St Paul's Cathedral

Born from the ashes

A cathedral has stood on Ludgate Hill since the seventh century, but the building familiar to Londoners today is the fifth on the site. The medieval cathedral, already weakened by Puritan neglect, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Christopher Wren, then a young astronomer turned architect, was commissioned to design its replacement. Construction began in 1675 and continued for thirty-five years; Wren attended the topping-out ceremony in 1710 and lived to see the cathedral open for worship.

A dome unlike any other

The genius of St Paul's lies in its dome — in fact three domes nested one inside another. The inner brick cone supports the stone lantern above, while the outer lead-clad timber dome gives the cathedral its silhouette on the London skyline. Rising 365 feet from pavement to cross, the cathedral was the tallest building in London for two and a half centuries — from its completion in 1710 until 1963 — and remains one of the highest cathedral domes anywhere in the world. Inside, the Whispering Gallery encircles the base of the dome, famous for the way a murmur on one side carries clearly to the other.

What to see

• The Whispering Gallery, Stone Gallery and (for the energetic) the Golden Gallery, 528 steps above the floor.
• The crypt, with the tombs of Wren himself, Nelson and Wellington.
• Holman Hunt's painting The Light of the World.
• The American Memorial Chapel behind the high altar.
• The choir mosaics added in the late nineteenth century.

Visiting

St Paul's charges admission to sightseers but is always free for those attending a service. Choral evensong is sung Monday to Saturday at 5 p.m. and on Sundays at 3:15 p.m. The cathedral has hosted the funerals of Nelson, Wellington and Churchill, and the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981.

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice — if you seek his monument, look around you. Wren's epitaph carved above the choir.