St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral is Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece and the building that gave London its skyline for three centuries. Its dome, rising 111 metres to the cross on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, was the tallest thing in London from 1710 to 1963. There has been a cathedral dedicated to St Paul on this site since 604; the present one was built after the Great Fire of 1666 gutted its Gothic predecessor, and it remains a working church with daily services as well as one of the city's great sights.

Wren was given the commission in 1669 and worked through several designs before the foundation stone was laid in June 1675. The church was consecrated in 1697 and declared complete in 1710, a rare case of a great cathedral finished within its architect's lifetime. The style is English Baroque, and the great dome over the crossing is as much engineering as art. Wren separated the inner dome from the outer one far more than Michelangelo had done at St Peter's in Rome, and between them inserted a hidden brick cone that carries the lantern; through the oculus of the inner dome, painted by James Thornhill with scenes from the life of St Paul, you can glimpse the cone above. The dome rests on eight piers rather than the usual four, spreading its weight into London's soft clay. The crypt, which runs under the whole building rather than just the east end, is one of the largest in Europe.

Inside, the scale is best felt from beneath the dome. Grinling Gibbons carved the choir stalls; the choir vaults glitter with Victorian mosaics by William Richmond; and the south aisle holds a version of Holman Hunt's The Light of the World. Nelson lies in the crypt in a black marble sarcophagus originally made for Cardinal Wolsey, beside the Duke of Wellington, whose huge equestrian monument dominates the north aisle. The funerals of both men were held here, as were those of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. During the Blitz the cathedral was hit twice, and the photograph of its dome rising through the smoke of 29 December 1940 became one of the defining images of the war.

The climb is part of the visit. It is 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which runs around the inside of the dome and earned its name because a whisper against the wall carries clearly to the other side; further stairs lead outside to the Stone Gallery, the balustraded balcony around the base of the dome, with views over the City.

Getting there

The cathedral stands on Ludgate Hill in the City of London. St Paul's Underground station is about 120 metres away. The nearest airport is London City (LCY), about 11 km away.