House London

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"Old St Paul's" was gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While house London 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 house London

Wren's cathedral as built

The clock tower on the west end of the cathedral

The task of house London designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren in 1668, along with over 50 other City churches. St. Paul’s went through five general stages of design. Wren initially began surveying the property and drawing up designs before the Great Fire of 1666, and these drawings for the most part included the addition of a dome on the existing building to replace the dilapidated spire, and a restoration of the interiors that would compliment the 1630 Inigo Jones-designed facade.[1] After the fire, the ruins of the building were house London still thought to be workable, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s to start afresh. Wren’s second design, the first to be a completely new building, was a Greek cross, which was considered to be too radical by his critics because it lacked the programme necessary to conduct mass.[2]

Wren’s third proposal for house London the new St. Paul’s used many of the same design concepts as his Greek cross design, though it had an extended nave. This design was embodied in his creation in 1673 of the "Great Model". The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over 500 (approximately ?32,000 today) and was over 13’ tall and 21’ long.[3] His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church and members of the clergy, decried the design as being too dissimilar from churches that already existed in England at the time to suggest any house London continuity within the Church of England. Clergymen also preferred a Latin cross plan for services. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was house London customary.

House London

Wren considered the Great Model his favorite house London design, and thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty.[4] After the Great Model, Wren resolved to make no more models or publicly expose his drawings, which he found to do nothing but "lose time, and subject his business many times, to incompetent judges".[2]

Wren's fourth house London design, the Warrant design, sought to reconcile the Gothic, the predominant form of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." Wren attempted to integrate the same concepts of Renaissance house London harmony into a much more Gothic style. This design was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration made by Wren was informed by his knowledge of astronomy.[1] His design of the portico was house London influenced by Inigo Jones’s addition to Old St. Paul’s.[2]