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Visit to Wren’s churches can be arranged
The
Talk introduces this ‘great’ man, who was not an architect by profession.
William Oughtred, an eminent mathematician of his day said of Wren: ”who when
not yet 16 years old, already enriched astronomy, mathematics and expected great
things from him in the future”. How right he was!
The Great Fire of London of 1666 may have been a disaster for most and some say a blessing in disguise because it eradicated the Plague. For Wren it was certainly his opportunity.
By
the time he started work on his masterpiece St Paul’s Cathedral, he had
already built several College buildings in Cambridge and Oxford.
The Talk looks at these College buildings, and at some of the Palaces he built such as Kensington Palace and the Hampton Court section for William and Mary. Out of the 97 City churches burnt in the Great Fire he was commissioned to rebuilt 51 and today many of these still remain.
Wren put the beauty of his churches in his spires as these churches were surrounded by medieval lanes and it was the only part of the church visible to people from the outside. Even today, some of these churches occupy the same hidden location as St Bride’s in Fleet Street, and to appreciate the wedding cake steeple of St Bride’s one has to look from afar.
Sir
Christopher Wren was around 82 when he was hoisted inside a basket to put the
last stone in place into the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He died aged 91 on
25th February 1723 and was buried in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral. His
grave is very plain but his son put above it on the wall the following epitaph
which says: “Reader, if you want to see my monument, look around you”
Related Walk: Sir Christopher Wren, St Paul’s and City Spires