st. paul’s cathedral and fire monument

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, the medieval cathedral of St. Paul’s was left in ruins. The authorities turned to Christopher Wren to rebuild it but didn’t really like his “radical” concepts and plans. Wren’s Great Model plan, which is on display in the crypt of St. Paul’s, was not popular. In 1675, he proposed a modified architecture and it was agreed upon. In 1708, the Cathedral was finished.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is, perhaps, the most famous cathedral in all of England. You can see its peaks from a mile away. I walked to it from our flat (about a 3-mile walk) so the first picture was my first glimpse of it among the other buildings. The dome of the cathedral looks quite a bit like Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., doesn’t it? Or is that the other way around??? The building itself is quite dirty and they were doing renovations and cleanings on it. It is extremely large and this will take many years to complete.

The statue in front of the cathedral is Queen Anne’s Statue which is an 1886 copy of Francis Bird’s 1712 original and I thought it was lovely.

Looking up at the Cathedral from out front is breath-taking. It’s quite tall and it’s hard to get it all in the pictures. The bells in these towers do work and are rung on the hour. These towers, the West Front Towers, were not on Wren’s original plan. He added them in in 1707 when he was 75 years old. Both were designed to have clocks.

The Fire Monument was also designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the 1600’s to commemorate the Great London Fire of September 1666. This fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and killed many thousands of people, came only one year after the Great Plague outbreak, which killed over 100,000 people. This fire destroyed what was old London and a new, stone-built London grew up in its place. It is 205 feet (62m) high and is said to be 205 feet (62m) west of where the fire started on Pudding Lane. There are reliefs around the column’s base showing Charles II restoring the city. There are 311 steps leading to the top where there is a viewing platform.