Inside St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral is one of the iconic buildings on London's skyline. 

The English Baroque cathedral is built on the highest point in the city and the prominent dome can be seen for miles. At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962. 

Let's go back in history for a moment....

In 1666 The Great Fire of London raged through the central part of the city for four days. One third of London was destroyed and 100,000 were made homeless. The massive fire was a catastrophe for the city.



But every disaster has a silver lining, and it was a windfall for the architects tasked with rebuilding the city.

Christopher Wren, a prominent architect at the time, received a contract from the city and rebuilt more than 50 churches in London. 

Saint Paul's Cathedral was his masterpiece. 

Construction started in 1675 and it was completed in 1710. 

It is stunning.

It is the location for national services such as the funeral of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Winston Churchill. 



Celebrations such as the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, the Diamond Jubilee and 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth were held here.

Here is a little piece of useless trivia to throw out at your next cocktail party: 

At the time Christopher Wren was designing the Cathedral, pineapple's were exotic and a sign of great wealth in Britain. To display and serve a pineapple to one's guests was the height of both fashion and opulence. Pineapple's were also used to inspire decorations i.e. in porcelain, silver, etc. 

Now the juicy part, Sir Christopher Wren's original design of St Paul's Cathedral included a dome in the shape of a pineapple! That was scraped and replaced by the iconic dome that we see today. 



During WWII it was a prime target for Hitler's bombs. He wanted it destroyed, because he felt that with its destruction the moral of the British people would also be destroyed. The bombs intended to destroy it were not accurate, so many of the buildings around the cathedral were destroyed, but fortunately, the cathedral survived the war. 









John and I went to a Classical Music Concert here. It was a stunning venue. 

We felt very posh, sophisticated and privileged to spend an evening in Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. Over 400 years after it was built it is still awe inspiring.