Saint Paul's Cathedral

 

London, masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren and one of the finest church designs of the English baroque. It stands at the head of Ludgate Hill, where, according to tradition, a Roman temple once stood. In the early 7th cent. King Æthelbert of Kent dedicated the first church to St. Paul. The Saxon cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1087 and was replaced by a Norman structure, completed in the 13th cent. In 1561, St. Paul's was again struck by fire. Major rebuilding was not undertaken until 1628, when Inigo Jones was employed to restore it. He appended a classical facade. Plans for further repairs were next prepared by Wren, but the great fire of London (1666) almost destroyed the church, and in 1668 he was granted authority to demolish the badly damaged structure and to build an entirely new one. Wren's design, in the shape of a Greek cross, with a dome over the center, was modified to provide the long nave and choir of the traditional medieval plan. In 1675, Wren himself laid the first foundation block of the building, and 35 years later he set the final stone in place. The interior of the church consists of a three-aisled nave and choir, of equal lengths, extending east and west from a great central space at the crossing. Porticoes project north and south at the center of the building. The crossing is covered by a great dome, pierced at the crown to allow a view of the lantern above. Over this dome rises a concealed conical dome of brick that acts as support for the timber framework of the exterior dome, the entire domical feature thus being constructed in three shells. The western front of the church has as central motif a double-storied portico of coupled columns, flanked by two finely designed towers. The exterior dome, which ranks as one of the great domes of the world, rises above a colonnaded drum and supports a stone lantern terminating with a cross. Wren's scheme for an open, colonnaded piazza to furnish a setting for St. Paul's was not executed. The cathedral was severely damaged by bombings in World War II, and reconstruction according to Wren's original plan was not completed until 1962.

Bibliography

See W. R. Matthews and W. M. Atkins, A History of St. Paul's Cathedral (1957).

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, in the City of London, England 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 mediæval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedral. The cathedral is one of London's most visited sites.

Previous cathedrals

Pre-Norman

There had been a late-Roman See in London, but the first Saxon cathedral was built out of wood, probably by Mellitus or another of the Augustinian missionaries, on the see's re-foundation in AD 604 on Ludgate Hill in the western part of the old Roman city and the eastern part of Lundenwic. It was these missionaries' habit, as in mainland Europe, to build cathedrals within old Roman city-walls. This building is traditionally said to have been on the site of an ancient megalith, or stone circle, and a temple dedicated to the goddess Diana, in alignment with the Apollo Temple that once stood at Westminster, although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this (Kruger, 1943). This would have only been a modest chapel at first and may well have been destroyed after Mellitus was briefly expelled from the city by Saeberht's pagan successors. It burned down in 675.

The cathedral was rebuilt in stone, in 685. In it was buried King or Saint Sebbi of Essex. It was sacked by the Vikings in 961, as cited in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

The third cathedral was begun in 962, again in stone. In it was buried Ethelred the Unready. It burnt, with the whole city, in a fire in 1087 (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).

'Old St Paul's'

Main article: Old St Paul's Cathedral

The fourth St Paul's (known as Old St Paul's, a nineteenth 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 long and 100 feet wide (290 feet across the transepts and crossing), and had one of Europe's tallest spires, at some 489 feet (149 metres).

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. It was there in the Cross Yard in 1549 that radical Protestant preachers incited a mob to destroy many of the cathedral's interior decorations. 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 defacement and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the English 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.

Wren's St Paul's

Design and construction

Wren's Greek Cross design

Wren's warrant design

Wren's cathedral as built

The task of designing a replacement structure was assigned to Christopher Wren in 1668, along with over 50 other City churches. His first design, to build a replacement on the foundations of the old cathedral, was rejected in 1669. The second design, in the shape of a Greek cross (circa 1670-1672) was rejected as too radical, as was a revised design that resulted in the 1:24 scale "Great Model", on display in the crypt of the cathedral^[1]. The 'warrant' design was accepted in 1675 and building work began in June. The first stone of the cathedral was laid in 1677 by Thomas Strong, Wren's master stonemason.^[2] The 'warrant' design included a small dome with a spire on top, but King Charles II had given Wren permission to make "ornamental" changes to the approved design and Wren took the liberty to radically rework the design to the current form, including the large central dome and the towers at the west end.

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 caused London to burst into flames, St. Paul's Cathedral came into use. The event 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, at the last minute, bowed out. 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 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 general consensus was as with all such works: some loved it ("Without, within, below, above the eye/ Is filled with unrestrained delight."^[3]; some hated it ("...There was an air of Popery about the giled capitals, the heavy arches...They were unfamiliar, un-English.."^[4]; 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."

A clerihew by Edmund Clerihew Bentley

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 decorate the interior of the dome^[5].
• Grinling Gibbons - responsible for the woodwork, most notably the choir stalls^[6] & sculpted the pediment of the north transept^[7].
• Jean Tijou - most of the wrought ironwork, including the gates flanking the high altar^[8].
• Bernard Smith - designed and built the organ^[9].
• Caius Gabriel Cibber - sculpted the pediment of the south transept^[10].
• Francis Bird - sculpted the great west pediment showing the conversion of St Paul^[11], plus the seven large sculptures on the west front^[12].

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 metres) to the cross at its summit, making it a famous London landmark. 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 their 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 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.

The north-west tower contains 13 bells and the south-west contains four, including Great Paul, cast in 1881, and Great Tom (the hour bell), recast twice, after being moved from the old Palace of Westminster.

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 crater when it was later remotely detonated in a secure location.^{[citation needed]} As a result of this action Davies was awarded the George Cross^[13]

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
• Lord Nelson
• Henry Moore
• Sir Winston Churchill
• T.E. Lawrence, whose bust faces Nelson's sarcophagus
• Sir Alexander Fleming
• Sir Arthur Sullivan
• Florence Nightingale
• J.M.W. Turner
• Sir Joshua Reynolds
• Dr. Samuel Johnson.

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.^[14] 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.^[15]

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

Modern-day

The Royal Family hold 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. 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.

Cultural references

Because of its prominent form on the skyline, a view that is protected from many vantage points, St Paul's is often used in movies as part of an establishing shot to place the viewers in London.

It also features in:

• The Canterbury Tales, where it is a favourite location of the Sergeant of Law
• London Calling by Edward Bloor, where it is the setting of one of the most touching scenes in the book
• Mary Poppins, where it is the setting of the song by the Sherman Brothers, "Feed the Birds".
• Lawrence of Arabia, as the venue of Lawrence's funeral.
• Steamboy, seen in scenes with the cathedral.
• 101 Dalmatians
• Peter Pan
• The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells
• Team America: World Police
• The Bed-Sitting Room (1970 film) depicts the post - nuclear wreckage of the dome lying in the middle of a lake.
• The cathedral was prominent in all Thames Television idents from 1968 until 1992, and prominent in its logo until 1997
• The opening titles of Mr. Bean began with a shot of Mr. Bean falling from the sky with St. Paul's in the background.
• The 1966 Doctor Who story The Invasion, where Cybermen emerge and walk towards the Thames outside the cathedral.
• The 1966 film Georgy Girl: as Joss and Georgy sail down the Thames, a captain points out the house where Christopher Wren lived whilst the dome was being constructed. The dome appears in the background, covered in scaffolding.
• The 1971 Hammer Horror film Hands of the Ripper
• The Cathedral became the lair of Giant Black Rats in James Herberts 1993 graphic novel, The City.
• The 1994 film The Madness of King George
• The 2001 novel Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, where it houses the super-weapon MEDUSA upon the great Traction City of London.
• From Hell - in the graphic novel version by Alan Moore, the cathedral is seen in the opening panel with an ominous look on a cloudy day.
• In the 2005 Doctor Who story "The Empty Child", the cathedral during the Blitz can be seen in numerous background shots.
• In the 2006 Doctor Who story "Rise of the Cybermen", the cathedral is seen briefly in a background shot as the Doctor and Rose walk through a parallel universe London.

Fire Watch by Connie Willis, a Hugo and Nebula winning short story, is set mostly in and around the cathedral during the final months of 1940, when it was targeted in the Blitz.

The idiom "rob Peter to pay Paul" has a folk etymology of using the funds of Westminster Abbey for the cathedral.

There is a scale model of the cathedral at LEGOLAND Windsor.

Organ and Organists

Organ

The organ was commissioned in 1694: the current instrument is the third-biggest in Britain with 7,189 pipes and 138 stops, enclosed in an impressive case by Grinling Gibbons.

Details of the organ from the National Pipe Organ Register

Organists

1530 John Redford 1549 Thomas Giles 1591 Thomas Morley 1622 John Tomkins 1624 Adrian Batten 1638 Aibertus Bryne 1687 Isaac Blackwell

1699 Jeremiah Clarke 1707 Richard Brind 1718 Maurice Greene 1756 John Jones 1796 Thomas Attwood 1838 John Goss 1872 John Stainer

1888 George Martin 1916 Charles Macpherson 1927 Stanley Marchant 1936 John Dykes Bower 1968 Christopher Dearnley 1990 John Scott 2004 Malcolm Archer

Images

Present day

The cathedral dome from Paternoster Square	St Paul's, north-east side.	St Paul's, west side.	Visitors view London from the cathedral’s Golden Gallery
A view of central London and the River Thames from the cathedral	St Paul's Cathedral from Ludgate Hill during cleaning in 2004	From the London Millennium Bridge	West side at dusk
The Cathedral from the London Millennium Bridge during cleaning in 2005	South side from across the river during work in 2007	The London Millennium Bridge and South London Skyline viewed from the Golden Gallery	The vantage point of the previous photograph as seen from underneath the London Millennium Bridge
The cathedral and the Millenium Bridge from the Thames riverside	View from the top of dome (looking down)

Historical

St Paul's seen across the Thames in the early 19th century

The interior in 1860

St Paul's in 1896

References

See also

• List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom
• List of churches and cathedrals of London
• Paternoster Square
• Tall buildings in London
• College of Minor Canons
• The Light of the World
• Category:Deans of St Paul's
• Category:Bishops of London
• Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral

External links

• St Paul's Cathedral official website
• Wren's various designs
• The lowest BASE Jump in the world from the Whispering Gallery inside St Paul's Cathedral 1992
• 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.
• Google Local Aerial view of St. Paul's Cathedral
• 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

• Maps and aerial photos for 51°′″N 0°′″W / 51.514, -0.098Coordinates: 51°′″N 0°′″W / 51.514, -0.098
  • Maps from Google Maps, Live Search Maps, WikiMapia, Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest
  • Topographic maps from TopoZone
  • Landuse survey from GlobalGuide

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