Wednesday 7 February 2007
St Paul's Cathedral by John and Jo Brewster
This was a most interesting slide presentation by Jo and John (shown left) who are Cathedral Guides at St Paul’s and Southwark they had kindly travelled down from Amersham in Buckinghamshire on a cold and frosty morning but brought with them a delightful sunny midday for which we were most grateful.
They worked as a duo taking turns to give us a vast amount of detail supplemented by over 30 slides which cannot be fully replicated on this site. So if you get the chance visit the Cathedral or look locally for when they give their next presentation for they travel widely in the south of England in support of The Friends of the Cathedral.
John started the ball rolling covering the early period of the Cathedral way before Christopher Wren appeared on the scene since its foundation in 604 by Saint Mellitus, a follower of St Augustine who was sent to convert the Anglo Saxons; it has been rebuilt several times, in 675 then in 962 and again1087. The massive medieval cathedral was one of the greatest Gothic buildings, its spire towering 150 metres high. Following the Civil War and the following years under Cromwell, the Cathedral had fallen into a bad state of repair until after the return of the Monarchy the architect Inigo Jones began its restoration in 1633, adding a neo-classical portico. John further explained about the Great Fire of London and the inferno caused by the storage of paper in the crypt from the Paper Makers and Booksellers of Paternoster Row, who stored their materials below and how the word stationery became part of the English language.
The task of designing a replacement structure was assigned to Christopher Wren in 1668, along with over fifty other churches, but at this stage Jo took over and gave a full and detailed account of Christopher Wren’s early life, the son of a village rector who was considered of poor health and therefore had private tuition and through a fairly convoluted upbringing came under rather prestigious tutoring, perhaps even with members of the Royal family and finishing with friendship of Robert Hooke the famous physicist, with whom he became life long friends. Christopher was considered fully prepared for university by the age of 14 and subsequently, aged 16, went to Wadham College Oxford, where he was awarded his B.A. in Mathematics 2 years’ later. He followed this with a further degree in ASTRONOMY and began his career as Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in London. He always retained his first love of geometry and was much influenced by the Classical Revival of Architecture brought to England by Inigo Jones, as can be seen in his later architectural achievements. This is only a truncated version and readers are advised to seek more about the young Wren via the Internet.
St Paul's at Christmas
John then continued with the Wren input to St Paul’s, whose first design to build a replacement on the foundations of the old cathedral was rejected in 1669. The second design, in the shape of a Greek cross was rejected as too radical, as was a revised design which resulted in the 1:24 scale "Great Model", shown on John’s slides but we were told that this model is available to be seen by visitors at St Paul’s (please note:- not visible to the general visitor today, but able to be seen on a pre-booked tour) for that time such a three dimensional model was cutting edge technology, but came with a price tag of the equivalent of a London town house.
St Paul's West Front cleanedA further design was accepted in 1675 and building work began in June, this design included a smaller dome with a spire on top, however King Charles II had given Wren permission to make small changes to the approved design, and Wren took the liberty to radically rework the design to the current form, including the large central dome and the towers at the West end. The cathedral was completed in, 1708, the cathedral is built of Portland stone because the original stone of French origin had been reduced to rubble from the intense blaze and the French were blocking shipment to Britain (nothing changes!) hence the alternative stones were chosen also for its greater durability than Caen Stone in the case of fire. Its impressive dome was inspired by Wren’s visit to Paris in 1665, brought him in contact with Bernini , who had been involved in the building of St. Peter’s in Rome, which, together with the work of Mansart, inspired Wren with the idea of a DOME; hence the appearance of the DOME rising 108 metres making it a famous London landmark. Wren achieved a pleasing appearance by actually building three domes: the tall outer dome is impressive to view, the lower inner dome provides an artistically balanced interior, and between the two is a structural cone which supports the apex structure and the outer dome panelling.
We then had a lightening tour of some of the interesting features such as the Whispering Gallery which runs around the interior of the Dome and is 259 steps up from ground-level. It gets its name from an odd quirk of construction: a whisper against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with their ear held to the point opposite as John said it even works in Urdu!
The Quire (as Jo pointed out this is not a misspelling of Choir) extends to the east of the Dome and holds the stalls for the clergy and the choir as well as the cathedral's organ is the third biggest in Britain with just over 7,000 pipes and 138 stops; it is enclosed in an impressive case. The cathedral has a very substantial crypt holding over 200 memorials as well as the OBE Chapel and the Treasury; Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred there, the cathedral has very few treasures many have been lost, and in 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts.
Tijou Gates - St Peter and St Paul's Wren's Tomb and epitaph
Within the cathedral are plaques, carvings, monuments and statues dedicated to a wide range of people many of these were shown on slides with detailed descriptions The bulk are related to the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, Jo mention particularly the USA servicemen especially in the air force, 28,000 American Servicemen, who lost their lives mostly on bombing raids in Europe, while based in this country, are listed in a Book of Remembrance given by President Eisenhower. The cathedral has been the site for many famous funerals, including those of Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Winston Churchill. The cathedral is open to the public, though there is a charge for non-worshipping visitors, John and Jo suggested the best method is to arrive as a Probus group and the President suggested to Doug Clarke our social secretary that this could be on our forward agenda.
OBE Chapel and St Faith's under St Paul's
In 2000, the cathedral began a major restoration programme, scheduled for completion in 2008, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its opening. The restoration programme is expected to cost £40 million, and involves both repair and cleaning of the building, Jo gave some details of this method, sand blasting and water jetting were rejected because of the damage to the surface and a treatment was perfected where a latex gel was sprayed onto the surfaces and allowed to set. This was then stripped and this also removed the grime and dirt etc leaving a clean undamaged surface, this was clearly shown on some of their slides.
In question time a question about whom or what was “The Friends of St Paul’s”, Jo in answer said fire had destroyed the Old St Paul’s and several of its predecessors. When raids on London began during World War I, a group of men and women who loved the current Cathedral were determined that history should not repeat itself.
They therefore formed the St Paul’s Fire Watch and patrolled the building to ensure that every stray spark from the conflict was extinguished before it could do any harm. They re-formed during World War II, inviting their friends and families to join them. After a public appeal there were 300 volunteers, 40 of whom guarded the Cathedral each night. The problems of patrolling ‘such an enormous building, with many complex avenues on the roof; corners and crannies - there could be an incendiary bomb anywhere in a small crevice, or under some masonry. If this was not promptly removed, it could cause a fire in the building. There are at least two bomb damaged parts of the Cathedral recorded during the Blitz of London.
The Watch was disbanded at the end of the war but its members, who had proved their commitment in a time of acute danger, still wanted to do something to help save the Cathedral. In 1952 they therefore formed the Friends of St Paul’s.
Today, there are over 3,000 Friends who provide both financial and practical support, approximately 130 Friends have also become Working Friends, giving their time to welcome visitors, sell guidebooks and answer visitors’ questions. A few of these become guides, taking a six-month training course and passing an examination before they start guiding. If you would like to help St Paul’s inspire future generations, the Cathedral’s governing body invite you to join – more at http://www.stpauls.co.uk
Another member asked about the “competition” between St Paul’s and Westminster Abbey and John or was it Jo? Said Westminster Abbey is “a Royal Peculiar”, and as such, hosts many Royal Celebrations and Events. St Paul’s has many City Events, is the Diocesan Cathedral for all the parishes in London north of the Thames, and also holds many National and International services, such as those associated with the Livery Companies and Guilds, State Visits, Jubilee Celebrations and U.S. Thanksgiving Day Service and special prayers at times of great world disasters………..and of course, the Royal Wedding in 1981.
Peter Stoddart on behalf of the Probus Club of Ewell thanked Jo and John for their inspiring and well documented presentation and the membership concurred with a well deserved round of applause to finish another great meeting.
Photographs with thanks to John Brewster
