Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
| St Paul's Cathedral | |
St Paul's dome |
|
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Location | City of London |
| Full name | Cathedral Church of Paul the Apostle |
| Country | England |
| Ecclesiastical information | |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | London |
| Diocese created | 604 |
| Bishop | Rt Revd Richard Chartres |
| Dean | Rt Revd Graeme Paul Knowles |
| Canons | Revd Canon Martin Warner Treasurer Revd Canon Lucy Winkett Precentor Bishop M J Colclough Pastor Peter Chapman Lay Canon Claire Foster Lay Canon Revd Laura Burgess Sacrist Revd Clare Robson Chaplain Revd Jason Rendell Succentor |
| Director of Music | Andrew Carwood |
| Organist | Tom Winpenny |
| Website | www.stpauls.co.uk |
| Building information | |
| Previous Cathedrals | 4 |
| Dates built | 1677 |
| Year consecrated | 1708 |
| Architect(s) | Christopher Wren |
| Architectural style | English Baroque |
| Length | 158m |
| Width across transepts | 75m |
| Width (nave) | 37m |
| Height (max) | 108m |
| Towers | 2 |
| Domes | 1 |
| Dome height (external) | 99m |
| Dome height (internal) | 65m |
St Paul's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, although the number is higher if every major medieval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedral. The cathedral sits on the highest point of the City of London, which originated as a Roman trading post situated on the River Thames. The cathedral is one of London's most visited sights.
The nearest London Underground station is St. Paul's.
[edit] Previous cathedrals
[edit] Pre-Norman
There had been a late-Roman See in London. The traditional first Saxon cathedral was according to Bede created by Mellitus in AD 604 in Lundenwic. The unproven conjecture that it occupied the site of the present cathedral is that it was these missionaries' habit, as in mainland Europe, to build cathedrals within Roman cities. However, the Roman city of London Lundenburh was unoccupied at that time, unlike in Europe where there was continuity of both urban occupation and ecclesiastic succession. Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed it to have been on the site of a temple dedicated to the goddess Diana, in alignment with the Apollo Temple he imagined that once stood at Westminster, although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this (Kruger, 1943). Geoffrey was disbelieved by contemporaries and there is no evidence of any occupation at the Westminster site in the Roman period. If any church building existed, perhaps a reutilised existing structure, then it would have only been a modest chapel at first and may well have been destroyed after Mellitus was expelled from the city by Saeberht's pagan successors.
Wherever its predecessor was sited, the successor building within the reoccupied City (tpq 886 AD) was destroyed in a "most fatal fire" in 962, as mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Presumably it was made of timber.
The third cathedral was begun in 962, perhaps in stone. In it was buried Ethelred the Unready. It burnt, with the whole city, in a fire in 1087 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).
[edit] 'Old St Paul's'
The fourth St Paul's (known as Old St Paul's, a 19th century coinage, or the pre-Great Fire St Paul's) was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. Work took over 200 years, and a great deal was lost in a fire in 1136. The roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. This 'New Work' was completed in 1314 - the cathedral had been consecrated in 1300. It was the third-longest church in Europe. Excavations in 1878 by Francis Penrose showed it was 585 feet (178 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet or 87 m across the transepts and crossing), and had one of Europe's tallest spires, at some 489 feet (149 m).
By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and other buildings in the churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in St Paul's Churchyard, having been seized by the crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers, who were often evangelical Protestants. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.
Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced; this event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions.
England's first classical architect, Sir Inigo Jones, added the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacing mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed (Kelly 2004). "Old St Paul's" was gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead. Indeed this had been contemplated even before the fire.
[edit] Wren's St Paul's
[edit] Design and construction
 Wren's Greek Cross design |
 Wren's warrant design |
 Wren's cathedral as built |
 The clock tower on the west end of the cathedral |
The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren in 1668, along with over 50 other City churches. St. Paul’s went through five general stages of design. Wren initially began surveying the property and drawing up designs before the Great Fire of 1666, and these drawings for the most part included the addition of a dome on the existing building to replace the dilapidated spire, and a restoration of the interiors that would compliment the 1630 Inigo Jones-designed facade.[1] After the fire, the ruins of the building were still thought to be workable, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s to start afresh. Wren’s second design, the first to be a completely new building, was a Greek cross, which was considered to be too radical by his critics because it lacked the programme necessary to conduct mass.[2]
Wren’s third proposal for the new St. Paul’s used many of the same design concepts as his Greek cross design, though it had an extended nave. This design was embodied in his creation in 1673 of the "Great Model". The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and was over 13’ tall and 21’ long.[3] His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church and members of the clergy, decried the design as being too dissimilar from churches that already existed in England at the time to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Clergymen also preferred a Latin cross plan for services. 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. Wren considered the Great Model his favorite design, and thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty.[4] After the Great Model, Wren resolved to make no more models or publicly expose his drawings, which he found to do nothing but "lose time, and subject his business many times, to incompetent judges".[2]
Wren's fourth design, the Warrant design, sought to reconcile the Gothic, the predominant form of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." Wren attempted to integrate the same concepts of Renaissance harmony into a much more Gothic style. This design 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 made by Wren was informed by his knowledge of astronomy.[1] His design of the portico was influenced by Inigo Jones’s addition to Old St. Paul’s.[2]
The final built design differs largely in ornamentation with the official Warrant design. Wren received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: "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 at the Vatican. The saucer domes that were eventually added to the design were inspired by François Mansart’s Val-de-Grâce that Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665.[4] The first stone of the cathedral was laid in 1677 by Thomas Strong, Wren's master stonemason.
The cathedral was completed on 20 October 1708, Wren's 76th birthday. On Thursday, 2 December 1697, thirty-two years and three months after a spark from Farryner's bakery had caused the Great Fire of London, St Paul's Cathedral came into use: it proved to be well worth the wait. The widower King William III had been scheduled to appear but, uncomfortable in crowds and public displays, had bowed out at the last minute. The crowd of both the great and the small was so big, and their attitude towards William so indifferent, that he was scarcely missed. 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.
The consensus was as with all such works: some loved it ("Without, within, below, above the eye/ Is filled with unrestrained delight.");[5] some hated it ("...There was an air of Popery about the giled capitals, the heavy arches...They were unfamiliar, un-English..");[6] while most, once their curiosity was satisfied, didn't think about it one way or another.
- Sir Christopher Wren
- Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
- If anyone calls,
- Say I am designing St Paul's."
[edit] Structural engineering
The walls of the cathedral are particularly thick to avoid the need for large flying buttresses. The windows are set into deep recesses in the walls. The upper parts of the cathedral walls are reinforced with small flying buttresses, which were a relatively late design change to give extra strength. These are concealed behind a large curtain wall, which was added to keep the building's classical style intact.
The large dome is composed of three layers. The inner and outer layers are catenary curves, but the structural integrity to support the heavy stone structure atop the dome is provided by a intermediary layer which is much steeper and more conical in shape. The dome is restrained by a wrought iron chain to prevent the base spreading and cracking.
[edit] Artists and craftsmen
The construction and decoration of the Cathedral involved many of the foremost artists and craftsmen in England; these were:
- Sir James Thornhill - painted the eight monochrome paintings of the life of St Paul that adorn the interior of the dome.[7] Engravings of the paintings were published in 1720.[8]
- Grinling Gibbons - responsible for the woodwork, most notably the choir stalls,[9] and sculpted the pediment of the north transept.[10]
- Jean Tijou - most of the wrought ironwork, including the gates flanking the high altar.[11]
- Bernard Smith - designed and built the organ.[12]
- Caius Gabriel Cibber - sculpted the pediment of the south transept.[10]
- Francis Bird - sculpted the great west pediment showing the conversion of St Paul,[13] plus the seven large sculptures on the west front.[7]
[edit] Description
The cathedral is built of Portland stone in a late Renaissance style that is England's sober Baroque. Its impressive dome was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It rises 365 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, making it a famous London landmark.[14] Wren achieved a pleasing appearance by building three domes: the tall outer dome is non-structural but impressive to view, the lower inner dome provides an artistically balanced interior, and between the two is a structural cone that supports the apex structure and the outer dome. Wren was said to have been hauled up to the rafters in a basket during the building of its later stages to inspect progress.
The nave has three small chapels in the two adjoining aisles – All Souls and St Dunstan's in the north aisle and the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George in the south aisle. The main space of the cathedral is centred under the Dome; it rises 108.4 metres from the cathedral floor and holds three circular galleries – the internal Whispering Gallery, the external Stone Gallery, and the external Golden Gallery.
The Whispering Gallery runs around the interior of the Dome and is 99 feet (30.2 m) above the cathedral floor. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level. It gets its name because a whisper 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. This works only for whispered speech - normal voiced speech is not focused in this way.
The base of the inner dome is 173 feet (53.4 m) above the floor. The top of the inner dome is about 65 m above the floor, making this the height of the enclosed space. 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).[15] The cathedral is thus slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.
The quire extends to the east of the dome and holds the stalls for the clergy and the choir and the organ. To the north and south of the dome are the transepts of the North Choir and the South Choir.
Details of the towers at the west end (illustration, left) and their dark voids are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance, for the towers have always stood out in the urban skyline. They 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 block plinth containing the clock. The main entablature breaks forward over the paired columns to express both elements, tying them together in a single horizontal band. The cap, like a bell-shaped miniature dome, supports a gilded finial, a pinecone supported on four scrolling angled brackets, the topmost expression of the consistent theme.
The north-west tower contains 13 bells hung for change ringing while the south-west contains four, including Great Paul, at 16½ tons[16]- the largest bell in the British Isles, cast in 1881, and Great Tom (the hour bell), recast twice, the last time by Richard Phelps, after being moved from St. Stephen's Chapel at the Palace of Westminster. The bell is only rung on occasions of a death in the royal family, the Bishop of London, or London's mayor, although an exception was made at the death of US President James Garfield.[14]
[edit] Post-Wren history
This cathedral has survived despite being targeted during the Blitz- it was struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 1941. 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, as it left a 100-foot (30 m) crater when it was later remotely detonated in a secure location.[17] As a result of this action, Davies was awarded the George Cross, along with Sapper George Cameron Wylie.[18]
On 29 December 1940, the cathedral had another close call when an incendiary bomb became lodged in the lead shell of the dome but fell outwards onto the Stone Gallery and was put out before it could ignite the dome timbers. A photograph taken that day showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke became a famous image of the times.
[edit] Memorials
The cathedral has a very substantial crypt, holding over 200 memorials, and serves as both the Order of the British Empire Chapel and the Treasury. The cathedral has very few treasures: many have been lost, and in 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723: on the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written, "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you).
St Paul's is home to other plaques, carvings, statues, memorials and tombs of famous British figures including:
- General Sir Isaac Brock
- Sir Edwin Lutyens
- John Donne, whose funeral effigy, portraying him in a shroud, but not his tomb, survives from Old St Paul's.
- Lord Kitchener
- The Duke of Wellington[14]
- Lord Horatio Nelson[14]
- Henry Moore
- Sir William Alexander Smith
- Sir Winston Churchill
- T. E. Lawrence, whose bust faces Nelson's sarcophagus
- Sir Alexander Fleming
- Sir Arthur Sullivan
- Florence Nightingale
- J. M. W. Turner[14]
- Sir Joshua Reynolds[14]
- Dr. Samuel Johnson[14]
- Ivor Novello
- Charles Cornwallis
- Frederick George Jackson
Most of the memorials commemorate the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the most recent being the Gulf War. There are special monuments to Lord Nelson in the south transept and to the Duke of Wellington in the north aisle; both are buried here. Also remembered are poets, painters, clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years.
The apse of the cathedral is home to the American Memorial Chapel. It honours American servicemen and women who died in World War II, and was dedicated in 1958. It was paid for entirely by donations from British people, and was designed, as a modern exercise in the Wren style, by Godfrey Allen and Stephen Dykes Bower.[19] 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. It is in front of the chapel's altar. The three chapel windows date from 1960; they feature 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.[20]
The cathedral has been the site of many famous funerals, including those of Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill and George Mallory.
[edit] Modern-day
The Royal Family holds most of their important marriages, christenings and funerals at Westminster Abbey, but St Paul's was used for the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. The religious service for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee was also celebrated there.
In 2001, Britain's memorial service to honour the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks was held at the cathedral, attended by the Royal Family and then-U.S. ambassador William Farish. Prince Philip spoke, as did Farish, and Farish said in 2004 in The Times just before he resigned as ambassador that this service showed the strong relationship between the US and Britain. On 1 November 2005, it held a memorial service for the 7 July bombings.
The cathedral is open to the public, with a charge for non-worshipping visitors. It is possible to climb the 530 steps to the golden gallery, where there is a fine view of London. In 2000, the cathedral began a major restoration programme, scheduled for completion in 2008, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its opening. A ceremony to celebrate the anniversary was directed by Patrick Garland. The restoration programme is expected to cost £40 million, and involves repair and cleaning of the building, and improvement of visitor facilities, such as accessibility for the disabled, and provision of additional educational facilities.
In 2007, Dean and Chapter commissioned public artist 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 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 8 nights.
In 2007, the World Monuments Fund and American Express awarded St Paul's a grant as part of their Sustainable Tourism initiative. The project will open up rarely seen areas, relieve crowding in the nave- which suffers heavily from foot traffic and fluctuations in humidity- and fund a new Exploration Centre in the crypt. This centre will provide insight into a variety of topics relating to the cathedral, including architecture, history, science, music, and, of course, religion. A lapidarium of recovered medieval stones and the room containing Wren's "Great Model" (currently only seen by appointment) will also be opened to the public.[21]
[edit] Organ and organists
[edit] Organ
The organ was commissioned in 1694: the current instrument is the third-biggest in Britain with 7,189 pipes and 108 stops, enclosed in an impressive case by Grinling Gibbons.
Details of the organ from the National Pipe Organ Register
[edit] Organists and Directors of Music
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|
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[edit] Sub organists
- George Cooper 1843 - 1876
- George Clement Martin 1876 - 1888 (afterwards organist)
- William Hodge 1888 - 1895
- Charles Macphearson 1895 - 1916 (afterwards organist, previously an assisting organist 1903-1916)
- Stanley Marchant 1916 - 1927 (afterwards organist)
- Douglas Edward Hopkins 1927 - 1946 (afterwards organist of Peterborough Cathedral, then Canterbury Cathedral)
- Harry Gabb 1946 - 1974
- Barry Rose 1974 - 1984 (Master of the Choir from 1977)
- John Scott 1985 - 1990 (afterwards Organist & Director of Music)
- Andrew Lucas 1990 - 1998 (afterwards organist of St Albans Abbey)
- Huw Williams 1998 - 2007 (October; title changed to Assistant Director of Music & Organist)
- Tom Winpenny 2008 (April-July; title changed from Assistant Sub-Organist)
- Tim Wakerell 2008 (September) - present
[edit] Assistant Sub-organists
- Gerald Wheeler 1953 - 1956
- Derek Holman 1956 - 1958
- Richard Popplewell 1958 - 1966
- Timothy Farrell 1966 - 1967
- Christopher Herrick 1967 - 1978
- John Scott 1978 - 1985
- Andrew Lucas 1985 - 1990
- Martin Baker 1990 - 1991
- Richard Moorhouse 1992 - 2000
- Mark Williams 2000 - 2006
- Tom Winpenny 2006 - 2008
In 2007 the posts of Organist and of Director of Music were separated, the Assistant Sub-Organist post becoming the Sub-Organist post in April 2008.
[edit] Interior view
[edit] See also
- Category:Bishops of London
- Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral
- Category:Deans of St Paul's
- College of Minor Canons
- List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom
- List of churches and cathedrals of London
- List of Christopher Wren churches in London
- Paternoster Square
- Tall buildings in London
- The Light of the World
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Lang, Jane. Rebuilding St. Paul's After the Great Fire of London. London: Oxford University Press, 1956. 47-63.
- ^ a b c Downes, Kerry. Sir Christopher Wren: the Design of St. Paul's Cathedral. London: Trefoil Publications, 1987. 11-34.
- ^ Saunders, Ann. St. Paul's: The Story of the Cathedral. London: Collins and Brown Limited, 2001. 60.
- ^ a b Hart, Vaughan. St. Paul's Cathedral, Christopher Wren. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1995. 17-23.
- ^ Wright, James, The Choire,(London, 1693)
- ^ Tinniswood, Adrian (2001), His Invention so Furtile: A Life of Christopher Wren, London: Oxford Press, p.315
- ^ a b Lang (1956), P.252
- ^ 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).
- ^ Lang (1956), P.166
- ^ a b Lang (1956), P.209
- ^ Lang (1956), P.1692
- ^ Lang (1956), P.171
- ^ Lang (1956), P.230
- ^ a b c d e f g Dunton, Larkin (1896). The World and Its People. Silver, Burdett. pp. 25-6.
- ^ "St. Paul's Cathedral". The History Channel. http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/encyclopedia/article_show/St_Pauls_Cathedral/m0016968.html?from=hotlink. Retrieved on 2008-04-18.
- ^ Official webpage of St Paul's Cathedral
- ^ "1942531 Sapper George Cameron Wylie. Bomb Disposal: Royal Engineers—George Cross". 33 Engineer regiment, RE website. http://groups.msn.com/33EngineerRegiment/gcwyliegc.msnw. Retrieved on 2008-01-28.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 34956, pp. 5767–5768, September 27, 1940. Retrieved on 2008-01-28. Davies's George Cross and other medals are on display at the Imperial War Museum, London.
- ^ Paul's Cathedral, St. (November 28, 2006). "Explore St. Paul's". explore-stpauls.net. http://www.explore-stpauls.net/oct03/textMM/AmericanMemorialN.htm. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
- ^ Paul's Cathedral, St. (November 28, 2006). "St. Paul's Cathedral Floor". stpauls.co.uk. http://www.stpauls.co.uk/page.aspx?theLang=001lngdef&pointerID=861696IhcVLL99drjeoTjrkz39LOQnr0. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
- ^ Information about a significant new grant given to St Paul's, part of the World Monuments Fund's Sustainable Tourism initiative
[edit] Sources
- Lang, Jane (1956). Rebuilding St. Paul's after the Great Fire of London. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[edit] Further reading
- St Pauls and the City by Frank Atkinson (With numerous photographic plates, both in colour, and black and white). Michael Joseph - Park Lane Press (London) in 1985 with an ISBN 0 7181 2629 7
- The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Frederic Hood with a foreword by Prince Phillip. (Mainly colour plates on glossy paper relating to St. Paul's Cathedral - 65 pages with descriptive text) Detail from a copy of the book published by OUP (Oxford University Press) at Oxford in 1967 with no ISBN
[edit] External links
- St Paul's Cathedral official website
- St Paul's Cathedral by Canaletto
- Visit St Paul's at imagelinka
- Wren's various designs
- St. Paul's Cathedral Photo Gallery — 125 photos]
- Old St Paul's Cathedral by William Benham - eText from Project Gutenberg
- S.E. Kelly, editor, 2004. Charters of St Paul's, London in series Anglo-Saxon Charters (Oxford University Press) [1]
- 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
- A history of the choristers of St Paul's Cathedral
- Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website
- Central London live webcam showing St Paul's, Westminster and Big Ben
- St. Pauls lithographs c. 1647-1817
Coordinates: 51°30′49″N 0°5′54″W / 51.51361°N 0.09833°W / 51.51361; -0.09833
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Annotations
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The cathedral of Pepys’ time was mostly destroyed in the Great Fire and was replaced by the current building, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
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There are some illustrations of old St. Paul’s Cathedral here:
http://vrcoll.fa.pitt.edu/medart/image/England/london/Old-Saint-Pauls/London-OSPaul.html
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St. Paul
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Some further background history about Old St Paul’s Cathedral can be found at: http://www.britainexpress.com/London/st-pauls.htm of which this is an extract:
“….fire destroyed the [previous] church in 1087. The new Norman building, [nowadays] called Old St. Paul’s, took over 150 years to complete, the final touches being applied in 1240. Well, not quite final touches - a new Gothic choir was added by 1313, making St. Paul’s the third longest church in Europe at 596 feet. The following year the spire was completed. At 489 feet it was the tallest in all Europe.
“In the Tudor period an open-air pulpit called Paul’s Cross was established by the south wall of St. Paul’s. There crowds gathered to hear rabble-rousing Protestant sermons. In 1549 the preachers incited a mob to sack the cathedral itself. They rampaged through the interior, destroying the high altar and ravaging the tombs, wall-hangings, and tombs.
“St. Paul’s bad luck continued. The spire was struck by lightning (not too surprising, considering how it towered over the city). The cathedral became a centre of trade, with merchants selling their wares in the nave of the church itself. Architect Inigo Jones was called in to resurrect the decaying building, but his efforts, hampered by lack of funds, only delayed the inevitable.
“During the English Civil War, Parliamentary troops commandeered the cathedral and used the nave as cavalry barracks. They broke up the scaffolding and sold the material.
“The fortunes of Old St. Paul’s seemed to take a turn for the better with the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Charles II appointed a young architect named Christopher Wren to undertake major repairs to the building. Wren had only begun his work when final calamity struck.
“On September 4, 1666, fire broke out in a bakehouse in Pudding Lane. Fanned by a fierce wind, the fire spread through the close-packed streets of London, destroying everything in its path. For four days the fire raged, and when the smoke finally cleared, Old St. Paul’s was nothing but charred timbers and rubble.”
Here is a link to some pictures of Old St Paul’s as it would have looked at the time that Pepys started his diary in 1660 – plus an earlier one showing the spire still in place:
http://vrcoll.fa.pitt.edu/medart/image/England/london/Old-Saint-Pauls/London-OSPaul.html
(The illustrations were, I see, scanned from, among other places, ‘The History of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London’ by Sir William Dugdale (1605-86).)
G H Cook’s 1955 book “Old S. Paul’s Cathedral: A Lost Glory of Medieval London” includes a description of the cathedral’s near-derelict condition in the 1650s, its tombs and memorials smashed – the cavalry having been in occupation in the Nave for some years.
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St Paul’s Cathedral has an official website at:
Another useful site for churches in the City of London is:
http://www.london-city-churches.org.uk/index_of_city_churches.htm
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Virtual tour of St Paul’s Cathedral:
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all the previous comments say nothing of the (current) magnificent structure. with apologies, some of us tend to the plebian observations.
the whispering gallery, the spectacular view from the tiny dome windows, the grave of nelson in the crypt. please let me state the obvious, spend an entire day (maybe two) just consuming st. paul’s -
London Panorama
The following is part of a London panorama that was created in 1710, i.e. when the new St Paul’s Cathedral was only a few years old. You can also see the Pepys family church of St Bride’s with its tiered spire on the left of the picture, and the Fleet River unobtrusively enters the Thames somewhere between the two.
http://www.motco.com/mapimages/006/80002006-London-left.jpg
It’s amazing how crowded the buildings are, even after the Fire, and also how they are now completely of brick rather than wood-and-plaster. And also how close the open countryside is (e.g. rural areas like Kensington and Highgate). If you click on the other sections of the panorama (click on “Large Images” on the right of the pic) you will see that this is very densely packed compared with Westminster.
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There is one building [btm lf hd cnr on the bank]that appears to have five floors plus attic area, while the rest of the city with the exception of the religiously inspired, do reach no higher than 4 floors plus Leads. the leads in most cases do seem to be eye ball to eye ball. As most rooms, I am led to believe, be 15 foot ceilings, this building has 10 foot ceilings? [ an error of the artist? or did the artist record a building code violation or was the the property just trying to pack more work space in to a given volume?]
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entry this date be enlightening, it appears to be about repairing this Structure after it was sadly used for a cavalry hostel in a cavalier manner: http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1663/08/04/index.php
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“Old” St Paul’s
The wikipedia article includes a number of views of the building, circa 1630-1666, with the Inigo Jones west front
