Hello again, another instalment of my sightseeing adventures in Olde London Towne!

The first church on this spot was erected in 604 AD, just 8 short years after the first Christian mission under St. Augustine landed in Kent. This wooden church was established by King Ethelbert of Kent as home to the first bishop of the East Saxons, Mellitus.

That first church was destroyed by fire and rebuilt by St. Erkenwald, then bishop, in 675-85. Fire was not the only danger faced by buildings in those dark centuries of Anglo-Saxon England - the Vikings destroyed the second St. Paul’s in 962 during on of their periodic invasions.

Once again, fire destroyed the church in 1087. The new Norman building, now 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 iteslf. 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.

The calamity of the Great Fire of London proved the opportunity of a lifetime for Christopher Wren, and the young architect did not hesitate to seize his chance.Within days of the fire, Wren presented a visionary plan to King Charles II for turning the crowded shambles of Stuart London into a sunlight city blessed with wide avenues and open plazas. The enthusiastic Charles liked Wren’s ideas, but he lacked the money to carry them out, and impatient Londoners had already begun to rebuild along the old street patterns.

Instead, Charles gave Wren the commission to rebuild the cities churches,including Old St. Paul’s Cathedral.To finance this rebuilding a special tax was levied on coal arriving at the port of London.
Wren’s original design for the cathedral was rejected by the church as being too modern. The second design, submitted in 1675, was a domed church in the shape of a Greek Cross. This, too, was rejected. This time the reason given was that it was too modern and too Italian (read Catholic). The scale model of this design, called the Great Model, can be viewed in the crypt of the present St. Paul’s.

Finally in 1675 Wren gave the clergy what they wanted; a traditional English church design with a long nave and spire. The king granted Wren a royal warrant approving this design with the interesting proviso that the architect was free to make “variations, rather ornamental than essential”. One can almost imagine Charles giving his favorite Wren a sly wink as this was penned.
On the strength of the Royal Warrant Wren proceeded to quietly change just about every essential element of the design the clergy thought they were getting. He got rid of three bays in the nave, did away with the spire, enlarged the dome, and raised the aisle walls.

Much of this work proceeded behind scaffolding and protected from prying eyes. By the time the furious clergy realised what Wren had done the church was too far gone to be altered. When stone was laid for the centre of the new building, stones from the Old St. Paul’s were used. Wren noticed that one of the stones was marked with the Latin inscription “resurgam”, “I shall rise again”. He had the word inscribed on the pediment of the south door, beneath a carved phoenix.

Portland stone was used for the bulk of the cathedral, and from the laying of the first stone in 1675 to the final touches in 1708, the cathedral was finished in a mere 33 years. This means that St. Paul’s, alone among English cathedrals, is the result of one man’s creative vision.Of course, that vision stretched to hiring some very good help. Master woodcarver Grinling Gibbons carved the choirstalls, and sanctuary gates were added by wrought-iron genius Jean Tijou.

And what did Wren create after 33 years of labour? In short, a masterpiece of neo-classical architecture. The triple-layered dome that crowns the cathedral is the second largest in the world. Partway up the inside of the dome is the Whispering Gallery, so named because a whisper breathed against one wall is audible against the far wall 112 feet away.

The interior of the Cathedral may be a shock if you are used to the bare Gothic stone of medieval British cathedrals. Ornately curved and brilliantly coloured decoration abounds, and in a symmetry that is nearly overwhelming. As a place of worship St. Paul’s may not be to everyone’s taste, but as an architectural work, St. Paul’s is a masterpiece.

The man behind this splendour is fittingly remembered inside “his” cathedral. A simple Latin inscription on Christopher Wren’s tomb in the cathedral Crypt translates as “Reader, if you seek his memorial, look about you”. IndeedSt. Paul’s was an inspiration to the nation during the Second World War, when much of the surrounding area was destroyed during the Blitz, pictures were shown of St. Paul’s standing steadfast, its dome wreathed in smoke and flames. It was miraculous that St. Paul’s survived such an onslaught, although not completely unscathed. A bomb demolished the High Alter, and the Crypt suffered damage as did many of the stained glass windows. These were later replaced with clear glass, which was Wren’s original intention, improving the light within the Cathedral.

Kinky sightseeing Kisses!