St Paul's Cathedral

This magnificent building, created by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666, retains its dignity and grandeur even though itis now overshadowed by enormous tower blocks.

It is a huge structure, 515 ft long and 242 ft across at its widest point, and is elaborately decorated with columns, porticos, and balustrades. The west end of the cathedral is approached by two wide flights of steps and is surmuunted by twin towers. The whole building is crowned by a beautiful central dome which rises to 365 ft above ground level and is 112 ft in diameter.

Inside the Cathedral

From the end of the nave there is a superb view along the whole length of the cathedral through the Choir to the High Altar and its ornate canopy. Recorded commentaries describing the cathedral can be obtained from headphones at the west end of the nave. The great dome rises above the centre of the nave. Around its interior is thefamous Whispering Gallery, where a message whispered into the wall on one side can be clearly heard 112 ft away on the other side. The Gallery is reached through a doorway in the western corner of the South Transept tha t leads to the stairs which also give access to the library and the two external galleries of the dome wi th their panoramic views across London. In the Choir are the stalls of the St Paul's Cathedral Choir. They are the work of the great 17th-century woodcarver Grinling Gibbons. Beyond the Choir is the focal point of the whole cathedral- the High Altar. It is a modern replacement of the altar which was damaged during World War II, and is an exact copy of Wren's original design.

The cathedral contains numerous chapels, many of which contain exquisite furniture and Dunstan, at the western end of the cathedral. Wren's cathedral originally contained no monuments, but towards the end of the 18th century these began to appear, and now there are several hundred in the building. The oldest is that of the metaphysical poet John Donne (1573-1631), who was Dean of St Paul's from 1621 until his death. Itis the only monument to have survived from the old cathedral and is situated in the South Choir Aisle. Almost filling the North Aisle is the huge monument to the Duke of Wellington. He is actually buried in the Crypt, beneath an imposing sarcophagus. The orna te funeral car in which his body was brought to the cathedral stands nearby.

Also in the Crypt is the tomb of Lord Nelson. His coffin lies beneath a black marble sarcophagus that had originally been intended for Cardinal Wolsey, and was also considered for Henry VIII. Standing among the graves of several well-known artists is Wren's own tomb. Above it, his tombstone carries the famous epitaph, 'Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice' ('Reader, if you seek his monument, look about you'). Many other tombs and memorials are contained in the Crypt, and also here is the Chapel of the Order of the British Empire, which was dedicated in 1960.

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