St Paul’s Cathedral- 10 June

Posted bykimandsallyPosted inUncategorized

Just to mix things up a bit we took the bus to today’s main attraction, St Paul’s Cathedral. Very hot day today – supposed to reach 30 degrees!

St Paul’s

On arrival we picked up the obligatory audio guide and had a brief look around before joining the free tour. This was taken by Helen, an ex teacher (and it showed!). As usual, these tour’s are excellent value and we got to enter some parts of the cathedral where we couldn’t have gone on our own.

Shaun on tour

It was designed by Christopher Wren and building commenced in 1675 and it opened in 1710. It replaced the Old St Pauls which was largely destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. There has been a church on this site since 604 AD.

Some of the intricate work inside St Paul’s

These Byzantine mosaics use real gems and were put in vertically to make them sparkle
Massive baptismal font!
Detailed woodwork from the American Memorial section- can you spot the American spacecraft?
All these carvings featured American birds, flowers etc
A memorial to Lord Byron (supposedly the gates of death)
John Doone (preacher and poet). This was the only statue to survive the great fire of London in 1666. Can you see the brown scorch mark?
Samuel Johnson who wrote the first dictionary (nobody knows why he is depicted in a toga!)
Beautiful cantilevered staircase. Apparently the only one like it in the world. This has been used in many movies, such as Harry Potter and Paddington 2.
The chairs where the royal family sit. Not sure what happens if more than three of them attend!

The Whispering Gallery was closed, but we took the tour up to the roof, and walked around the top of the dome outside. Had some great views from the top of Saint Pauls over London City.

The millennium Bridge, which we did walk over later in the day
The Monument
This guy seems to turn up everywhere!

Many famous people are either buried in the crypt, or have monuments there.

Sir George Grey
Florence Nightingale memorial
Lord Nelson

This St Paul’s is the fifth! The fourth was destroyed in the great fire of London- 1666. Apparently the church was getting renovated at the time and the wooden scaffolding caught fire. Christopher Wren designed the current day St Paul’s and it took 35 years to complete! He chose every block himself (from Dorset) and each one is signed. He is buried here – a very simple plaque (which I missed getting a photo of). He did not want anything elaborate, stating that the cathedral itself was his monument.

The man himself

Other miscellaneous facts…

St Paul is the patron saint of London

Martin Luther King preached here, as did his wife after his assassination. She was the first woman to preach here

The Queen came here regularly for her anniversaries

If a church has a cathedral (Bishops chair) it’s a cathedral

Handel played the organ here – apparently he had no sense of time so the verger turned the clock forward an hour so Handel would leave in time for the verger to close up!

To get married here you need to have a medal yourself or your grandparents have to have had an OBE or something similar (sorry, but that probably rules quite a few people out!)

Churchill had a state funeral here.

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