Sir Christopher Wren

(click to enlarge)
Sir Christopher Wren, detail of an oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1711; in the National … (credit: Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London)

(born Oct. 20, 1632, East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Eng. — died Feb. 25, 1723, London) British architect, astronomer, and geometrician. He taught astronomy at Gresham College, London (1657 – 61) and Oxford (1661 – 73), and did not turn to architecture until 1662, when he was engaged to design the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. Though Classical in form, the theatre was roofed with novel wood trusses that were the product of Wren's scholarly and empirical approach. As King's Surveyor of Works (1669 – 1718), he had a hand in the rebuilding of more than 50 churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Meanwhile, he was evolving designs for Saint Paul's Cathedral, a work that occupied him until its completion in 1710. Other works, generally in the English Baroque style, include the classical Trinity College library, Cambridge (1676 – 84), additions to Hampton Court (begun 1689), and Greenwich Hospital (begun 1696). Wren was buried in Saint Paul's; nearby is the famous inscription: "Reader, if you seek a monument, look around."

For more information on Sir Christopher Wren, visit Britannica.com.

(b East Knoyle, Wilts, 20 Oct 1632; d London, 25 Feb 1723). English architect. The leader of the English Baroque school, he was the creator of St Paul's Cathedral, London, completed in his lifetime, and remains the most famous architect in English history.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

The English architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) interpreted the baroque style in England and dominated English architecture for 50 years. His most important work is St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

Christopher Wren was born in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, on Oct. 20, 1632, and educated at Oxford. Apparently destined for a career as a scientific scholar, he became professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London when he was 24. In 1661 he was appointed Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford.

Wren did not give his attention to architecture until he was 30. No information is available to explain the development of his interest in architecture, but his training in science and mathematics and his ability in solving practical scientific problems provided him with the technical training necessary for a man who was to undertake complex architectural projects. His temperament and education, and the society in which he moved, would naturally have inclined him to wide interests.

Early Career

Wren's first venture into architecture came in 1662, when he designed the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, a building intended for university ceremonies. Based upon the concept of a Roman theater, his ingenious interior design left the space free of supports or columns, but for the exterior he had recourse to unimaginative copying from old architectural pattern books.

Wren made only one journey out of England, a visit of several months to France in 1665 to study French Renaissance and baroque architecture. The French journey had significant influence on his work and provided him with a rich source of inspiration.

After the Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed much of London, King Charles appointed Wren a member of the commission created to supervise the reconstruction of the city. He had already drawn up a visionary plan for a new London. His design was typical of 17th-century city planning and called for a combination of radiating and grid-plan streets accented by squares and vistas, but his plan was not accepted.

Wren was given the responsibility for replacing the 87 parish churches demolished by the Great Fire. Between 1670 and 1686 he designed 51 new churches; they constitute a major part of the vast amount of work done by him and are known as the City Churches. They are uneven in quality both in design and execution, and their varied plans and famous steeples reveal Wren's empirical eclecticism and his ingenuity. The churches are essentially classical in design or baroque variations on classical themes as adapted to English taste and the requirements of Anglican worship. His work on the City Churches firmly established his position as England's leading architect; he was appointed surveyor general in 1669, a post which he held until 1718, and was knighted in 1673.

While Wren was working on the City Churches, he undertook many other projects. One of the most important was Trinity College Library at Cambridge (1676-1684), an elegantly severe building derived from the late Italian Renaissance classicism of Andrea Palladio as transmitted to England by Inigo Jones in the early 17th century. By 1670 Wren was also at work on designs for a new St. Paul's Cathedral.

St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's, which took nearly 35 years to build, is Wren's masterpiece. The Great Fire had so damaged the old St. Paul's as to render it dangerous, and the authorities decided that a new cathedral was needed. In 1673 Wren presented an impressive design in the form of a large wooden model known as the Great Model. The Great Model, which still exists, shows a cathedral based on a Greek-cross plan and dominated by a massive central dome. The exterior of the building was to have curved walls and an entrance block faced with a portico of giant Corinthian columns. The design of the Great Model is Wren's expression of baroque vitality tempered by classicism and reveals the influence of French and Italian architecture as well as that of Inigo Jones.

The English were accustomed to cathedrals built on the medieval Latin-cross plan with a long nave; the Great Model design, which was much criticized, departed from this tradition and seemed to the Protestant English to be too Continental and too Catholic. In the face of such opposition, Wren prepared a new design based on the Latin cross with a dome over the crossing and a classical portico entrance. This compromise, known as the Warrant Design, was accepted in 1675, but as the building progressed Wren made many changes which reflected his increasing knowledge of French and Italian baroque architecture gained from books and engravings. The Cathedral as finished in the early 18th century is very different from the Warrant Design; the building, a synthesis of many stylistic influences, is also Wren's uniquely organic creation. With its splendid dome, impressive scale, and dramatic grandeur, St. Paul's is fundamentally a baroque building, but it is English Protestant baroque in its restraint and disciplined gravity.

Later Work

After 1675 English architecture began to turn away from the sober Palladianism of Wren's Trinity College Library and to manifest influences from Continental baroque architecture. These trends are evident in St. Paul's and in his later works. English taste rejected the emotional drama and fluid design of Italian and German baroque and was closer to the classical baroque of France. Nevertheless, during the last quarter of the century English architects began to conceive of buildings in baroque terms, that is, as sculptural masses on a large scale, and to introduce elements of richness, grandeur, and royal splendor which reflected the temper of the age. Important example of Wren's design in the idiom of the English baroque are the Royal Hospital at Chelsea (1682-1689), the work done at Hampton Court Palace (1689-1696) for King William III and Queen Mary, and the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich (1696-1705).

Wren died in London on Feb. 25, 1723, and was buried in St. Paul's. His tomb bears a simple inscription: "Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you."

Further Reading

A comprehensive modern biography of Wren is Sir John Summerson, Sir Christopher Wren (1953). Older but also excellent is Geoffrey Webb, Wren (1937). Margaret Whinney and Oliver Millar, English Art, 1625-1714 (1957), is valuable for placing Wren within the context of 17th-century English art. For a brilliant analysis of Wren's place in the history of English architecture see Sir John Summerson, Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830 (1954; 5th ed. 1969). Edward F. Sekler, Wren and His Place in European Architecture (1956), relates Wren's work to that of his contemporaries on the Continent. Ralph Dutton, The Age of Wren (1951), places the architect within the framework of his period.

Wren, Sir Christopher (1632-1723). Wren was an instinctive mathematician and geometrician, whence came the constructional resource evident in the span of the Sheldonian theatre, Oxford (1664-9), and the dome of St Paul's (1705-11). A more reticent individualist than Inigo Jones, as an astronomer Wren's individualism was of the age of Newton, in which spatial values were pre-eminent. His work ranges from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich (1675), to Hampton Court palace (1689-1702) and Greenwich hospital (1696-1702). Apart from his masterpiece, St Paul's, Wren designed some 25 churches for London between 1670 and 1694. In 1669 he became surveyor-general of the king's works, holding the post until 1718.

One of the greatest English architects. His father was the High Church Rector of Knoyle, Wilts., and he was well connected, but he was also exposed to a spirit of enquiry, and became a pioneer of experimental learning. While at Oxford, he assisted Dr Charles Scarburgh (1616–94), the physician, mathematician, and anatomist, and himself developed an interest in anatomy and astronomy. He invented a model (the Panorganum Astronomicum) to demonstrate various periodical positions of the earth, sun, and moon, and became a skilled maker of models and diagrams. Made a Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, in 1653, in 1657 he was appointed Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London. In 1661 he returned to Oxford as Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and, although only 28, was highly regarded by his peers. By that time he was becoming interested in architectural matters, and in 1663 his advice was sought by the Commission appointed to repair St Paul's Cathedral in London. In the same year he designed the new Chapel for Pembroke College, Cambridge, a pleasant, if unstartling Classical building. This was followed by the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford (1664–9), based on Antique exemplars noted in Italian architectural publications. To roof the considerable span, Wren evolved a timber truss which gained him approbation as an architect, although the Baroque façade opposite the medieval Divinity Schools is some-what hesitant, and clumsy in the sum of its parts. In 1665 he made an important visit to Paris to see ‘esteem'd Fabricks’, which influenced his future work.

After the Great Fire of London (1666) he prepared a plan for rebuilding the City that was not adopted, but he was appointed (with Pratt and May) as one of the Commissioners to survey and determine how best to proceed with the work. He was also appointed (with Hooke and Woodroffe) to rebuild the City churches, and for this task Wren had overall control, although claims that he personally designed each building are exaggerated, and in nearly all cases the furnishings and architectural details were designed by craftsmen, Wren and his colleagues acting in supervisory roles. Designs for the 50 or so City churches either originated in or were vetted by his office, and in most cases accorded with Wren's idea of how ecclesiastical designs should be adapted for Protestant worship. The inventive towers, however, including that of St Dunstan-in-the-East (1697–9—Gothic), all seem to have originated in, or were modified by, Wren's office. Plans were also varied and interesting, notably the domed St Stephen, Walbrook (1672–9), and St Mary Abchurch (1681–6), a single-volume domed space. The galleried auditory church was ideally suited to Protestant worship, and the type was perfected at St Peter's, Cornhill (1675–81), St Clement Danes (from 1680), and St James, Piccadilly (1676–84). Wren's greatest achievement was the new St Paul's Cathedral (begun 1675), although he himself wanted a centrally planned church on the lines of the ‘great model’ of 1673. As built, St Paul's was essentially a medieval plan, adapted with a drum and dome over the crossing, and with western towers owing much to Roman Baroque prototypes. The western façade, with its coupled columns, echoes the east front of the Louvre, Paris, and the great drum and dome were a triumphant affirmation of Wren's intellect, invention, and ability. The design of the Cathedral's exterior includes features such as aedicules with windows below in the pedestals, and a screening upper storey on the sides that serves to hide the nave buttresses, both of which have been the subject of adverse criticism for their alleged ‘falseness’.

In 1668/9 Wren became Surveyor-General of the King's Works, succeeded May as Comptroller at Windsor in 1684, was appointed Surveyor at Greenwich Palace in 1696, and was Architect in charge of the building of the Military Hospital at Chelsea. The last, with its bold and severe Roman Doric Order (1682–9), was suggested by the Invalides in Paris, and also by Webb's plan for the Palace at Greenwich. When Wren prepared designs for the completion of Greenwich Palace as a Naval Hospital, the need to retain Inigo Jones's Queen's House led to the solution of building two tall cupolas on either side of the central axis (from 1696) and the making of the grandest Baroque composition in England, including the handsome Hall (1698), decorated by Sir James Thornhill (1675–1734), 1708–27. He prepared major schemes for the Palaces of Whitehall (destroyed 1698), Winchester (destroyed 1894), and Hampton Court (south and east ranges (1689–94)) and interior of the King's apartments (completed by Talman (1699)).

Other works include the Garden Quadrangle, Trinity College, Oxford (1668–1728—much altered), the Gothic Tom Tower, Christ Church, Oxford (1681–2), and the very grand Library at Trinity College, Cambridge (1676–84), one of the noblest buildings of its time. He designed Marlborough House, St James's, London (1709–11—later altered on numerous occasions), in which work he was assisted by his son, Christopher (1675–1747), who collected the papers that led to Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens, published by Christopher jun.'s son, Stephen, in 1750. Sir Christopher Wren's work was influenced by French architecture, notably that of Mansart and Le Vau, and by Netherlands Classicism and Roman Baroque. He in turn influenced Vanbrugh, Christopher Kempster (1627–1715—the master-mason who built the City Churches of St Stephen, Walbrook, St James, Garlickhythe (1764–87), and St Mary Abchurch, and who was responsible for the Town Hall, Abingdon, Berks. (1678–80)), and Hawksmoor, who was his assistant and pupil.

Bibliography

• AH, xiii (1970), 30–42, xv (1972), 5–22, xxxvii (1994), 37–67
• Colvin (1995)
• Colvin (ed.) (1976)
• Downes (1982, 1988)
• Hauer (ed.) (1997)
• Jardine (2002, 2003)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
• Placzek (ed.) (1982)
• M. Parker (1998)
• Sekler (1956)
• Soo (1998)
• Summerson (ed.) (1965, 1993)
• Jane Turner (1996)
• Tinniswood (2001)
• G. Webb (1937)
• Whinney (1971)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Wren, Christopher (1632–1723), English architect. Sir Christopher Wren was an English scientist and architect, important for confirming, in what later was jokingly referred to as the "Wrenaissance," a tradition of classical architecture in England in the seventeenth century that lasted for two centuries. His father was a distinguished cleric, and Wren was well educated, coming into contact while a student at Oxford with a group of scientists who were later, in 1661, to found the Royal Society. His interests at this time were science and astronomy; after receiving his degrees, he was elected a member of All Souls College and in 1661 he became the Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford.

Gradually, however, Wren became interested in architecture, then considered a part of mathematics. When in 1663 his uncle, the bishop of Ely, asked him to design a chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was able to produce an adequate design, simple and classical in its forms. A year later he began the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, a complex structure, taken as to be expected from the design of classical theaters, but roofed with a new truss system without columns, based on a floor plan devised by John Wallis, formerly professor of geometry at Oxford. It was in 1665 that Wren made his only visit abroad, to Paris, where he visited the new classical buildings and met, if briefly, the Italian architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

On his return to London, Wren began further restorations at St. Paul's Cathedral. But in 1666 came the Great Fire, and with it an opportunity for him not only to rebuild the fabric of the cathedral, but also to redesign the whole city of London on a regular and ordered plan. As one of the commissioners appointed to survey the areas destroyed, Wren was very much involved in the restoration of London; when in 1668 he was also appointed surveyor general of the king's works, he resigned from Oxford and turned all his attention to architecture. Of the project for London, which was taken from some of the new plans for Rome, little was realized, commerce and expediency requiring that everything in the city be quickly rebuilt along the existing patterns of streets. Wren was also involved in rebuilding more than fifty local city churches. Their designs, varied and distinct as they were in their plans, established a new form for the Protestant church, with open galleries inside and bell towers outside, often set apart from the basic structure and effectively recalling, in all their classical details, the spires of the older medieval churches that had earlier been present at the same sites.

Wren's design for St. Paul's Cathedral was equally important. Its great dome, with the colonnade running around the drum, taken from a design by Donato Bramante for St. Peter's, was a model for many later buildings—such as the Capitol in Washington, D.C.—where a dome was to be used for purely secular buildings. Wren also worked on several projects for King Charles II. Although many of his designs for Winchester Palace, Whitehall, and Hampton Court were never realized, at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea (begun in 1682), and at the Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich (1696 onward), he defined an ideal of monumental architecture, deeply influential on architects of the next generation. In addition, Wren again worked for the universities, notably at the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (1676–1684) and at Tom Tower at Christ Church, Oxford (1681–1682), which, following what he called customary rather than natural beauty, was constructed in a Gothic style to complement its older architectural surroundings.

The last years of Wren's life were not happy. His supervision of the Office of Works became haphazard, and in 1718 he was dismissed, retaining only his surveyorship at St. Paul's and at Westminster Abbey. It was then that the Palladian group, led by Lord Burlington, took charge of this office, arguing for a new native style of architecture, based on the theories of Andrea Palladio and Inigo Jones, to replace the more pragmatic baroque style of Wren and his followers. But what Wren had done was of immense importance. And if his designs never reached the quality of those executed by Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, who had begun his career in Wren's office, his ideas about his work, carefully preserved by his son, served to demonstrate, in ways now compatible with the experimental approaches he learned as a scientist, how architecture and its history could be seriously thought about and seen as part of a design tradition that dated back to Italy and antiquity.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Soo, Lydia M. Wren's "Tracts" on Architecture and Other Writings. New York and Cambridge, U.K., 1998.

Wren, Stephen. Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens. Reprint. Hampshire, U.K., 1965. Originally published London, 1750.

Secondary Sources

Bennett, J. A. The Mathematical Science of Sir Christopher Wren. Cambridge, U.K., 1982.

Jardine, Lisa. On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Career of Christopher Wren. London, 2002.

Jeffery, Paul. The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren. London and Rio Grande, Ohio, 1996.

Whinney, Margaret. Christopher Wren. New York, 1971.

—DAVID CAST

An English architect of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Wren designed many buildings in London for the large rebuilding effort that followed the city's “Great Fire” of 1666. Saint Paul's Cathedral is his best-known work.

Quotes:

"Choose an author as you choose a friend."

"Architecture has its political Use; publick Buildings being the Ornament of a Country; it establishes a Nation, draws People and Commerce; makes the People love their native Country, which Passion is the Original of all great Actions in a Common-wealth. Architecture aims at Eternity."