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An Apollonaut travel guide
The church behind the dome.
A church founded in 604, a cathedral lost to the Great Fire and Wren’s dome above the City offer several ways into the story of St Paul’s.
On this page
A cathedral on Ludgate Hill
A cathedral dedicated to St Paul was founded here in 604. Old St Paul’s, begun after a fire in 1087, was gutted by the Great Fire of London in 1666.
St Paul’s is the mother church of the Diocese of London and the seat of the Bishop of London, and it is listed at Grade I.
Wren’s cathedral
Christopher Wren’s new cathedral was begun in 1675, consecrated in 1697 and declared complete in 1711. Grinling Gibbons carved the quire stalls, and Sir James Thornhill painted the inside of the dome.
Wren himself was the first person buried in the crypt, in 1723.
National occasions
St Paul’s has held thanksgiving services for royal jubilees, the state funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965 and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
