inner)102 ft (31 m)
Number of towers2
Tower height221 ft (67 m)
Administration
ProvinceCanterbury
DioceseLondon (since 604)
Clergy
Bishop(s)Sarah Mullally
DeanAndrew Tremlett
PrecentorJames Milne
ChancellorPaula Gooder
(lay reader)
Canon Treasurervacant
Laity
Director of musicAndrew Carwood
Organist(s)William Fox (acting)

The cathedral is one of the most famous and recognisable sights of London. Its dome, surrounded by the spires of Wren's City churches, has dominated the skyline for over 300 years. At 365 ft (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1963. The dome is still one of the highest in the world. 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; an inauguration service for the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund;[3] 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. St Paul's Cathedral is the central subject of much promotional material, as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke and fire of the Blitz.[4] The cathedral is a working church with hourly prayer and daily services. The tourist entry fee at the door is £23 for adults(January 2023, cheaper if booked online), but no charges are made to worshippers attending advertised services.[5]

The nearest underground station is St Paul's, which is 130 yards (120 m) away from St Paul's Cathedral.[6]

History

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 centre 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, although this is speculative. [7][8]

The Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden argued that a temple to the goddess Diana had stood during Roman times on the site occupied by the medieval St Paul's Cathedral.[9] Wren reported that he had found no trace of any such temple during the works to build the new cathedral after the Great Fire, and Camden's hypothesis is no longer accepted by modern archaeologists.[10]

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. London is said to have sent 2 delegates to the Council of Arles in 314 AD.[citation needed] A list of the 16 "archbishops" of London was recorded by Jocelyn of Furness in the 12th 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 314 Council of Arles seems to have come from Londinium.[a]

Bede records that in AD 604 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.[11] 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 Earconwald, the last of whom was buried in the cathedral in 693. This building, or a successor, was destroyed by fire in 962, but rebuilt in the same year.[12][page needed]

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.[13]

Old St Paul's

Main article: Old St Paul's Cathedral

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, which affected the ultimate fate of the building.[citation needed]

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

An enlargement programme commenced in 1256. This "New Work" was consecrated in 1300 but not complete until 1314. During the later Medieval period St Paul's was exceeded in length only by the Abbey Church of Cluny and in the height of its spire only by Lincoln Cathedral and St. Mary's Church, Stralsund. Excavations by Francis Penrose in 1878 showed that it was 585 feet (178 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet (88 m) across the transepts and crossing). The spire was about 489 feet (149 m) in height.[citation needed]

By the 16th century the building was starting to decay. The English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and particularly the Chantries Acts led to the destruction of elements of the interior ornamentation and the chapels, shrines, chantries. 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; the Grey Friar's Chronicle reports that the rood and other images were destroyed in November 1547, and "Alle the alteres and chappelles in alle Powlles churche" were taken down in October 1552.[14] Some of the buildings in St Paul's Churchyard were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning, an event that Roman Catholic writers claimed was a sign of God's judgement 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.[15] Immediate steps were taken to repair the damage, with the citizens of London and the clergy offering money to support the rebuilding.[16] But the cost of repairing the building properly was too great for a country and city recovering from a trade depression. Instead, the roof was repaired and a timber "roo"’ put on the steeple.

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.[17][page needed] During the Commonwealth, those churchyard buildings that were razed supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House. Crowds were drawn to the north-east corner of the churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place.[citation needed]

In the Great Fire of London of 1666, Old St Paul's was gutted.[18] 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

 
Canaletto: The River Thames with St. Paul's Cathedral on Lord Mayor's Day (1746; Lobkowicz Collections, Prague)
 
St Paul's Cathedral in 1896

The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren on 30 July 1669.[19] 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.[20][page needed]

Wren had begun advising on the repair of the Old St Paul's in 1661, five years before the fire in 1666.[21] The proposed work included renovations to interior and exterior to complement the classical facade designed by Inigo Jones in 1630.[22] 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.[23] 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".[24] 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.[25] 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 26 October 1708, performed by Wren's son Christopher Jr and the son of one of the masons.[26] The cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on 25 December 1711 (Christmas Day).[27] In fact, construction continued for several years after that, with the statues on the roof added in the 1720s. In 1716 the total costs amounted to £1,095,556[28] (£174 million in 2021).[29]

Consecration

On 2 December 1697, 31 years and 3 months after the Great Fire destroyed Old St Paul's, the new cathedral was consecrated for use. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preached the sermon. It was based on the text of Psalm 122, "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the Lord." The first regular service was held on the following Sunday.

Opinions of Wren's cathedral differed, with some loving it: "Without, within, below, above, the eye / Is filled with unrestrained delight",[30][page needed] while others hated it: "There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals, the heavy arches ... They were unfamiliar, un-English ...".[31]

Since 1900

Suffragette terror attacks

See also: Suffragette bombing and arson campaign
 
Two suffragette bombs on display at the City of London Police Museum in 2019. The bomb on the right was used in an attempted bombing of St. Paul's in 1913.

St. Paul's was the target of two suffragette bombing attacks in 1913 and 1914 respectively, which nearly caused the destruction of the cathedral. 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.[32] Churches were explicitly targeted by the suffragettes as they believed the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage.[33] Between 1913 and 1914, 32 churches across Britain were attacked.[34]

The first attack on St. Paul's occurred on 8 May 1913, at the start of a sermon.[35] A bomb was heard ticking and discovered as people were entering the cathedral.[35] It was made out of potassium nitrate.[35] Had it exploded, the bomb likely would have destroyed the historic bishop's throne and other parts of the cathedral.[35] The remains of the device, which was made partly out of a mustard tin, are now on display at the City of London Police Museum.[35]

A second bombing of the cathedral by the suffragettes was attempted on 13 June 1914, however the bomb was again discovered before it could explode.[32] This attempted bombing occurred two days after a bomb had exploded at Westminster Abbey, which damaged the Coronation Chair and caused a mass panic for the exits.[35] Several other churches were bombed at this time, such as St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square and the Metropolitan Tabernacle.[32]

War damage

 
The iconic St Paul's Survives taken on 29 December 1940 of St Paul's during the Blitz

The cathedral survived the Blitz although struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 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.[36][37] 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.[38][39]

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.[40] As a result of this action, Davies and Sapper George Cameron Wylie were each awarded the George Cross.[41] 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,[b] from the roof of a building in Tudor Street showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke. Lisa Jardine of Queen Mary, University of London, has written:[36]

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.

Post-war

On 29 July 1981, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was held at the cathedral. The couple selected St Paul's over Westminster Abbey, the traditional site of royal weddings, because the cathedral offered more seating.[42]

Extensive copper, lead and slate renovation work was carried out on the Dome in 1996 by John B. Chambers. A 15-year restoration project—one of the largest ever undertaken in the UK—was completed on 15 June 2011.[43]

Occupy London

 
Julian Assange speaks at the Occupy London outside the cathedral in the City of London on 15 October 2011.

In October 2011 an anti-capitalism Occupy London encampment was established in front of the cathedral, after failing to gain access to the London Stock Exchange at Paternoster Square nearby. The cathedral's finances were affected by the ensuing closure. It was claimed that the cathedral was losing revenue of £20,000 per day.[44] Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser resigned, asserting his view that "evicting the anti-capitalist activists would constitute violence in the name of the Church".[45] The Dean of St Paul's, the Right Revd Graeme Knowles, then resigned too.[46] The encampment was evicted at the end of February 2012, by court order and without violence, as a result of legal action by the City of London Corporation.[47]

2019 terrorist plot

10 October 2019, Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a Muslim convert, was arrested following an MI5 and Metropolitan Police investigation. In September 2019, she had taken photos of the cathedral's interior. While trying to radicalise others using the Telegram messaging software, she planned to attack the cathedral and other targets such as a hotel and a train station using explosives. Shaikh pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.[48]

National events

 
The state funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852.

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 exceding 10,000. In 1935, the dean, Walter Matthews, wrote:[49]

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:

Ministry and functions

St Paul's Cathedral is a busy church with four or five services every day, including Matins, Eucharist and Evening Prayer or Choral Evensong.[50] In addition, the cathedral has many special services associated with the City of London, its corporation, guilds and institutions. The cathedral, as the largest church in London, also has a role in many state functions such as the service celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The cathedral is generally open daily to tourists and has a regular programme of organ recitals and other performances.[51] The Bishop of London is Sarah Mullally, whose appointment was announced in December 2017 and whose enthronement took place in May 2018.

 
St Paul's during a special service in 2008

Dean and chapter

The cathedral chapter is currently composed of seven individuals: the dean, three residentiary canons (one of whom is, exceptionally, lay), one "additional member of chapter and canon non-residentiary" (ordained), and two lay canons. Each has a different responsibility in the running of the cathedral.[52] As of October 2022:[53]

  • Dean — Andrew Tremlett (since 25 September 2022)[54]
  • Precentor — James Milne (since 9 May 2019)[55]
  • Treasurer — vacant
  • Chancellor — Paula Gooder (since 9 May 2019;[55] lay reader since 23 February 2019)[56]
  • Steward — Neil Evans (since June 2022)[57]
  • Additional member of chapter and canon non-residentiary — Sheila Watson (since January 2017).[58]
  • Lay Canon — Pamela (Pim) Jane Baxter[59] (since March 2014). Deputy Director at the National Portrait Gallery, with experience in opera, theatre and the visual arts.
  • Lay Canon — Sheila Nicoll (since October 2018). She is Head of Public Policy at Schroder Investment Management.[60]
  • Lay Canon — Clement Hutton-Mills (since March 2021). He is also a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.
  • Lay Canon — Gillian Bowen (since June 2022). She is Chief Executive Officer of YMCA London City and North and is a magistrate.[57]

Minor canons and priest vicar

Further information: Minor Canons of St Paul's

Director of Music

The Director of Music is Andrew Carwood.[61] Carwood was appointed to succeed Malcolm Archer as Director of Music, taking up the post in September 2007.[62] He is the first non-organist to hold the post since the 12th century.

See also: List of musicians at English cathedrals § London, St Paul's Cathedral

Organs

 
The south choir organ

An organ was commissioned from Bernard Smith in 1694.[63][64]

In 1862 the organ from the Panopticon of Science and Art (the Panopticon Organ) was installed in a gallery over the south transept door.[65]

The Grand Organ was completed in 1872, and the Panopticon Organ moved to the Victoria Rooms in Clifton in 1873.

The Grand Organ is the fifth-largest in Great Britain,[c][66] in terms of number of pipes (7,256),[67] with 5 manuals, 136 ranks of pipes and 137 stops, principally enclosed in an impressive case designed in Wren's workshop and decorated by Grinling Gibbons.[68]

Details of the organ can be found online at the National Pipe Organ Register.[69]

Choir

St Paul's Cathedral has a full professional choir, which sings regularly at services. The earliest records of the choir date from 1127. The present choir consists of up to 30 boy choristers, eight probationers and the vicars choral, 12 professional singers. In February 2017 the cathedral announced the appointment of the first female vicar choral, Carris Jones (a mezzo-soprano), to take up the role in September 2017.[70][71][72] In 2022, it was announced that girls would be admitted to a cathedral choir in 2025.[73]

During school terms the choir sings Evensong six times per week, the service on Mondays being sung by a visiting choir (or occasionally said) and that on Thursdays being sung by the vicars choral alone. On Sundays the choir also sings at Mattins and the 11:30 am Eucharist.[61]

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.

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.

Wren's 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".[74] Wren's second design was a Greek cross,[75] which was thought by the clerics not to fulfil the requirements of Anglican liturgy.[76]

Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great Model" of 1673. The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and is over 13 feet (4 m) tall and 21 feet (6 m) long.[77] 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 favourite design; he thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty.[78] 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".[76] 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.[76] 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.[20][page needed] 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.[22]

 
The Greek Cross Design
 
The Warrant Design
 
St Paul's, as it was built

Final design

The final design as built differs substantially from the official Warrant design.[79][page needed] 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: "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" (Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren). 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.[78]

The date of the laying of the first stone of the cathedral is disputed. One contemporary account says it was 21 June 1675, another 25 June and a third on 28 June. 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.[80]

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.[81] 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.[82] The foundations settled as the building progressed, and Wren made structural changes in response.[83]

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.[84] 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.[82][85]

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.[86] 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.[82][84]

Designers, builders and craftsmen

During the extensive period of design and rationalisation, Wren employed from 1684 Nicholas Hawksmoor as his principal assistant.[20][page needed] Between 1696 and 1711 William Dickinson was measuring clerk.[87] 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.[68] 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.[68] The sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber created the pediment of the south transept[88] 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.[89] The floor was paved by William Dickinson in black and white marble in 1709–10[90] Jean Tijou was responsible for the decorative wrought ironwork of gates and balustrades.[68] The ball and cross on the dome were provided by an armorer, Andrew Niblett.[91] 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.[92]

Description

Audio description of the cathedral by Sandy Nairne
 
A floorplan

St Paul's Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style which represents Wren's rationalisation of the traditions of English medieval cathedrals with the inspiration of Palladio, the classical style of Inigo Jones, the baroque style of 17th century Rome, and the buildings by Mansart and others that he had seen in France.[93][page needed] It is particularly in its plan that St Paul's reveals medieval influences.[82] 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.[82] In section St Paul's also maintains a medieval form, having the aisles much lower than the nave, and a defined clerestory.[citation needed]

Exterior

The most notable exterior feature is the dome, which rises 365 feet (111 m) to the cross at its summit,[94] and dominates views of the city. The height of 365 feet is explained by Wren's interest in astronomy. Until the late 20th 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.[25][95][96][97]

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.[97] 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 favoured 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.[96] Summerson suggests that he was influenced by Bramante's "Tempietto" in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio.[98] In the finished structure, Wren creates a diversity and appearance of strength by placing niches between the columns in every fourth opening.[98] 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.[82]

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.[25]

West front

 
St Paul's Cathedral West Front Dome Street View
 
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 centre 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 centre 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.[99]

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.[100][page needed] These projecting arcs echo the shape of the apse at the eastern end of the building.

Walls

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

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.[100][page needed] 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.[25] 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 17th-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 mouldings 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. The height from ground level to the top of the parapet is approximately 110 feet.

Fencing

The original fencing, designed by Wren, was dismantled in the 1870s. The surveyor for the government of Toronto had it shipped to Toronto, where it has since adorned High Park.[101]

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.[82] 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.[82] The vaults of the choir are decorated with mosaics by Sir William Blake Richmond.[82] 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.[68] 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.[68]

The cathedral is some 574 feet (175 m) in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which 223 feet (68 m) is the nave and 167 feet (51 m) is the choir. The width of the nave is 121 feet (37 m) and across the transepts is 246 feet (75 m).[102] The cathedral is slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

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 mouldings of the upper arch to appear equal to the wider arches.[84]

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.[103] 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. Engravings of Thornhill's paintings were published in 1720.[d]

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.[81] The apse was dedicated in 1958 as the American Memorial Chapel.[104] It was paid for entirely by donations from British people.[105] The Roll of Honour 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.[106] It is in front of the chapel's altar. 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 and the US armed forces. The limewood panelling incorporates a rocket—a tribute to America's achievements in space.[107]

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.[81] 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.[81] 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". Although the equestrian figure was planned at the outset, objections to the notion of having a horse in the church prevented its installation until 1912. The horse and rider are by John Tweed. The Duke is buried in the crypt.[81] The tomb of Horatio, Lord Nelson is located in the crypt, next to that of Wellington.[108] The marble sarcophagus which holds his remains was made for Cardinal Wolsey but not used as the cardinal had fallen from favour.[109][81] 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.[81] There are many other memorials commemorating the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the most recent being the Gulf War.

Also remembered are Florence Nightingale, J. M. W. Turner, Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Samuel Johnson, Lawrence of Arabia, William Blake 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.[81] The treasury is also in the crypt but the cathedral has very few treasures as many have been lost, and on 22 December 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts.[110]

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.[111]


Clock and bells

 
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 19th century.[112] 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.

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 (16,800 kg) was the largest bell in the British Isles until the casting of the Olympic Bell for the 2012 London Olympics.[113] Although the bell is traditionally sounded at 1 PM each day, Great Paul had not been rung for several years because of a broken chiming mechanism.[114] In the 1970s, the bolt that held the clapper in place inside the bell had broken. The clapper and its suspension, which together weigh a tonne, had fallen through the clock mechanism below, causing £30,000 worth of damage. In about 1989, the clapper had finally and irrevocably fractured.[115] On 31 July 2021, during the London Festival of the Bells, Great Paul rang for the first time in two decades, being hand swung by the bell ringers.[116] The clock bells included 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, although an exception was made at the death of the US president James Garfield.[117] 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.[118] 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 13 long cwt (1,500 lb; 660 kg), is 41 inches (100 cm) in diameter and is tuned to A♭; the second weighs 35 long cwt (3,900 lb; 1,800 kg) and is 58 inches (150 cm) in diameter and is tuned to E♭.

The north-west tower contains a ring of 12 bells by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough hung for change ringing. 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 am services.[113]

Details of the bells
Bell Weight Nominal
Hz		 Note Diameter Date
cast		 Founder
(long measure) (lb) (kg) (in) (cm)
1 8 long cwt 1 qr  4 lb 928 421 1,461 F 30.88 78.4 1878 John Taylor & Co
2 9 long cwt 0 qr 20 lb 1,028 466 1,270 E♭ 32.50 82.6 1878 John Taylor & Co
3 9 long cwt 3 qr 12 lb 1,104 501 1,199 D 34.00 86.4 1878 John Taylor & Co
4 11 long cwt 2 qr 22 lb 1,310 594 1,063 C 36.38 92.4 1878 John Taylor & Co
5 13 long cwt 1 qr  0 lb 1,484 673 954 B♭ 38.63 98.1 1878 John Taylor & Co
6 13 long cwt 2 qr 14 lb 1,526 692 884 A 39.63 100.7 1878 John Taylor & Co
7 16 long cwt 1 qr 18 lb 1,838 834 784 G 43.75 111.1 1878 John Taylor & Co
8 21 long cwt 3 qr 18 lb 2,454 1,113 705 F 47.63 121.0 1878 John Taylor & Co
9 27 long cwt 1 qr 22 lb 3,074 1,394 636 E♭ 52.50 133.4 1878 John Taylor & Co
10 29 long cwt 3 qr 21 lb 3,353 1,521 592 D 55.25 140.3 1878 John Taylor & Co
11 43 long cwt 2 qr  0 lb 4,872 2,210 525 C 61.25 155.6 1878 John Taylor & Co
12 61 long cwt 2 qr 12 lb 6,900 3,130 468 B♭ 69.00 175.3 1878 John Taylor & Co
Clock 12 long cwt 2 qr  9 lb 1,409 639 853 A♭ 1707 Richard Phelps
Clock 24 long cwt 2 qr 26 lb 2,770 1,256 622 E♭ 1707 Richard Phelps
Clock 102 long cwt 1 qr 22 lb 11,474 5,205 425 A♭ 82.88 210.5 1716 Richard Phelps
Bourdon 334 long cwt 2 qr 19 lb 37,483 17,002 317 E♭ 114.75 291.5 1881 John Taylor & Co
Communion 18 long cwt 2 qr 26 lb 2,098 952 620 E♭ 49.50 125.7 1700 Philip Wightman

Education, tourism and the arts

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

Interpretation Project

The Interpretation Project is a long-term project concerned with bringing St Paul's to life for all its visitors. In 2010, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's opened St Paul's Oculus, a 270° film experience that brings 1400 years of history to life.[119] Located in the former Treasury in the crypt, the film takes visitors on a journey through the history and daily life of St Paul's Cathedral. Oculus was funded by American Express Company in partnership with the World Monuments Fund, J. P. Morgan, the Garfield Weston Trust for St Paul’s Cathedral, the City of London Endowment Trust and AIG.

In 2010, new touchscreen multimedia guides were also launched. These guides are included in the price of admission. Visitors can discover the cathedral’s history, architecture and daily life of a busy working church with these new multimedia guides. They are available in 12 different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and British Sign Language (BSL). The guides have fly-through videos of the dome galleries and zoomable close-ups of the ceiling mosaics, painting and photography. Interviews and commentary from experts include the Dean of St Paul’s, conservation team and the Director of Music. Archive film footage includes major services and events from the cathedral's history.

Charges for sightseers

St Paul's charges for the admission of those people who are sightseers, rather than worshippers; the charge is £21 (£18 when purchased online).[120] 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. The charge to sightseers is made because St Paul's receives little regular or significant funding from the Crown, the Church of England or the state and relies on the income generated by tourism to allow the building to continue to function as a centre for Christian worship, as well as to cover general maintenance and repair work.[121][122]

St Paul's Cathedral Arts Project

The St Paul’s Cathedral Arts Project explores art and faith. Projects have included installations by Gerry Judah, Antony Gormley, Rebecca Horn, Yoko Ono and Martin Firrell.

In 2014, St Paul's commissioned Gerry Judah to create an artwork in the nave to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Two spectacular sculptures consisting of three-dimensional white cruciforms reflect the meticulously maintained war graves of northern France and further afield. Each sculpture is also embellished with miniaturised destroyed residential blocks depicting war zones in the Middle East—Syria, Baghdad, Afghanistan—thus connecting 100 years of warfare.[123]

Bill Viola has created two altarpieces for permanent display in St Paul's Cathedral. The project commenced production in mid-2009. Following the extensive programme of cleaning and repair of the interior of St Paul's, completed in 2005, Viola was commissioned to create two altarpieces on the themes of Mary and Martyrs. These two multi-screen video installations are permanently located at the end of the Quire aisles, flanking the High Altar of the cathedral and the American Memorial Chapel. Each work employs an arrangement of multiple plasma screen panels configured in a manner similar to historic altarpieces.

In summer 2010, St Paul's chose two new works by the British artist Mark Alexander to be hung either side of the nave. Both entitled Red Mannheim, Alexander's large red silkscreens are inspired by the Mannheim Cathedral altarpiece (1739–41), which was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The original sculpture depicts Christ on the cross, surrounded by a familiar retinue of mourners. Rendered in splendid giltwood, with Christ's wracked body sculpted in relief, and the flourishes of flora and incandescent rays from heaven, this masterpiece of the German Rococo is an object of ravishing beauty and intense piety.

In March 2010, Flare II, a sculpture by Antony Gormley, was installed in the Geometric Staircase.[124]

In 2007, the Dean and Chapter commissioned Martin Firrell to create a major public artwork to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Wren's building. The Question Mark Inside consisted of digital text projections to the cathedral dome, West Front and inside onto the Whispering Gallery. The text was based on blog contributions by the general public as well as interviews conducted by the artist and on the artist's own views. The project presented a stream of possible answers to the question: "What makes life meaningful and purposeful, and what does St Paul's mean in that contemporary context?" The Question Mark Inside opened on 8 November 2008 and ran for eight nights.

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.

  • Paintings and engravings of St Paul's
  •  

    18th-century engraving of St Paul's from the north-west by Canaletto

  •  

    19th-century coloured engraving from the south-west by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd

  •  

    Romantic 19th-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 by the Venetian painter Canaletto (1747)

  •  

    St Paul's viewed from a loggia, a capriccio (c. 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)

Photography and film

St Paul's Cathedral has been the subject of many photographs, most notably the iconic image of the dome surrounded by smoke during the Blitz.(see above) It has also been used in films and TV programmes (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.

Films in which St Paul's has been depicted include:

  • St. Paul's Cathedral (1942), a wartime documentary film for the British Council, the final part of which shows bomb damage in and around St Paul's.[125]
  • Lawrence of Arabia (1962) shows the exterior of the building and the bust of T.E. Lawrence.
  • Mary Poppins (1964) shows the steps and west front of the cathedral, the main setting for the song '"Feed the Birds'".
  • St Paul's Cathedral has appeared as a filming location twice in Doctor Who, in the 1968 serial The Invasion, and in the 2014 two-part story "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven". In both, the Cybermen are shown descending steps outside the cathedral.
  • St Paul's is seen briefly in the Goodies episode "Kitten Kong" (1971). During his rampage through London, Twinkle damages London landmarks, including St Paul's Cathedral, the dome of which is knocked off.
  • In the BBC educational programme "A Guide to Armageddon," (1982) a 1-megaton nuclear weapon is detonated over London, with St Paul's used as ground zero.
  • Lifeforce (1985) the cathedral's interior is the setting for the climax of the film.
  • The Madness of King George (1994) shows the Geometric Staircase in the South West Bell Tower.
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) shows the Geometric Staircase in the south west bell tower, representing the staircase towards the Divination classroom.
  • Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) depicts St Paul's in 23rd century London along with other notable modern-day London buildings.[e]
  • St Paul's is the only building of ancient London that survived the "Sixty Minute War" in the movie Mortal Engines (2018) and the books it is based on.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Nomina Episcoporum, cum Clericis Suis, Quinam, et ex Quibus Provinciis, ad Arelatensem Synodum Convenerint" ["The Names of the Bishops with Their Clerics who Came Together at the Synod of Arles and from which Province They Came"](from Labbé & Cossart 1671, col. 1429 included in Thackery 1843, pp. 272 ff.).
  2. ^ Not to be confused with an identically named film director.
  3. ^ The largest is at Liverpool Cathedral, followed by the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and St George's Hall.
  4. ^ Entered in the Entry Book at Stationers' Hall on 7 May 1720 by Thornhill. The Bodleian Library's deposit copy survives (Arch.Antiq.A.III.23).
  5. ^ Advertising poster for Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) — bottom right, the dome is visible to the left of and behind 30 St Mary Axe (the Gherkin)

Citations

  1. ^ Hibbert et al. 2011, p. 778.
  2. ^ Gardner, Kleiner & Mamiya 2004, p. 760.
  3. ^ The London Standard 10/6/1873 page 6
  4. ^ Pierce 2004.
  5. ^ "Sightseeing, Times & Prices". Stpauls.co.uk. The Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral. from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  6. ^ "St. Paul's Cathedral". Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  7. ^ Denison 1995.
  8. ^ Sankey 1998, pp. 78–82.
  9. ^ Camden 1607, pp. 306–307.
  10. ^ Clark 1996, pp. 1–9.
  11. ^ Bede 1910, pp. 68–69.
  12. ^ Garmonsway 1953.
  13. ^ Garmonsway 1953, p. 218.
  14. ^ Lehmberg 2014, p. 114.
  15. ^ Morrissey 2011, p. 3.
  16. ^ Dugdale 1658, pp. 133–134.
  17. ^ Kelly 2004.
  18. ^ "The Survey of Building Sites in London after the Great Fire of 1666" Mills, P/ Oliver, J Vol I p59: Guildhall Library MS. 84 reproduced in facsimile, London, London Topographical Society, 1946
  19. ^ Campbell 2007, p. 26.
  20. ^ a b c Hart 2002.
  21. ^ Campbell 2007, p. 10.
  22. ^ a b Lang 1956, pp. 47–63.
  23. ^ Summerson 1983, p. 204.
  24. ^ Summerson 1983, p. 223.
  25. ^ a b c d Fletcher 1962, p. 913.
  26. ^ Keene, Burn & Saint 2004, p. 219.
  27. ^ Campbell 2007, p. 161.
  28. ^ Campbell 2007, p. 69.
  29. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  30. ^ Wright 1693.
  31. ^ Tinniswood 2001, p. 315.
  32. ^ a b c "Suffragettes, violence and militancy". British Library.
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Sources

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  • Dugdale, William (1658). The History of St. Pauls Cathedral in London, from Its Foundation Untill These Times: Extracted Out of Originall Charters, Records, Leiger Books, and Other Manuscript,. Beautified with Sundry Prospects of the Church, Figures of Tombes and Monuments. Tho. Warren.
  • Dunton, Larkin (1896), The World and Its People, Silver, Burdett, pp. 25–26
  • Fletcher, Banister (1962), A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method (seventeenth edition), Athlone Press, University of London
  • Geffen, Anthony (producer) (8 July 2014), "Time Scanners: St. Paul's Cathedral", Scanners, Atlantic Productions
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  • Hart, Vaughan (2002), Nicholas Hawksmoor: Rebuilding Ancient Wonders, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-09699-6
  • Hart, Vaughan (2020). Christopher Wren: In Search of Eastern Antiquity, Yale University Press ISBN 978-1913107079
  • Gardner, Helen; Kleiner, Fred S.; Mamiya, Christin J. (2004), Gardner's Art through the Ages, Thomson Wadsworth, ISBN 978-0-15-505090-7
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Further reading

  • Atkinson, Frank (1985), St Paul's and the City, Park Lane Press, London: Michael Joseph, ISBN 978-0-7181-2629-2 — With numerous photographic plates, both in colour, and black and white.
  • Hart, Vaughan (2020). Christopher Wren: In Search of Eastern Antiquity, Yale University Press ISBN 978-1913107079
  • Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1967), The Cathedrals of England, Thames and Hudson
  • Harvey, John (1961), English Cathedrals, Batsford
  • Hood, Frederic (1967), The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire — With a foreword by Prince Philip. It contains 65 pages of mainly colour plates on glossy paper relating to St Paul's Cathedral and is a republished section of the book published by the Oxford University Press.
  • Owen, James (2010), Danger UXB, Little, Brown, ISBN 978-1-4087-0255-0 — contains a chapter on St Paul's in wartime and the unexploded bomb which closed it
  • Tatton-Brown, Tim; Crook, John (2002), The English Cathedral, New Holland Publishers, ISBN 978-1-84330-120-2
  • Burman, Peter (1987), St. Paul's Cathedral, Bell & Hyman, ISBN 978-0-7135-2617-2

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Paul's Cathedral.
  • , St Paul's Cathedral: Credits, archived from the original on 19 May 2018, retrieved 16 October 2014
  • St Paul's Cathedral official website
  • Winston Churchill State Funeral – St Paul's – UK Parliament Living Heritage
  • St. Paul's Cathedral at Google Cultural Institute
  • A Popular Description of St. Paul's Cathedral By Maria Hackett, published 1828, 87 pages.
  • Biographical Illustrations of St. Paul's Cathedral By George Lewis Smyth, published 1843, 284 pages.
  • (painting)
  • Wren's various designs
  • The 'Registrum Statutorum..' of St Paul's — collected charters and other documents from the earliest years until the nineteenth century. Published by the cathedral in 1873, Latin and English.
  • BBC News account of the bombing
  • Bells of St Paul's 7 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  • at the Ship of Fools website
  • The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire — OBE Chapel
  • St Paul's lithographs c. 1647–1817
  • The Jubilee Cope commissioned for the Bishop of London by St Paul’s Cathedral in honour of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II

January 26, 2023
paul, cathedral, this, article, about, paul, cathedral, london, england, other, cathedrals, same, name, paul, cathedral, disambiguation, saint, paul, redirects, here, other, uses, saint, paul, disambiguation, anglican, cathedral, london, seat, bishop, london, . This article is about St Paul s cathedral in London England For other cathedrals of the same name see St Paul s Cathedral disambiguation Saint Paul s redirects here For other uses see Saint Paul disambiguation St Paul s Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grade I listed building Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site founded in AD 604 1 The present structure dating from the late 17th century was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren Its construction completed in Wren s lifetime was part of a major rebuilding programme in the city after the Great Fire of London 2 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 St Paul sCathedral Church of St Paul the ApostleAerial viewSt Paul sInteractive fullscreen map51 30 49 N 0 05 53 W 51 513611 N 0 098056 W 51 513611 0 098056 Coordinates 51 30 49 N 0 05 53 W 51 513611 N 0 098056 W 51 513611 0 098056LocationLondon EC4CountryUnited KingdomDenominationChurch of EnglandPrevious denominationRoman CatholicismWebsitestpauls co ukHistoryStatusActiveConsecrated1697 326 years ago 1697 ArchitectureHeritage designationGrade I ListedPrevious cathedrals4Architect s Sir Christopher WrenStyleEnglish BaroqueYears built1675 1710Groundbreaking1675Completed1710SpecificationsLength518 ft 158 m Nave width121 ft 37 m Width across transepts246 ft 75 m Height365 ft 111 m Dome height outer 278 ft 85 m Dome height inner 225 ft 69 m Dome diameter outer 112 ft 34 m Dome diameter inner 102 ft 31 m Number of towers2Tower height221 ft 67 m AdministrationProvinceCanterburyDioceseLondon since 604 ClergyBishop s Sarah MullallyDeanAndrew TremlettPrecentorJames MilneChancellorPaula Gooder lay reader Canon TreasurervacantLaityDirector of musicAndrew CarwoodOrganist s William Fox acting The cathedral is one of the most famous and recognisable sights of London Its dome surrounded by the spires of Wren s City churches has dominated the skyline for over 300 years At 365 ft 111 m high it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1963 The dome is still one of the highest in the world 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 an inauguration service for the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund 3 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 St Paul s Cathedral is the central subject of much promotional material as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke and fire of the Blitz 4 The cathedral is a working church with hourly prayer and daily services The tourist entry fee at the door is 23 for adults January 2023 cheaper if booked online but no charges are made to worshippers attending advertised services 5 The nearest underground station is St Paul s which is 130 yards 120 m away from St Paul s Cathedral 6 Contents 1 History 1 1 Before the cathedral 1 2 Pre Norman cathedral 1 3 Old St Paul s 1 4 Present St Paul s 1 4 1 Consecration 1 5 Since 1900 1 5 1 Suffragette terror attacks 1 5 2 War damage 1 5 3 Post war 1 5 4 Occupy London 1 5 5 2019 terrorist plot 2 National events 3 Ministry and functions 3 1 Dean and chapter 3 2 Minor canons and priest vicar 3 3 Director of Music 3 3 1 Organs 3 3 2 Choir 4 Wren s cathedral 4 1 Development of the design 4 2 Final design 4 3 Structural engineering 4 4 Designers builders and craftsmen 5 Description 5 1 Exterior 5 1 1 Dome 5 1 2 West front 5 1 3 Walls 5 1 4 Fencing 5 2 Interior 5 2 1 Dome 5 2 2 Apse 5 3 Artworks tombs and memorials 5 4 Clock and bells 6 Education tourism and the arts 6 1 Interpretation Project 6 1 1 Charges for sightseers 6 2 St Paul s Cathedral Arts Project 6 3 Depictions of St Paul s 6 3 1 Photography and film 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 Sources 8 4 Further reading 9 External linksHistory EditBefore the cathedral Edit 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 centre 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 although this is speculative 7 8 The Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden argued that a temple to the goddess Diana had stood during Roman times on the site occupied by the medieval St Paul s Cathedral 9 Wren reported that he had found no trace of any such temple during the works to build the new cathedral after the Great Fire and Camden s hypothesis is no longer accepted by modern archaeologists 10 Pre Norman cathedral Edit There is evidence for Christianity in London during the Roman period but no firm evidence for the location of churches or a cathedral London is said to have sent 2 delegates to the Council of Arles in 314 AD citation needed A list of the 16 archbishops of London was recorded by Jocelyn of Furness in the 12th 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 314 Council of Arles seems to have come from Londinium a Bede records that in AD 604 Augustine of Canterbury consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king Saeberht Saeberht s uncle and overlord AEthelberht king of Kent built a church dedicated to St Paul in London as the seat of the new bishop 11 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 Saeberht 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 Earconwald the last of whom was buried in the cathedral in 693 This building or a successor was destroyed by fire in 962 but rebuilt in the same year 12 page needed King AEthelred 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 13 Old St Paul s Edit Main article Old St Paul s Cathedral 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 which affected the ultimate fate of the building citation needed Reconstructed image of Old St Paul s before 1561 with intact spire An enlargement programme commenced in 1256 This New Work was consecrated in 1300 but not complete until 1314 During the later Medieval period St Paul s was exceeded in length only by the Abbey Church of Cluny and in the height of its spire only by Lincoln Cathedral and St Mary s Church Stralsund Excavations by Francis Penrose in 1878 showed that it was 585 feet 178 m long and 100 feet 30 m wide 290 feet 88 m across the transepts and crossing The spire was about 489 feet 149 m in height citation needed By the 16th century the building was starting to decay The English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI and particularly the Chantries Acts led to the destruction of elements of the interior ornamentation and the chapels shrines chantries 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 the Grey Friar s Chronicle reports that the rood and other images were destroyed in November 1547 and Alle the alteres and chappelles in alle Powlles churche were taken down in October 1552 14 Some of the buildings in St Paul s Churchyard were sold as shops and rental properties especially to printers and booksellers In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning an event that Roman Catholic writers claimed was a sign of God s judgement 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 15 Immediate steps were taken to repair the damage with the citizens of London and the clergy offering money to support the rebuilding 16 But the cost of repairing the building properly was too great for a country and city recovering from a trade depression Instead the roof was repaired and a timber roo put on the steeple 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 17 page needed During the Commonwealth those churchyard buildings that were razed supplied ready dressed building material for construction projects such as the Lord Protector s city palace Somerset House Crowds were drawn to the north east corner of the churchyard St Paul s Cross where open air preaching took place citation needed In the Great Fire of London of 1666 Old St Paul s was gutted 18 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 Edit Canaletto The River Thames with St Paul s Cathedral on Lord Mayor s Day 1746 Lobkowicz Collections Prague St Paul s Cathedral in 1896 The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren on 30 July 1669 19 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 20 page needed Wren had begun advising on the repair of the Old St Paul s in 1661 five years before the fire in 1666 21 The proposed work included renovations to interior and exterior to complement the classical facade designed by Inigo Jones in 1630 22 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 23 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 24 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 25 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 26 October 1708 performed by Wren s son Christopher Jr and the son of one of the masons 26 The cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on 25 December 1711 Christmas Day 27 In fact construction continued for several years after that with the statues on the roof added in the 1720s In 1716 the total costs amounted to 1 095 556 28 174 million in 2021 29 Consecration Edit On 2 December 1697 31 years and 3 months after the Great Fire destroyed Old St Paul s the new cathedral was consecrated for use The Right Reverend Henry Compton Bishop of London preached the sermon It was based on the text of Psalm 122 I was glad when they said unto me Let us go into the house of the Lord The first regular service was held on the following Sunday Opinions of Wren s cathedral differed with some loving it Without within below above the eye Is filled with unrestrained delight 30 page needed while others hated it There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals the heavy arches They were unfamiliar un English 31 Since 1900 Edit Suffragette terror attacks Edit See also Suffragette bombing and arson campaign Two suffragette bombs on display at the City of London Police Museum in 2019 The bomb on the right was used in an attempted bombing of St Paul s in 1913 St Paul s was the target of two suffragette bombing attacks in 1913 and 1914 respectively which nearly caused the destruction of the cathedral 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 32 Churches were explicitly targeted by the suffragettes as they believed the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women s suffrage 33 Between 1913 and 1914 32 churches across Britain were attacked 34 The first attack on St Paul s occurred on 8 May 1913 at the start of a sermon 35 A bomb was heard ticking and discovered as people were entering the cathedral 35 It was made out of potassium nitrate 35 Had it exploded the bomb likely would have destroyed the historic bishop s throne and other parts of the cathedral 35 The remains of the device which was made partly out of a mustard tin are now on display at the City of London Police Museum 35 A second bombing of the cathedral by the suffragettes was attempted on 13 June 1914 however the bomb was again discovered before it could explode 32 This attempted bombing occurred two days after a bomb had exploded at Westminster Abbey which damaged the Coronation Chair and caused a mass panic for the exits 35 Several other churches were bombed at this time such as St Martin in the Fields church in Trafalgar Square and the Metropolitan Tabernacle 32 War damage Edit The iconic St Paul s Survives taken on 29 December 1940 of St Paul s during the Blitz The cathedral survived the Blitz although struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 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 36 37 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 38 39 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 40 As a result of this action Davies and Sapper George Cameron Wylie were each awarded the George Cross 41 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 b from the roof of a building in Tudor Street showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke Lisa Jardine of Queen Mary University of London has written 36 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 Post war Edit On 29 July 1981 the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was held at the cathedral The couple selected St Paul s over Westminster Abbey the traditional site of royal weddings because the cathedral offered more seating 42 Extensive copper lead and slate renovation work was carried out on the Dome in 1996 by John B Chambers A 15 year restoration project one of the largest ever undertaken in the UK was completed on 15 June 2011 43 Occupy London Edit Julian Assange speaks at the Occupy London outside the cathedral in the City of London on 15 October 2011 In October 2011 an anti capitalism Occupy London encampment was established in front of the cathedral after failing to gain access to the London Stock Exchange at Paternoster Square nearby The cathedral s finances were affected by the ensuing closure It was claimed that the cathedral was losing revenue of 20 000 per day 44 Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser resigned asserting his view that evicting the anti capitalist activists would constitute violence in the name of the Church 45 The Dean of St Paul s the Right Revd Graeme Knowles then resigned too 46 The encampment was evicted at the end of February 2012 by court order and without violence as a result of legal action by the City of London Corporation 47 2019 terrorist plot Edit 10 October 2019 Safiyya Amira Shaikh a Muslim convert was arrested following an MI5 and Metropolitan Police investigation In September 2019 she had taken photos of the cathedral s interior While trying to radicalise others using the Telegram messaging software she planned to attack the cathedral and other targets such as a hotel and a train station using explosives Shaikh pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment 48 National events Edit The state funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852 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 exceding 10 000 In 1935 the dean Walter Matthews wrote 49 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 Thanksgiving service for the Acts of Union 1707 1 May 1707 State funeral of Viscount Nelson 9 January 1806 State funeral of the Duke of Wellington 18 November 1852 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria 22 June 1897 Thanksgiving service for the Treaty of Versailles 6 July 1919 Silver Jubilee of George V 6 May 1935 Thanksgiving services for VE Day and VJ Day 13 May and 19 August 1945 Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II 7 June 1977 Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer 29 July 1981 Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II 4 June 2002 Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II 5 June 2012 Thanksgiving service for the Queen s 90th Birthday 10 June 2016 Platinum Jubilee National Service of Thanksgiving 3 June 2022Ministry and functions EditSt Paul s Cathedral is a busy church with four or five services every day including Matins Eucharist and Evening Prayer or Choral Evensong 50 In addition the cathedral has many special services associated with the City of London its corporation guilds and institutions The cathedral as the largest church in London also has a role in many state functions such as the service celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II The cathedral is generally open daily to tourists and has a regular programme of organ recitals and other performances 51 The Bishop of London is Sarah Mullally whose appointment was announced in December 2017 and whose enthronement took place in May 2018 St Paul s during a special service in 2008 Dean and chapter Edit The cathedral chapter is currently composed of seven individuals the dean three residentiary canons one of whom is exceptionally lay one additional member of chapter and canon non residentiary ordained and two lay canons Each has a different responsibility in the running of the cathedral 52 As of October 2022 53 Dean Andrew Tremlett since 25 September 2022 54 Precentor James Milne since 9 May 2019 55 Treasurer vacant Chancellor Paula Gooder since 9 May 2019 55 lay reader since 23 February 2019 56 Steward Neil Evans since June 2022 57 Additional member of chapter and canon non residentiary Sheila Watson since January 2017 58 Lay Canon Pamela Pim Jane Baxter 59 since March 2014 Deputy Director at the National Portrait Gallery with experience in opera theatre and the visual arts Lay Canon Sheila Nicoll since October 2018 She is Head of Public Policy at Schroder Investment Management 60 Lay Canon Clement Hutton Mills since March 2021 He is also a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Lay Canon Gillian Bowen since June 2022 She is Chief Executive Officer of YMCA London City and North and is a magistrate 57 Minor canons and priest vicar Edit Further information Minor Canons of St Paul s Director of Music Edit The Director of Music is Andrew Carwood 61 Carwood was appointed to succeed Malcolm Archer as Director of Music taking up the post in September 2007 62 He is the first non organist to hold the post since the 12th century See also List of musicians at English cathedrals London St Paul s Cathedral Organs Edit The south choir organ An organ was commissioned from Bernard Smith in 1694 63 64 In 1862 the organ from the Panopticon of Science and Art the Panopticon Organ was installed in a gallery over the south transept door 65 The Grand Organ was completed in 1872 and the Panopticon Organ moved to the Victoria Rooms in Clifton in 1873 The Grand Organ is the fifth largest in Great Britain c 66 in terms of number of pipes 7 256 67 with 5 manuals 136 ranks of pipes and 137 stops principally enclosed in an impressive case designed in Wren s workshop and decorated by Grinling Gibbons 68 Details of the organ can be found online at the National Pipe Organ Register 69 Choir Edit St Paul s Cathedral has a full professional choir which sings regularly at services The earliest records of the choir date from 1127 The present choir consists of up to 30 boy choristers eight probationers and the vicars choral 12 professional singers In February 2017 the cathedral announced the appointment of the first female vicar choral Carris Jones a mezzo soprano to take up the role in September 2017 70 71 72 In 2022 it was announced that girls would be admitted to a cathedral choir in 2025 73 During school terms the choir sings Evensong six times per week the service on Mondays being sung by a visiting choir or occasionally said and that on Thursdays being sung by the vicars choral alone On Sundays the choir also sings at Mattins and the 11 30 am Eucharist 61 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 Wren s cathedral EditDevelopment of the design Edit 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 Francois Mansart Wren s 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 74 Wren s second design was a Greek cross 75 which was thought by the clerics not to fulfil the requirements of Anglican liturgy 76 Wren s third design is embodied in the Great Model of 1673 The model made of oak and plaster cost over 500 approximately 32 000 today and is over 13 feet 4 m tall and 21 feet 6 m long 77 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 favourite design he thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty 78 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 76 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 76 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 20 page needed 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 22 The Greek Cross Design The Warrant Design St Paul s as it was built Final design Edit The final design as built differs substantially from the official Warrant design 79 page needed 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 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 Christopher Wren son of Sir Christopher Wren The final design was strongly rooted in St Peter s Basilica in Rome The saucer domes over the nave were inspired by Francois Mansart s Church of the Val de Grace which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665 78 The date of the laying of the first stone of the cathedral is disputed One contemporary account says it was 21 June 1675 another 25 June and a third on 28 June 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 80 Structural engineering Edit 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 81 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 82 The foundations settled as the building progressed and Wren made structural changes in response 83 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 84 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 82 85 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 86 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 82 84 Designers builders and craftsmen Edit During the extensive period of design and rationalisation Wren employed from 1684 Nicholas Hawksmoor as his principal assistant 20 page needed Between 1696 and 1711 William Dickinson was measuring clerk 87 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 68 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 68 The sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber created the pediment of the south transept 88 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 89 The floor was paved by William Dickinson in black and white marble in 1709 10 90 Jean Tijou was responsible for the decorative wrought ironwork of gates and balustrades 68 The ball and cross on the dome were provided by an armorer Andrew Niblett 91 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 92 Description Edit source source Audio description of the cathedral by Sandy Nairne A floorplan St Paul s Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style which represents Wren s rationalisation of the traditions of English medieval cathedrals with the inspiration of Palladio the classical style of Inigo Jones the baroque style of 17th century Rome and the buildings by Mansart and others that he had seen in France 93 page needed It is particularly in its plan that St Paul s reveals medieval influences 82 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 82 In section St Paul s also maintains a medieval form having the aisles much lower than the nave and a defined clerestory citation needed Exterior Edit The most notable exterior feature is the dome which rises 365 feet 111 m to the cross at its summit 94 and dominates views of the city The height of 365 feet is explained by Wren s interest in astronomy Until the late 20th 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 25 95 96 97 Dome Edit The dome Wren drew inspiration from Michelangelo s dome of St Peter s Basilica and that of Mansart s Church of the Val de Grace which he had visited 97 Unlike those of St Peter s and Val de Grace 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 favoured 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 96 Summerson suggests that he was influenced by Bramante s Tempietto in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio 98 In the finished structure Wren creates a diversity and appearance of strength by placing niches between the columns in every fourth opening 98 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 82 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 25 West front Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources St Paul s Cathedral news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message St Paul s Cathedral West Front Dome Street View 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 centre with large brackets This is the solution that Wren saw employed by Mansart at Val de Grace 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 centre 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 Grace 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 99 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 100 page needed These projecting arcs echo the shape of the apse at the eastern end of the building Walls Edit St Paul s from the south east with the tower of the destroyed Church of St Augustine Watling Street to the right now part of St Paul s Cathedral School 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 100 page needed 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 25 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 17th 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 mouldings 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 The height from ground level to the top of the parapet is approximately 110 feet Fencing Edit The original fencing designed by Wren was dismantled in the 1870s The surveyor for the government of Toronto had it shipped to Toronto where it has since adorned High Park 101 Interior Edit 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 82 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 82 The vaults of the choir are decorated with mosaics by Sir William Blake Richmond 82 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 68 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 68 The cathedral is some 574 feet 175 m in length including the portico of the Great West Door of which 223 feet 68 m is the nave and 167 feet 51 m is the choir The width of the nave is 121 feet 37 m and across the transepts is 246 feet 75 m 102 The cathedral is slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul s Dome Edit 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 mouldings of the upper arch to appear equal to the wider arches 84 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 103 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 Engravings of Thornhill s paintings were published in 1720 d Apse Edit 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 81 The apse was dedicated in 1958 as the American Memorial Chapel 104 It was paid for entirely by donations from British people 105 The Roll of Honour 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 106 It is in front of the chapel s altar 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 and the US armed forces The limewood panelling incorporates a rocket a tribute to America s achievements in space 107 Artworks tombs and memorials Edit 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 81 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 81 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 Although the equestrian figure was planned at the outset objections to the notion of having a horse in the church prevented its installation until 1912 The horse and rider are by John Tweed The Duke is buried in the crypt 81 The tomb of Horatio Lord Nelson is located in the crypt next to that of Wellington 108 The marble sarcophagus which holds his remains was made for Cardinal Wolsey but not used as the cardinal had fallen from favour 109 81 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 81 There are many other memorials commemorating the British military including several lists of servicemen who died in action the most recent being the Gulf War Also remembered are Florence Nightingale J M W Turner Arthur Sullivan Hubert Parry Samuel Johnson Lawrence of Arabia William Blake 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 81 The treasury is also in the crypt but the cathedral has very few treasures as many have been lost and on 22 December 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts 110 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 111 Clock and bells Edit 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 19th century 112 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 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 16 800 kg was the largest bell in the British Isles until the casting of the Olympic Bell for the 2012 London Olympics 113 Although the bell is traditionally sounded at 1 PM each day Great Paul had not been rung for several years because of a broken chiming mechanism 114 In the 1970s the bolt that held the clapper in place inside the bell had broken The clapper and its suspension which together weigh a tonne had fallen through the clock mechanism below causing 30 000 worth of damage In about 1989 the clapper had finally and irrevocably fractured 115 On 31 July 2021 during the London Festival of the Bells Great Paul rang for the first time in two decades being hand swung by the bell ringers 116 The clock bells included 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 although an exception was made at the death of the US president James Garfield 117 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 118 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 13 long cwt 1 500 lb 660 kg is 41 inches 100 cm in diameter and is tuned to A the second weighs 35 long cwt 3 900 lb 1 800 kg and is 58 inches 150 cm in diameter and is tuned to E The north west tower contains a ring of 12 bells by John Taylor amp Co of Loughborough hung for change ringing 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 am services 113 Details of the bells Bell Weight NominalHz Note Diameter Datecast Founder long measure lb kg in cm 1 8 long cwt 1 qr 4 lb 928 421 1 461 F 30 88 78 4 1878 John Taylor amp Co2 9 long cwt 0 qr 20 lb 1 028 466 1 270 E 32 50 82 6 1878 John Taylor amp Co3 9 long cwt 3 qr 12 lb 1 104 501 1 199 D 34 00 86 4 1878 John Taylor amp Co4 11 long cwt 2 qr 22 lb 1 310 594 1 063 C 36 38 92 4 1878 John Taylor amp Co5 13 long cwt 1 qr 0 lb 1 484 673 954 B 38 63 98 1 1878 John Taylor amp Co6 13 long cwt 2 qr 14 lb 1 526 692 884 A 39 63 100 7 1878 John Taylor amp Co7 16 long cwt 1 qr 18 lb 1 838 834 784 G 43 75 111 1 1878 John Taylor amp Co8 21 long cwt 3 qr 18 lb 2 454 1 113 705 F 47 63 121 0 1878 John Taylor amp Co9 27 long cwt 1 qr 22 lb 3 074 1 394 636 E 52 50 133 4 1878 John Taylor amp Co10 29 long cwt 3 qr 21 lb 3 353 1 521 592 D 55 25 140 3 1878 John Taylor amp Co11 43 long cwt 2 qr 0 lb 4 872 2 210 525 C 61 25 155 6 1878 John Taylor amp Co12 61 long cwt 2 qr 12 lb 6 900 3 130 468 B 69 00 175 3 1878 John Taylor amp CoClock 12 long cwt 2 qr 9 lb 1 409 639 853 A 1707 Richard PhelpsClock 24 long cwt 2 qr 26 lb 2 770 1 256 622 E 1707 Richard PhelpsClock 102 long cwt 1 qr 22 lb 11 474 5 205 425 A 82 88 210 5 1716 Richard PhelpsBourdon 334 long cwt 2 qr 19 lb 37 483 17 002 317 E 114 75 291 5 1881 John Taylor amp CoCommunion 18 long cwt 2 qr 26 lb 2 098 952 620 E 49 50 125 7 1700 Philip WightmanEducation tourism and the arts Edit Gilt statue of Saint Paul at the top of the monument to St Paul s Cross in the cathedral precinct Interpretation Project Edit The Interpretation Project is a long term project concerned with bringing St Paul s to life for all its visitors In 2010 the Dean and Chapter of St Paul s opened St Paul s Oculus a 270 film experience that brings 1400 years of history to life 119 Located in the former Treasury in the crypt the film takes visitors on a journey through the history and daily life of St Paul s Cathedral Oculus was funded by American Express Company in partnership with the World Monuments Fund J P Morgan the Garfield Weston Trust for St Paul s Cathedral the City of London Endowment Trust and AIG In 2010 new touchscreen multimedia guides were also launched These guides are included in the price of admission Visitors can discover the cathedral s history architecture and daily life of a busy working church with these new multimedia guides They are available in 12 different languages English French German Italian Spanish Portuguese Polish Russian Mandarin Japanese Korean and British Sign Language BSL The guides have fly through videos of the dome galleries and zoomable close ups of the ceiling mosaics painting and photography Interviews and commentary from experts include the Dean of St Paul s conservation team and the Director of Music Archive film footage includes major services and events from the cathedral s history Charges for sightseers Edit St Paul s charges for the admission of those people who are sightseers rather than worshippers the charge is 21 18 when purchased online 120 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 The charge to sightseers is made because St Paul s receives little regular or significant funding from the Crown the Church of England or the state and relies on the income generated by tourism to allow the building to continue to function as a centre for Christian worship as well as to cover general maintenance and repair work 121 122 St Paul s Cathedral Arts Project Edit The St Paul s Cathedral Arts Project explores art and faith Projects have included installations by Gerry Judah Antony Gormley Rebecca Horn Yoko Ono and Martin Firrell In 2014 St Paul s commissioned Gerry Judah to create an artwork in the nave to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War Two spectacular sculptures consisting of three dimensional white cruciforms reflect the meticulously maintained war graves of northern France and further afield Each sculpture is also embellished with miniaturised destroyed residential blocks depicting war zones in the Middle East Syria Baghdad Afghanistan thus connecting 100 years of warfare 123 Bill Viola has created two altarpieces for permanent display in St Paul s Cathedral The project commenced production in mid 2009 Following the extensive programme of cleaning and repair of the interior of St Paul s completed in 2005 Viola was commissioned to create two altarpieces on the themes of Mary and Martyrs These two multi screen video installations are permanently located at the end of the Quire aisles flanking the High Altar of the cathedral and the American Memorial Chapel Each work employs an arrangement of multiple plasma screen panels configured in a manner similar to historic altarpieces In summer 2010 St Paul s chose two new works by the British artist Mark Alexander to be hung either side of the nave Both entitled Red Mannheim Alexander s large red silkscreens are inspired by the Mannheim Cathedral altarpiece 1739 41 which was damaged by bombing in the Second World War The original sculpture depicts Christ on the cross surrounded by a familiar retinue of mourners Rendered in splendid giltwood with Christ s wracked body sculpted in relief and the flourishes of flora and incandescent rays from heaven this masterpiece of the German Rococo is an object of ravishing beauty and intense piety In March 2010 Flare II a sculpture by Antony Gormley was installed in the Geometric Staircase 124 In 2007 the Dean and Chapter commissioned Martin Firrell to create a major public artwork to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping out of Wren s building The Question Mark Inside consisted of digital text projections to the cathedral dome West Front and inside onto the Whispering Gallery The text was based on blog contributions by the general public as well as interviews conducted by the artist and on the artist s own views The project presented a stream of possible answers to the question What makes life meaningful and purposeful and what does St Paul s mean in that contemporary context The Question Mark Inside opened on 8 November 2008 and ran for eight nights Depictions of St Paul s Edit 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 Paintings and engravings of St Paul s 18th century engraving of St Paul s from the north west by Canaletto 19th century coloured engraving from the south west by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd Romantic 19th 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 by the Venetian painter Canaletto 1747 St Paul s viewed from a loggia a capriccio c 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 Photography and film Edit St Paul s Cathedral has been the subject of many photographs most notably the iconic image of the dome surrounded by smoke during the Blitz see above It has also been used in films and TV programmes 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 Films in which St Paul s has been depicted include St Paul s Cathedral 1942 a wartime documentary film for the British Council the final part of which shows bomb damage in and around St Paul s 125 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 shows the exterior of the building and the bust of T E Lawrence Mary Poppins 1964 shows the steps and west front of the cathedral the main setting for the song Feed the Birds St Paul s Cathedral has appeared as a filming location twice in Doctor Who in the 1968 serial The Invasion and in the 2014 two part story Dark Water Death in Heaven In both the Cybermen are shown descending steps outside the cathedral St Paul s is seen briefly in the Goodies episode Kitten Kong 1971 During his rampage through London Twinkle damages London landmarks including St Paul s Cathedral the dome of which is knocked off In the BBC educational programme A Guide to Armageddon 1982 a 1 megaton nuclear weapon is detonated over London with St Paul s used as ground zero Lifeforce 1985 the cathedral s interior is the setting for the climax of the film The Madness of King George 1994 shows the Geometric Staircase in the South West Bell Tower Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004 shows the Geometric Staircase in the south west bell tower representing the staircase towards the Divination classroom Star Trek Into Darkness 2013 depicts St Paul s in 23rd century London along with other notable modern day London buildings e St Paul s is the only building of ancient London that survived the Sixty Minute War in the movie Mortal Engines 2018 and the books it is based on See also Edit Christianity portal London portalCyril Raikes fire watching on the dome of St Paul s Cathedral in the Second World War Category Burials at St Paul s Cathedral List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom List of churches and cathedrals of London Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for St Paul s Cathedral Paternoster Square Tall buildings in London History of early modern period domes List of tallest domesReferences EditNotes Edit Nomina Episcoporum cum Clericis Suis Quinam et ex Quibus Provinciis ad Arelatensem Synodum Convenerint The Names of the Bishops with Their Clerics who Came Together at the Synod of Arles and from which Province They Came from Labbe amp Cossart 1671 col 1429 included in Thackery 1843 pp 272 ff Not to be confused with an identically named film director The largest is at Liverpool Cathedral followed by the Royal Albert Hall the Royal Festival Hall and St George s Hall Entered in the Entry Book at Stationers Hall on 7 May 1720 by Thornhill The Bodleian Library s deposit copy survives Arch Antiq A III 23 Advertising poster for Star Trek Into Darkness 2013 bottom right the dome is visible to the left of and behind 30 St Mary Axe the Gherkin Citations Edit Hibbert et al 2011 p 778 Gardner Kleiner amp Mamiya 2004 p 760 The London Standard 10 6 1873 page 6 Pierce 2004 Sightseeing Times amp Prices Stpauls co uk The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral Archived from the original on 29 January 2017 Retrieved 13 July 2017 St Paul s Cathedral Retrieved 27 July 2020 Denison 1995 Sankey 1998 pp 78 82 Camden 1607 pp 306 307 Clark 1996 pp 1 9 Bede 1910 pp 68 69 Garmonsway 1953 Garmonsway 1953 p 218 Lehmberg 2014 p 114 Morrissey 2011 p 3 Dugdale 1658 pp 133 134 Kelly 2004 The Survey of Building Sites in London after the Great Fire of 1666 Mills P Oliver J Vol I p59 Guildhall Library MS 84 reproduced in facsimile London London Topographical Society 1946 Campbell 2007 p 26 a b c Hart 2002 Campbell 2007 p 10 a b Lang 1956 pp 47 63 Summerson 1983 p 204 Summerson 1983 p 223 a b c d Fletcher 1962 p 913 Keene Burn amp Saint 2004 p 219 Campbell 2007 p 161 Campbell 2007 p 69 UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark Gregory 2017 The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain 1209 to Present New Series MeasuringWorth Retrieved 11 June 2022 Wright 1693 Tinniswood 2001 p 315 a b c Suffragettes violence and militancy British Library Webb Simon 2014 The Suffragette Bombers Britain s Forgotten Terrorists Pen and Sword p 65 ISBN 978 1 78340 064 5 Bearman C J 2005 An Examination of Suffragette Violence The English Historical Review 120 486 378 doi 10 1093 ehr cei119 ISSN 0013 8266 JSTOR 3490924 a b c d e f Jones Ian 2016 London Bombed Blitzed and Blown Up The British Capital Under Attack Since 1867 Frontline Books pp 63 64 ISBN 978 1 4738 7901 0 a b Jardine 2006 St Paul s Cathedral in London Hit by Bomb The Evening Independent 19 April 1941 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2014 Geffen 2014 1942531 Sapper George Cameron Wylie Bomb Disposal Royal Engineers George Cross 33 Engineer regiment Royal Engineers website archived from the original on 30 January 2008 retrieved 28 January 2008 No 34956 The London Gazette Supplement 27 September 1940 pp 5767 5768 Miller Julie Inside Princess Diana s Royal Wedding Fairy Tale Vanity Fair Retrieved 1 June 2021 St Paul s Cathedral completes 40m restoration project BBC News 15 June 2011 Retrieved 23 November 2011 Walker amp Butt 2011 Ward 2011 Walker 2011 St Paul s protest Occupy London camp evicted BBC 28 February 2012 Woman jailed for life following triple bomb plot conviction Counter Terrorism Policing 3 July 2020 Retrieved 27 July 2020 Burns 2004 p 381 Worship Choral Evensong St Paul s Cathedral Archived from the original on 13 October 2017 Retrieved 12 October 2017 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016 Home St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk archived from the original on 4 February 2016 retrieved 18 February 2016 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016c The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016d Press release Stpauls co uk archived from the original on 28 September 2022 retrieved 28 September 2022 a b Service Schedule May 2019 PDF 29 May 2019 Archived from the original PDF on 29 May 2019 Retrieved 15 June 2019 Service Schedule February 2019 PDF 29 May 2019 Archived from the original PDF on 29 May 2019 Retrieved 15 June 2019 a b Gillian Bowen and the Reverend Neil Evans appointed to Cathedral Chapter St Paul s Cathedral Retrieved 30 September 2022 Appointment of The Venerable Sheila Watson as Additional Chapter Member and Canon Non Residentiary of St Paul s Cathedral St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk Archived from the original on 25 August 2017 Retrieved 25 August 2017 Gov uk PDF Archived PDF from the original on 14 January 2017 Retrieved 23 August 2016 Sheila Nicoll OBE to become Lay Canon at St Paul s St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk Archived from the original on 15 February 2019 Retrieved 15 February 2019 a b Cathedral Choirs amp Musicians Stpauls co uk The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral Archived from the original on 4 July 2017 Retrieved 13 July 2017 Appointment of new Director of Music St Paul s Cathedral website news section Dean and Chapter of St Paul s 21 May 2007 Archived from the original on 28 September 2007 Retrieved 23 May 2007 Lang 1956 p 171 The Organs amp Bells St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk Archived from the original on 27 May 2019 Retrieved 15 June 2019 Sayers M D St Paul s Cathedral St Paul s Churchyard C00925 The National Pipe Organ Register Retrieved 14 October 2020 The world s largest and most famous organs Die Orgelseite Archived from the original on 13 August 2019 Retrieved 13 August 2019 St Paul s stpauls co uk Archived from the original on 27 May 2019 Retrieved 27 May 2019 a b c d e f Summerson 1983 pp 238 240 Sayers M D St Paul s Cathedral St Paul s Churchyard A00752 The National Pipe Organ Register Retrieved 14 October 2020 Rudgard Olivia 28 February 2017 St Paul s Cathedral appoints first female chorister in 1 000 year history The Telegraph Archived from the original on 19 October 2017 Retrieved 13 July 2017 St Paul s Cathedral admits first woman to choir BBC News 28 February 2017 Archived from the original on 16 May 2017 Retrieved 13 July 2017 de la Ware Tess 1 March 2017 St Paul s appoints first full time female chorister in 1 000 year history The Guardian Archived from the original on 25 April 2017 Retrieved 13 July 2017 St Paul s Cathedral to admit girls to choir for first time in 900 years The Guardian 5 May 2022 Retrieved 6 May 2022 Campbell 2007 pp 27 28 Tabor 1919 p 108 a b c Downes 1987 pp 11 34 Saunders 2001 p 60 a b Hart 1995 pp 17 23 Barker amp Hyde 1982 Campbell 2007 pp 53 54 a b c d e f g h Harris 1988 pp 214 15 a b c d e f g h i Fletcher 1962 p 906 Campbell 2007 p 56 59 a b c Summerson 1983 p 228 Campbell 2007 p 137 Campbell 2007 pp 105 114 Tinniswood 2010 p 203 Lang 1956 p 209 Lang 1956 pp 252 230 St Paul s website Miscellaneous Drawings Archived 20 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine St Paul s Cathedral website Climb the Dome Archived 21 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine Figure of Christ St Paul s Cathedral Gino Masero Gino Masero 21 October 2017 Gardner Kleiner amp Mamiya 2004 Fletcher 1962 p 912 Gardner Kleiner amp Mamiya 2004 pp 604 05 a b Pevsner 1964 pp 324 26 a b Summerson 1983 p 236 a b Summerson 1983 p 234 6 The western towers c 1685 1710 St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk Archived from the original on 1 September 2017 Retrieved 1 September 2017 a b Leapman 1995 The Story of a Fence St Paul s Cathedral The History Channel archived from the original on 23 May 2008 retrieved 18 April 2008 Lang 1956 p 252 The Chapels St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk Archived from the original on 28 August 2011 Retrieved 11 March 2011 Paul s Cathedral St 28 November 2006 Explore St Paul s Explore stpauls net archived from the original on 3 January 2007 retrieved 28 November 2006 Roll of Honour archived from the original on 6 August 2014 retrieved 26 October 2014 St Paul s Cathedral 28 November 2006 St Paul s Cathedral Floor Stpauls co uk archived from the original on 27 September 2006 retrieved 28 November 2006 Holmes 2002 p 297 Hibbert et al 2011 p 394 Robbery at St Paul s Cathedral Morning Post 24 December 1810 Retrieved 11 July 2014 Quinn 2013 The New Clock of St Paul s Nottingham Evening Post England 21 December 1893 Retrieved 4 December 2016 via British Newspaper Archive a b The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016 Home webpage St Paul s Cathedral archived from the original on 6 July 2015 retrieved 7 July 2015 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016b Bells Hamer Mick 17 December 1994 When the Great Bell Broke New Scientist Retrieved 8 June 2022 ianVisits A festival of church bells to ring out across the City of London London News July 27 2021 Retrieved Jun 1 2022 Dunton 1896 pp 25 26 E News Hear Bells Around the World Ring for Queen Elizabeth II After Her Death Kisha Forde September 9 2022 Retrieved Sept 19 2022 Oculus an eye into St Paul s Archived from the original on 31 August 2011 Sightseeing Times amp Prices St Paul s Cathedral archived from the original on 26 April 2014 retrieved 27 April 2014 Why do we charge St Paul s Cathedral Archived from the original on 17 January 2019 Retrieved 16 January 2019 Book Tickets St Paul s Cathedral Stpauls co uk Retrieved 14 March 2022 Giant white crosses remind St Paul s worshippers and visitors of the horrors of warfare Stpauls co uk archived from the original on 4 March 2016 retrieved 18 February 2016 6 Unique Staircases in the UK You Wish You Could Walk Over Medium com archived from the original on 28 July 2014 retrieved 24 July 2014 British Council Film Collection St Paul s Cathedral Film britishcouncil org British Council 2015 Archived from the original on 2 September 2016 Retrieved 2 September 2016 Sources Edit Barker Felix Hyde Ralph 1982 London as it might have been John Murray Bede 1910 C Jane Lionel ed Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation John Stevens p 68 via Wikisource Betjeman John 1970 A Pictorial History of English Architecture John Murray ISBN 978 0 7195 2640 4 Burns Arthur 2004 St Paul s The Cathedral Church of London 604 2004 London Yale University Press ISBN 978 0300092769 Camden William 1607 Britannia in Latin London G Bishop amp J Norton pp 306 7 Campbell James W P 2007 Building St Paul s London Thames and Hudson ISBN 978 0 500 34244 2 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 4 March 2014 Cutting edge technology reveals historical secrets of St Paul s in new TV series St Paul s Cathedral The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016b The Organs and Bells St Paul s Cathedral retrieved 18 February 2016 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016c Who are we St Paul s Cathedral The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016d Members of Chapter St Paul s Cathedral retrieved 1 January 2021 The Chapter of St Paul s Cathedral 2016e New Canon Pastor appointed at St Paul s St Paul s Cathedral retrieved 18 February 2016 Clark John 1996 The Temple of Diana in Bird Joanna et al eds Interpreting Roman London Oxbow Monograph vol 58 Oxford Oxbow pp 1 9 Denison Simon June 1995 News In Brief British Archaeology Council for British Archaeology archived from the original on 13 May 2013 retrieved 30 March 2013 Downes Kerry 1987 Sir Christopher Wren the Design of St Paul s Cathedral London Trefoil Publications pp 11 34 Dugdale William 1658 The History of St Pauls Cathedral in London from Its Foundation Untill These Times Extracted Out of Originall Charters Records Leiger Books and Other Manuscript Beautified with Sundry Prospects of the Church Figures of Tombes and Monuments Tho Warren Dunton Larkin 1896 The World and Its People Silver Burdett pp 25 26 Fletcher Banister 1962 A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method seventeenth edition Athlone Press University of London Geffen Anthony producer 8 July 2014 Time Scanners St Paul s Cathedral Scanners Atlantic Productions Hart Vaughan 1995 St Paul s Cathedral Christopher Wren London Phaidon Press Limited pp 17 23 Hart Vaughan 2002 Nicholas Hawksmoor Rebuilding Ancient Wonders Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 09699 6 Hart Vaughan 2020 Christopher Wren In Search of Eastern Antiquity Yale University Press ISBN 978 1913107079 Gardner Helen Kleiner Fred S Mamiya Christin J 2004 Gardner s Art through the Ages Thomson Wadsworth ISBN 978 0 15 505090 7 Garmonsway G N trans 1953 The Anglo Saxon Chronicle London Dent Harris Brian L 1988 Harris s Guide to Churches and Cathedrals Ebury Press ISBN 978 0 09 191251 2 Keene Derek Burn R Arthur Saint Andrew eds 2004 St Paul s The Cathedral Church of London 604 2004 Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 09276 9 Kelly S E ed 2004 Charters of St Paul s London Anglo Saxon Charters Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 726299 3 Holmes Richard 2002 Wellington The Iron Duke London Harper Collins Publishers ISBN 978 0 00 713750 3 Jardine Lisa 15 May 2006 Homage to Highbury BBC News retrieved 7 September 2010 Lang Jane 1956 Rebuilding St Paul s after the Great Fire of London Oxford Oxford University Press Leapman Michael 1995 Eyewitness Travel Guide to Great Britain Dorling Kindersley ISBN 978 0 7513 0005 5 Lehmberg Stanford E 14 July 2014 The Reformation of Cathedrals Cathedrals in English Society Princeton University Press ISBN 978 1 4008 5980 1 Morrissey Mary 2011 Politics and the Paul s Cross Sermons 1558 1642 Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 acprof oso 9780199571765 001 0001 ISBN 978 0 19 957176 5 Pevsner Nikolaus 1964 An Outline of European Architecture Pelican Books Pierce Rebecca 2004 National Identity and the British Empire the Image of Saint Paul s Cathedral Masters Marshall University Quinn Jennifer 8 April 2013 Margaret Thatcher former British prime minister known as The Iron Lady dies at 87 Toronto Star Sankey D 1998 Cathedrals granaries and urban vitality in late Roman London in Watson Bruce ed Roman London Recent Archaeological Work JRA Supplementary Series vol 24 Portsmouth RI Journal of Roman Archaeology pp 78 82 Saunders Ann 2001 St Paul s The Story of the Cathedral London Collins and Brown Limited p 60 Summerson John 1983 Architecture of Britain 1530 1830 The Pelican History of Art Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 14 056003 9 Tabor Margaret Emma 1919 The City Churches A Short Guide with Illustrations amp Maps Swarthmore Press Thackery Francis 1843 Researches into the Ecclesiastical and Political State of Ancient Britain under the Roman Emperors with Observations upon the Principal Events and Characters Connected with the Christian Religion during the First Five Centuries London T Cadell Labbe Philippe Cossart Gabriel eds 1671 Ab Initiis AErae Christianae ad Annum CCCXXIV From the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Year 324 col 1429 Sacrosancta Concilia ad Regiam Editionem Exacta quae Nunc Quarta Parte Prodit Actior The Sancrosanct Councils Exacted for the Royal Edition which the Editors Now Produce in Four Parts amp in Latin vol I Paris The Typographical Society for Ecclesiastical Books Tinniswood Adrian 2001 His Invention so Fertile A Life of Christopher Wren London Oxford Press p 315 Tinniswood Adrian 2010 His Invention So Fertile London Random House p 203 Walker Peter Butt Riazat 27 October 2011 St Paul s may seek injunction to move Occupy London activists The Guardian London Walker Peter 31 October 2011 Dean of St Paul s Cathedral resigns over Occupy London protest row The Guardian Ward Victoria 28 October 2011 Giles Fraser resignation I couldn t face Dale Farm on the steps of St Paul s Daily Telegraph London archived from the original on 11 January 2022 Hibbert Christopher Weinreb Ben Keay John Keay Julia 2011 The London Encyclopaedia 3rd ed Pan Macmillan ISBN 978 0 230 73878 2 Wright James 1693 The Choire London Further reading Edit Atkinson Frank 1985 St Paul s and the City Park Lane Press London Michael Joseph ISBN 978 0 7181 2629 2 With numerous photographic plates both in colour and black and white Hart Vaughan 2020 Christopher Wren In Search of Eastern Antiquity Yale University Press ISBN 978 1913107079 Clifton Taylor Alec 1967 The Cathedrals of England Thames and Hudson Harvey John 1961 English Cathedrals Batsford Hood Frederic 1967 The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire With a foreword by Prince Philip It contains 65 pages of mainly colour plates on glossy paper relating to St Paul s Cathedral and is a republished section of the book published by the Oxford University Press Owen James 2010 Danger UXB Little Brown ISBN 978 1 4087 0255 0 contains a chapter on St Paul s in wartime and the unexploded bomb which closed it Tatton Brown Tim Crook John 2002 The English Cathedral New Holland Publishers ISBN 978 1 84330 120 2 Burman Peter 1987 St Paul s Cathedral Bell amp Hyman ISBN 978 0 7135 2617 2External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Paul s Cathedral The Sound of Bells Great Paul St Paul s Cathedral Credits archived from the original on 19 May 2018 retrieved 16 October 2014 St Paul s Cathedral official website Winston Churchill State Funeral St Paul s UK Parliament Living Heritage St Paul s Cathedral at Google Cultural Institute A Popular Description of St Paul s Cathedral By Maria Hackett published 1828 87 pages Biographical Illustrations of St Paul s Cathedral By George Lewis Smyth published 1843 284 pages St Paul s Cathedral by Canaletto painting Wren s various designs St Paul s Cathedral Photo Gallery 125 photos The Registrum Statutorum of St Paul s collected charters and other documents from the earliest years until the nineteenth century Published by the cathedral in 1873 Latin and English BBC News account of the bombing Bells of St Paul s Archived 7 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine A history of the choristers of St Paul s Cathedral Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire OBE Chapel St Paul s lithographs c 1647 1817 The Jubilee Cope commissioned for the Bishop of London by St Paul s Cathedral in honour of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title St Paul 27s Cathedral amp oldid 1135478269, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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