Description
St Paul's Cathedral is London's great Baroque cathedral, standing on Ludgate Hill in the City: a huge stone church under one of the world's most famous domes, 111 meters high, the work of Christopher Wren. It was London's tallest building for 253 years, from 1710 to 1963.
Start with the dome, which is really three domes. A painted inner dome is seen from below, a hidden brick cone carries the heavy stone lantern, and the lead outer dome shows on the skyline. Iron chains between the layers keep it from cracking.
Climb it for the best of the visit. The Whispering Gallery runs round the foot of the inner dome, where a whisper against the wall carries to the other side. Higher up, the Stone Gallery and the Golden Gallery open onto views over the City and the Thames.
Below, the crypt is the largest cathedral crypt in Europe, spreading under the whole building. Here lie Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, both given state funerals in the cathedral, and Wren himself, under a Latin line: "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you."
Inside, look for the Grand Organ, the fifth largest in Britain, with 7,256 pipes, and the carved choir stalls beneath it. The High Altar and its mosaics glow with gold. Look down too: the geometric staircase is a spiral of stone that seems to hang in the air.
The cathedral was born of fire. Old St Paul's, a huge Gothic church, was gutted in the Great Fire of 1666. Wren had just been asked to repair it, and now had to start from scratch.
It took several designs, a giant oak model and years of quarrels with the clergy, who found his ideas too un-English. The building went up between 1675 and 1710.
It nearly burned again. On the night of 29 December 1940, with the City aflame in the Blitz, firefighters fought to save it, and a photograph of the dome rising out of the smoke became the image of a London that would not give in.
Bombs hit it in 1940 and 1941, and a time bomb that fell in September 1940 would have destroyed it had it gone off. It was defused and taken away.
Great occasions have always come here. Churchill's state funeral was held here in 1965, and Charles and Diana married here in 1981 rather than in Westminster Abbey, because St Paul's had more seats.
Don't miss
• The Whispering Gallery.
• The Golden Gallery.
• The crypt.
• The Grand Organ.
Did you know?
• Nelson lies in a marble sarcophagus made for Cardinal Wolsey, who fell from favor before he could use it.
• The poet John Donne posed for his statue wrapped in his shroud, before he died.
• Suffragettes tried to bomb the cathedral twice, in 1913 and 1914.
Start with the dome, which is really three domes. A painted inner dome is seen from below, a hidden brick cone carries the heavy stone lantern, and the lead outer dome shows on the skyline. Iron chains between the layers keep it from cracking.
Climb it for the best of the visit. The Whispering Gallery runs round the foot of the inner dome, where a whisper against the wall carries to the other side. Higher up, the Stone Gallery and the Golden Gallery open onto views over the City and the Thames.
Below, the crypt is the largest cathedral crypt in Europe, spreading under the whole building. Here lie Nelson and the Duke of Wellington, both given state funerals in the cathedral, and Wren himself, under a Latin line: "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you."
Inside, look for the Grand Organ, the fifth largest in Britain, with 7,256 pipes, and the carved choir stalls beneath it. The High Altar and its mosaics glow with gold. Look down too: the geometric staircase is a spiral of stone that seems to hang in the air.
The cathedral was born of fire. Old St Paul's, a huge Gothic church, was gutted in the Great Fire of 1666. Wren had just been asked to repair it, and now had to start from scratch.
It took several designs, a giant oak model and years of quarrels with the clergy, who found his ideas too un-English. The building went up between 1675 and 1710.
It nearly burned again. On the night of 29 December 1940, with the City aflame in the Blitz, firefighters fought to save it, and a photograph of the dome rising out of the smoke became the image of a London that would not give in.
Bombs hit it in 1940 and 1941, and a time bomb that fell in September 1940 would have destroyed it had it gone off. It was defused and taken away.
Great occasions have always come here. Churchill's state funeral was held here in 1965, and Charles and Diana married here in 1981 rather than in Westminster Abbey, because St Paul's had more seats.
Don't miss
• The Whispering Gallery.
• The Golden Gallery.
• The crypt.
• The Grand Organ.
Did you know?
• Nelson lies in a marble sarcophagus made for Cardinal Wolsey, who fell from favor before he could use it.
• The poet John Donne posed for his statue wrapped in his shroud, before he died.
• Suffragettes tried to bomb the cathedral twice, in 1913 and 1914.