A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building. In some areas they may be referred to as "MDU" standing for "Multi Dwelling Unit".

High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator (lift) and cheaper, more abundant building materials. The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed out of concrete.

High-rise structures pose particular design challenges for structural and geotechnical engineers, particularly if situated in a seismically active region or if the underlying soils have geotechnical risk factors such as high compressibility or bay mud. They also pose serious challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. New and old building design, building systems like the building standpipe system, HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning), fire sprinkler system and other things like stairwell and elevator evacuations pose significant problems.

Apartment blocks have technical and economic advantages in areas with high population density. They have become a distinguished form of housing accommodation in virtually all densely populated urban areas around the world. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land they occupy and also decrease the cost of municipal infrastructure.

History

High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared in antiquity: the insulae in ancient Rome and several other cities in the Roman Empire, some of which might have reached up to 10 or more storeys, one reportedly having 200 stairs. Because of the destruction caused by poorly-built high-rise insulae collapsing, several Roman emperors, beginning with Augustus (r. 30 BC - 14 AD), set limits of 20–25 metres for multi-story buildings, but met with limited success, as these limits were often ignored despite the likelihood of taller insulae collapsing. The lower floors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper storeys were rented out to the lower classes. Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-storey buildings even existed in provincial towns, such as in 3rd century AD Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.

In Arab Egypt, the initial capital city was Fustat. It housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven storeys tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. Al-Muqaddasi in the 10th century described them as resembling minarets, while Nasir Khusraw in the early 11th century described some of them rising up to 14 storeys, with roof gardens on the top storey complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigating them. By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple storeys above them were rented out to tenants.

The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers which fulfilled defensive, but also representative purposes. The residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 to 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all urban buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m, the regulation immediately put into effect. Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m height.

Tower blocks were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud bricks, but about 500 of them are tower houses, which rise 5 to 16 storeys high, with each floor having one or two apartments. This technique of building was implemented in order to protect residents from Bedouin attacks. While Shibam has existed for around 2,000 years, most of the city's houses come mainly from the 16th century. The city has the tallest mud buildings in the world, with some of them over 30 metres (100 feet) high. Shibam has been called "one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction" or "Manhattan of the desert".

Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building in the world is Chicago's John Hancock Center, constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1969. The building has 100 stories and stands at 344 meters tall.

Modern development

United Kingdom

Tower blocks were built in the UK after the Second World War. The first residential tower block, "The Lawn" was constructed in Harlow, Essex in 1951; it is now a Grade II listed building. In many cases Tower Blocks were seen as a "quick-fix" to cure problems caused by crumbling and unsanitary 19th century dwellings or to replace buildings destroyed by German aerial bombing. Initially, they were welcomed, and their excellent views made them popular living places. Later, as the buildings themselves deteriorated, they grew a reputation for being undesirable low cost housing, and many tower blocks saw rising crime levels, increasing their unpopularity. One response to this was the great increase in the number of housing estates built, which in turn brings its own problems. In the UK, tower blocks particularly lost popularity after the partial collapse of Ronan Point in 1968. Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, is believed to contain the highest concentration of tower blocks in the UK - examples include the Hutchesontown C blocks in the Gorbals, the 20-storey blocks in Sighthill, and the 31-storey Red Road (flats) in the city's north east. However, on the whole, London has the largest number of high-rise residential buildings in the UK.

;The post-war British tower block vision

Post-war Britain was the stage for a tower block building ‘boom’; from the 1950s to the late 1970s there was a dramatic increase in tower block construction. During this time, local authorities desired to impress their voters by building futuristic and imposing tower blocks, which would signify post-war progress. Both Patrick Dunleavy and Lynsey Hanley agree that architects and planners were influenced by Le Corbusier’s promotion of high-rise architecture.

As well as inspiring residents, local authority planners believed that the way tower blocks were constructed would save money. Generally, the tower blocks were built on cheap greenfield land skirting established cities. Although the property prices for these periphery sites were markedly cheaper than their inner city counterparts, they often had little access to public amenities, such as public transport. It was thought that the implementation of industrialised building techniques would lower costs too, as similar tower blocks would be replicated over many sites. Concrete was to be an integral part of the tower block designs; it could be poured on site, offering boundless flexibility to the building designers. To the planners, concrete was a silver bullet for the construction process – it was economical, and 'was vaunted as being long-lasting, if not indestructible'.

;The post war British tower block reality Coleman's 1985 work argues that in trying to emulate Le Corbusier's ideas, the tower block planners only succeeded in encouraging social problems. Although architects and local authorities intended the opposite, tower blocks quickly became, as Hanley sharply stated, 'slums in the sky'. Unfortunately, by replicating tower blocks across the nation, planners 'disastrously' replicated design faults. The partial collapse of the Ronan Point tower block is an infamous example of the hasty and substandard construction that occurred in a number of the towers. The tower blocks quickly lost their 'futuristic' look; concrete turned from the crisp white the designers had imagined to a dull grey, stained by pollution.

Poor design decisions ruined the anticipated benefits of the buildings. Open spaces, which were supposed to benefit the residents, were instead unattractive, unused and inadequately supervised. Residents felt it was difficult to maintain the large open spaces around the blocks because they realistically belonged to no one. Social problems increased as the tower blocks quickly degraded through poor maintenance and an insecure communal environment. Apart from frequent break-downs, communal lifts were a source of fear for people travelling alone. It was a rarity to 'enter a clean-smelling, undefaced lift'. The tower blocks, many of which were located on the periphery of the city, made residents feel isolated and cut off from society. Outsiders and newcomers were also affected; they felt the overbearing design of the tower blocks made them fearsome and unsociable.

Power argues that as a direct consequence of their design and construction, security problems were prevalent in many of the tower blocks. Police were often required in the tower blocks, Dunleavy seconds this, suggesting that the mental health of long term tower block residents may have been detrimentally affected.

While local authorities and their architects intended to create tower blocks that encouraged harmonious and vibrant communities, often the results were far from ideal. Post-war tower blocks were compromised from the outset by a combination of faults: local authorities advocated impractical architectural methods; design and construction faults were frequently reproduced; and there appeared to be a lack of understanding about the social consequences of certain design features. Collectively, these oversights transformed many tower blocks into undesirable places to live. ;Fire safety

The lives of residents in London Tower blocks are at risk because London councils have not done proper fire safety checks and the problem is probably widespread in the UK. North Ayrshire Council has decided to remove plastic cladding from its buildings following a fatal fire in a tower block. Poor maintenance of electrical equipment, fire doors and other features has caused widespread fire hazards and residents are asked to pay part of the cost of putting this right although residents did not cause the hazards. Tower blocks may be inherently more prone to fire because people living high up can escape fires less easily and the fire brigade can less easily reach them. In buildings with more than a hundred residents ensuring that every single resident acts responsibly to minimize fire risk is impossible, poorer residents in tower blocks may be tempted to use cheaper flammable fuels rather than electricity also are more likely to be smokers and carelessness with cigarettes is a major cause of home fires, furthermore poor residents of tower blocks are more likely to have old furniture which was not made to modern fire safety standards. Fire safety legislation introduced in London in 2006 requires new high rise buildings to be built to higher safety standards with sprinkler systems, these new buildings are mainly luxury accommodation for richer people. The legislation is not retrospective and does not protect poor people living in existing tower blocks.

;Towards the present day

In recent years, some council or ex-council high-rises in the United Kingdom, including Trellick Tower, Keeling House, Sivill House and The Barbican Estate, have become popular with young professionals due to their excellent views, desirable locations and architectural pedigrees, and now command high prices. There are plans to redevelop the Little London and Lovell Park areas on the fringes of Leeds city centre into luxury flats for 'Young Urban Professionals'. The plans entail demolishing all of the council housing and refurbishing the highrise flats. This demand has led to many councils rethinking plans regarding their demolition.

After a gap of around 30 years, new high-rise flats are once again being built in Belfast, Birmingham (some are for wealthy people, e.g. The Mailbox, others are student accommodation.), Cardiff, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle; but this time sometimes for wealthy professionals, rather than the `lower classes`. Their developers market these properties by using the American term 'apartment buildings', perhaps in an effort to distance these newer buildings from the older tower blocks from the 1950s and 1960s. These are usually taller than their older counterparts and generally built in and around these provincial city centres. They are often glass and aluminum clad. Tonight with Trevor McDonald highlighted that in Leeds and Manchester (perhaps the cities that had seen most development) only approximately half were occupied and with owner occupation often being as low as 10%. In Southend there are controversial plans to build new tower blocks for social housing, a supporter claims this will be cheaper than paying to house poor people with private landlords while opponents fear the creation of Ghettos.

Tower blocks in Northern Ireland were never built to the frequency as they were in other cities in Britain and Ireland. Most tower blocks and flat complexes are found in Belfast and Derry, although many of these have been demolished in recent years and replaced with traditional public housing units. The Divis flats complex in west Belfast was built in between 1968 and 1972 was demolished in the early 1990s as the residents demanded new houses due to mounting problems with the flats. Divis Tower, built separately in 1966, still stands, however; and, in 2007, work began to convert the former British Army base at the top two floors into new dwellings.

In the north of the City, the iconic 7 towers complex in the New Lodge remains, although so too the problems that residents face, such as poor piping and inadequate sanitation. Farther north, the 4 tower blocks in Rathcoole still dominate the local skyline, while in south Belfast, the tower blocks in Seymour Hill also remain standing.

Ireland

Most of the tower blocks in Northern Ireland are in Belfast. All of Belfast's flat complexes were built by Belfast Corporation as part of Belfast slum clearances and to solve the housing problem. The Ballymun Flats were built between 1966 and 1969 consisting of seven 15-storey towers, nineteen 8 storey blocks and ten 4 storey blocks. Inner Dublin flat complexs include Sheriff Street (demolished), Fatima Mansions (demolished and redeveloped), St. Joseph's Gardens (demolished; replaced by Killarney Court flat complex), St. Teresa's Gardens, Dolphin House, Liberty House, St. Michael's Estate and O'Devaney Gardens and a lot more mainly throughout the North and South Inner City of Dublin. Suburban flat complexes were built exclusively on the northside of the city in Ballymun, Coolock and Kilbarrack. These flats were badly affected by a heroin epidemic that hit working-class areas of Dublin in the 1980s and early 90s.

Over the last five years the largest cities such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway have witnessed new large apartment building. Some large towns such as Navan, Drogheda, Dundalk and Mullingar have also witnessed lots of modern apartments being built.

Eastern Europe

Russia is currently undergoing a dramatic buildout, growing a commercially-shaped skyline. Russians, both poor and wealthy, from Soviet time had conserved the impression of prestige about tower blocks.

East Asia

The unpopularity of tower blocks in Europe is in marked contrast to many Asian countries.

In South Korea the tower blocks are called "Apartment Complex ''(Apartment Danji)''". The first residential towers began to be built after the Korean War. The South Korean government needed to build many apartment complexes in the cities to be able to accommodate the citizens. In the 60 years since, as the population increased considerably, tower blocks have become more common. This time however the new tower blocks integrated shopping malls, parking system and other convenient facilities.

In Singapore and urban Hong Kong, land prices are so high that almost the entire population lives in high-rise apartments. In fact, over 60% of Hong Kong residents live in apartments, many of them condominiums. Tower Palace in Seoul, South Korea, is the tallest apartment complex in Asia.

Canada

In Canada large multi-family buildings are usually known as ''apartment buildings'' or ''apartment blocks'' if they are rented from one common landowner, or ''condominiums'' or ''condo towers'' if each dwelling unit is individually owned; they may be called ''low-rise'' (or ''walk-up''), ''mid-rise'', ''high-rise'', or ''skyscraper'' depending on their height. Tall residential towers are a staple building type in all large cities. Their relative prominence in Canadian cities varies substantially, however. In general, more populated cities have more high-rises than smaller cities, due to a relative the scarcity of land and a greater demand for housing. However, some cities such as Quebec City, Ottawa, and Halifax have fewer high-rise buildings due to several factors: a focus on historic preservation, height restrictions, and lower growth rates. In middle-sized cities with a relatively low population density, such as Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Hamilton, there are more apartment towers but they are greatly outnumbered by single-family houses. Most of the largest residential towers in Canada are found in Toronto, Vancouver, and (to a lesser extent) Montreal: the most densely-populated cities. Toronto contains the second largest concentration of high-rise apartment buildings in North America (after New York). In Canada, like in other New World countries, but unlike Western Europe, most high-rise towers are located in the city centre (or "downtown"), where smaller, older buildings were demolished to make way in redevelopment schemes. Toronto, however has many high-rise apartment and condominium communities in its denser suburbs in addition to downtown. Greenfield high-rise development in the suburbs of Canadian cities in much more rare, although it does happen, particularly in transit-oriented developments.

United States

In the United States tower blocks are commonly referred to as "midrise" or "highrise apartment buildings", depending on their height, while buildings that house fewer flats (apartments), or are not as tall as the tower blocks, are called "lowrise apartment buildings".

Some of the first residential towers were the Castle Village towers in New York City completed in 1939. Their cross-shaped design was copied in towers in Parkchester and Stuyvesant Town residential developments.

The government's experiments in the 1960s and 70s to use high-rise apartments as a means of providing the housing solution for the poor resulted in a spectacular failure. All but a few high-rise housing projects in the nation's largest cities, such as Cabrini–Green and Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, Penn South in New York and the Desire projects in New Orleans, fell victim to the "ghettofication" and are now being torn down, renovated, or replaced.

In contrast to their public housing cousins, commercially developed high-rise apartment buildings continue to flourish in cities around the country largely due to high land prices and the housing boom of the 2000s. The Upper East Side in New York City and Chicago's Gold Coast, both featuring high-rise apartments, are the wealthiest urban neighborhoods in the United States.

Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building and tower block in the world is Chicago's John Hancock Center, constructed by Bangladeshi engineer Fazlur Khan in 1969. The building has 100 stories and stands at 344 meters tall.

Australia

High-rise living in Australia was limited to small pockets of bohemian inner Sydney until the 1960s, where a short-lived fashion saw public housing tenants located in new high-rise developments, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. Due to the stigma these enormous and impersonal developments gained, high-rise living fell out of favour until a new wave of developments aimed at the affluent inner urban middle class began from the 1970s onwards. Developers have enthusiastically adopted the term 'apartment' for these new high-rise blocks, perhaps to avoid the stigma still attached to housing commission flats.

Definition

Although there is no precise definition that is universally accepted, various bodies have tried to define what 'high-rise' means:

Emporis Standards defines a high-rise as "A multi-story structure between 35-100 meters tall, or a building of unknown height from 12-39 floors." According to the building code of Hyderabad, India, a high-rise building is one with four floors or more, or one 15 meters or more in height.

The ''New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' defines a high-rise as "a building having many stories".

The ''International Conference on Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings'' defined a high-rise as "any structure where the height can have a serious impact on evacuation" Massachusetts, United States General Laws define a high-rise as being higher than 70 feet (21 m). Most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professions define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet (23 m) tall.

Streets in the sky

Streets in the sky is a term used to describe a style of architecture that emerged in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. Generally built to replace run-down terraced housing, the new designs included not only modern improvements such as inside toilets, but also shops and other community facilities within high-rise blocks. Examples of the buildings and developments are Trellick Tower, Balfron Tower, Robin Hood Gardens and Keeling House in London, Hunslet Grange in Leeds and Park Hill, Sheffield. These were an attempt to develop a new architecture, differentiated from earlier large housing estates, such as Quarry Hill flats in Leeds.

Alison and Peter Smithson were the architects of Robin Hood Gardens. Another large example, the Aylesbury Estate in South London, built in 1970, is about to be demolished.

Deck access

Deck access is a term used to describe flats that are accessed from a walkway that is open to the elements, as opposed to flats that are accessed from fully enclosed internal corridors. Deck access blocks of flats are usually fairly low-rise structures. The decks can vary from simple walkways, which may be covered or uncovered, to decks wide enough for small vehicles. The best known example of deck-access flats in the UK is Park Hill, Sheffield, where the decks are wide enough to allow electric vehicles; however, the design is inspired by French Modernist architect Le Corbusier, particularly his Unite D'Habitation in Marseilles.

Green tower blocks

Green tower blocks have some scheme of living plants or Green roofs or solar panels on their roofs and/or incorporate other environmentally friendly design features.

See also

Apartment Ratings

Earthquake engineering

Low-rise

Prefabrication

Panelák - the equivalent in Czech Republic

Plattenbau - the equivalent in East Germany

Cutie de chibrituri - meaning ''Matchboxes'' in Romanian is the equivalent in Romania

Skyscraper

Wind engineering

''Out My Window'', a web documentary about life in high-rise apartments around the world

References

External links

Sustaining Tower Blocks

World's tallest residential towers

East European blocks of flats today

Photos of Apartment Blocks from around the world

News on the Block - a magazine all about flats

Category:Apartment types

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Coordinates	47°13′″N38°55′″N
building name	St Paul's Cathedral
location	City of London
full name	Cathedral Church of Paul the Apostle
latitude	51.513611
longitude	-0.098056
country	United Kingdom
ecclesiastical	yes
denomination	Church of England
province	Canterbury
diocese	London
bishop	Rt Revd Richard Chartres
dean	Rt Revd Graeme Knowles
canons	Rt Revd Michael Colclough ''Pastor'' Revd Dr Giles Fraser ''Chancellor'' Revd Mark Oakley ''Treasurer'' Revd Michael Hampel ''Precentor''Lucrezia Walker ''Lay Canon'' Gavin Ralston ''Lay Canon''Dr Peter McCullough ''Lay Canon''
director music	Andrew Carwood
website	www.stpauls.co.uk
building	yes
architect	Sir Christopher Wren
architecture style	English Baroque
became cathedral	604
number of cathedrals	4
year built	604; 962; circa 1088 to 1314; 1677
year consecrated	1708
specifications	yes
length	518ft (158m)
width transepts	246ft (75m)
width nave	121ft (37m)
height max	365ft (111m)
tower quantity	3 (2)
tower height	221ft (67m)
dome height ex	278ft (85m)
dome height in	225ft (68m)
dome dia ex	112ft (34m)
dome dia in	102ft (31m) }}

St Paul's Cathedral is a Church of England cathedral dedicated to Paul the Apostle. It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London.

The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth ''St Paul's Cathedral'', all having been built on the same site since AD 604. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognisable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world. In terms of area, St Paul's is the second largest church building in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.

Important services held at St Paul's include the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill; Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer, the launch of the Festival of Britain and the thanksgiving services for both the Golden Jubilee and 80th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. St Paul's Cathedral is a busy working church, with hourly prayer and daily services.

Previous cathedrals

===Pre-Norman=== There had been a late-Roman episcopal see in London. According to the tradition recorded by Bede, the first Saxon cathedral was built by Mellitus in AD 604 in Lundenwic. The unproven conjecture that it occupied the site of the present cathedral is supported by the fact that it was these missionaries' habit, as in mainland Europe, to build cathedrals within Roman cities. However, the Roman city of London, then called Lundenburh, was unoccupied at that time, unlike conditions in the areas of continental Europe where there was continuity of urban occupation and ecclesiastic succession. Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that the cathedral had been built on the site of a temple dedicated to the goddess Diana, in alignment with the Apollo temple that he imagined once stood at Westminster, although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this (Kruger 1943). Geoffrey was disbelieved by contemporaries, and there is no evidence of any occupation at the Westminster site in the Roman period. If any church building existed, perhaps a reutilised existing structure, then it would have only been a modest chapel at first and may well have been destroyed after Mellitus was expelled from the city by Sæberht's pagan successors.

Wherever its predecessor was sited, the successor building within the reoccupied City (built ca 886) was destroyed in a "most fatal fire" in 962, as mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Presumably it was made of timber.

The third cathedral was begun in 962, perhaps in stone. In it was buried Ethelred the Unready. It burnt, with the whole city, in a fire in 1087, noted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

''Old St Paul's''

The fourth St Paul's, known when architectural history arose in the 19th century as ''Old St Paul's'', was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. Work took over 200 years and a great deal was lost in a fire in 1136. The roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. When this 'New Work' was completed in 1314 — the cathedral had been consecrated in 1300 — it was the third-longest church in Europe and had one of Europe's tallest spires, at some 489 feet (149 m). Excavations by Francis Penrose in 1878 showed that it was long and wide (290 feet or 87 m across the transepts and crossing).

By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and other buildings in St Paul's Churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in the churchyard, having been seized by the Crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers, who were often Puritans. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.

Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced; this event was taken by both Protestants and Roman Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions.

England's first classical architect, Inigo Jones, added the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacing mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed (Kelly 2004). "Old St Paul's" was gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead. Indeed this had been contemplated even before the fire.

Wren's cathedral

Design and construction

The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren on 30 July 1669. He had previously been put in charge of designing over fifty other City churches.

Wren had begun advising on the repair of the cathedral before the Great Fire of 1666, in fact as early as 1661. This included drawings for the addition of a dome to the existing building to replace the dilapidated spire, and a restoration of the interiors that would complement the 1630 Inigo Jones-designed facade. After the fire, the ruins of the building were still thought to be workable, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s to start afresh.

St Paul's went through five general stages of design. The first survives only in the form of a part of a model and a single drawing. The scheme (usually called the First Model Design) appears to have consisted of a round domed entrance vestibule (possibly based on the Pantheon in Rome) and a rectangular basilica behind containing the choir. It was rejected because it was not thought "stately enough" Wren’s second design was a Greek cross, which was considered to be too radical by his critics.

Wren's third proposal for the new St Paul's used many of the same design concepts as his Greek cross design, though it had an extended nave. This design was embodied in his creation in 1673 of the "Great Model". The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and was over tall and long. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church and members of the clergy, decried the design as being too dissimilar from churches that already existed in England at the time to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Clergymen also preferred a Latin cross plan for services. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. Wren considered the Great Model his favourite design, and thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty. After the Great Model, Wren resolved to make no more models or publicly expose his drawings, which he found to do nothing but "lose time, and subject his business many times, to incompetent judges".

Wren's fourth design, the Warrant design, sought to reconcile the Gothic, the predominant form of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." Wren attempted to integrate the same concepts of Renaissance harmony into a much more Gothic style. This design was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration made by Wren was informed by his knowledge of astronomy. His design of the portico was influenced by Inigo Jones’s addition to Old St Paul's.

The final design as built differs largely in its ornamentation from the official Warrant design. Wren received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: "He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern" (Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren). The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes that were eventually added to the design were inspired by François Mansart's Val-de-Grâce, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665. The date of the laying of the first stone of the cathedral is disputed. One contemporary account says it was on 21 June 1675, another on 25 June and a third on 28 June. There is, however, general agreement that it was laid in June 1675. Edward Strong later claimed it was laid by his elder brother, Thomas Strong, one of the two master stonemasons appointed by Wren at the beginning of the work.

On 2 December 1697, thirty-two years and three months after a spark from Farryner's bakery had caused the Great Fire of London, St Paul's Cathedral came into use. The widower King William III had been scheduled to appear but, uncomfortable in crowds and public displays, had bowed out at the last minute. The crowd of both the great and the small was so big, and their attitude towards William so indifferent, that he was scarcely missed. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preached the sermon. It was based on the text of Psalm 122, "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the Lord." The first regular service was held on the following Sunday.

The "topping out" of the cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place in October 1708 and the cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on 25 December 1711 (Christmas Day). In fact construction was to continue for several years after that, with the statues on the roof only being added in the 1720s. In 1716 the total costs amounted to £1,095,556 (£|r=-4}}}} as of ).

The consensus was as it is with all such works: some loved it ("Without, within, below, above the eye/ Is filled with unrestrained delight."); some hated it ("...There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals, the heavy arches...They were unfamiliar, un-English.."); while most, once their curiosity was satisfied, didn't think about it one way or another.

:''Sir Christopher Wren :''Went to dine with some men'' :''He said, "If anyone calls,'' :''Say I'm designing Saint Paul's."'' ::A clerihew by Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Structural engineering

Wren's challenge was to construct a large classical cathedral on the relatively weak clay soil of London. Settlement of the foundations caused major problems, forcing Wren to change his dome designs as the work progressed.

The Warrant Design showed external buttresses on the ground floor level. These were not a classical feature and were one of the first elements Wren changed. Instead he made the walls of the cathedral particularly thick to avoid the need for external buttresses altogether. The windows are set into deep recesses in the walls. The upper parts of the cathedral walls are reinforced with small flying buttresses, which were added at a relatively late design change to give extra strength. These are concealed behind a large screen wall, which was added to keep the building's classical style intact.

The large crossing dome is composed of three layers: the first triple dome ever to be constructed. The inner and outer layers are catenary curves, but the structural integrity to support the heavy stone structure atop the dome is provided by a intermediary layer which is much steeper and more conical in shape. The dome is restrained round its base by a wrought iron chain to prevent it spreading and cracking. Further iron chains are in stone bands at intervals in the brick cone and around the cornice of the peristyle.

Artists and craftsmen

The construction and decoration of the Cathedral involved many of the foremost artists and craftsmen in England; these were:

Sir James Thornhill - painted the eight monochrome paintings of the life of St Paul that adorn the interior of the dome. Engravings of the paintings were published in 1720. Grinling Gibbons - responsible for the woodwork, most notably the choir stalls, and sculpted the pediment of the north transept. Jean Tijou - most of the wrought ironwork, including the gates flanking the high altar. Bernard Smith - designed and built the organ. Caius Gabriel Cibber - sculpted the pediment of the south transept. Francis Bird - sculpted the great west pediment showing the conversion of St Paul, plus the seven large sculptures on the west front.

Description

The cathedral is built of Portland stone in a late Renaissance style that represents England's sober Baroque. Its impressive dome was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It rises 365 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, making it a famous London landmark. Wren achieved a pleasing appearance by building three domes: the tall outer dome is non-structural but impressive to view, the lower inner dome provides an artistically balanced interior, and between the two is a structural cone that supports the apex structure and the outer dome. Wren was said to have been hauled up to the rafters in a basket during the building of its later stages to inspect progress.

The nave has three small chapels in the two adjoining aisles – ''The Chapel of All Souls'' and ''The Chapel of St Dunstan'' in the north aisle and the ''Chapel of St Michael and St George'' in the south aisle. The main space of the cathedral is centred under the inner dome, which rises 108.4 metres from the cathedral floor and holds three circular galleries – the internal ''Whispering Gallery'', the external ''Stone Gallery'', and the external ''Golden Gallery''.

The ''Whispering Gallery'' runs around the inside of the dome 99 feet (30.2 m) above the cathedral floor. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level. It gets its name because, as with any dome, a whisper against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. A low murmur is equally audible.

The base of the inner dome is 173 feet (53.4 m) above the floor. Its top is about 65 m above the floor, making this the greatest height of the enclosed space. The cathedral is some in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which is the nave and is the choir. The width of the nave is and across the transepts is . The cathedral is thus slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

The quire extends to the east of the dome and holds the stalls for the clergy and the choir and the organ. To the north and south of the dome are the transepts, here called the North Choir and the South Choir.

Details of the towers at the west end (''illustration, left'') and their dark voids are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance, for the towers have always stood out in the urban skyline. They are composed of two complementary elements, a central cylinder rising through the tiers in a series of stacked drums, and paired Corinthian columns at the corners, with buttresses above them, which serve to unify the drum shape with the square block plinth containing the clock. The main entablature breaks forward over the paired columns to express both elements, tying them together in a single horizontal band. The cap, like a bell-shaped miniature dome, supports a gilded finial, a pinecone supported on four scrolling angled brackets, the topmost expression of the consistent theme.

The north-west tower contains 13 bells hung for change ringing while the south-west contains four, including Great Paul, at 16½ tons- the largest bell in the British Isles, cast in 1881, and Great Tom (the hour bell), recast twice, the last time by Richard Phelps, after being moved from St. Stephen's Chapel at the Palace of Westminster. The bell is only rung on occasions of a death in the royal family, the Bishop of London, or London's mayor, although an exception was made at the death of US President James Garfield. In 1717, Richard Phelps cast two more bells that were added as "quarter jacks". Still in use today, the first weighs , is in diameter and is tuned to A flat; the second weighs and is in diameter and is tuned to E flat.

Details of the bells:— {| |- ! Bell ! Weight ! Nominal ! Note ! Diameter ! Cast ! Founder |- | 1 | 8-1-4 | 1461.0 | F | 30.88" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 2 | 9-0-20 | 1270.0 | E♭ | 32.50" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 3 | 9-3-12 | 1199.0 | D | 34.00" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 4 | 11-2-22 | 1063.0 | C | 36.38" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 5 | 13-1-0 | 954.0 | B♭ | 38.63" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 6 | 13-2-14 | 884.0 | A | 39.63" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 7 | 16-1-18 | 784.0 | G | 43.75" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 8 | 21-3-18 | 705.0 | F | 47.63" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 9 | 27-1-22 | 636.0 | E♭ | 52.50" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 10 | 29-3-21 | 592.0 | D | 55.25" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 11 | 43-2-0 | 525.0 | C | 61.25" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | 12 | 61-2-12 | 468.0 | B♭ | 69.00" | 1878 | John Taylor & Co |- | Clock | 12-2-9 | | A♭ | | 1707 | Richard Phelps |- | Clock | 24-2-26 | | E♭ | | 1707 | Richard Phelps |- | Clock | 102-1-22 | | A♭ | 82.88" | 1716 | Richard Phelps |- | Bourdon | 334-2-19 | | E♭ | 114.75" | 1881 | John Taylor & Co |- | Communion | 18-2-26 | | E♭ | 49.50" | 1700 | Philip Wightman |}

Post-Wren history

This cathedral has survived despite being targeted during the Blitz- it was struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 1941. On 12 September 1940 a time-delayed bomb that had struck the cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a bomb disposal detachment of Royal Engineers under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Robert Davies. Had this bomb detonated, it would have totally destroyed the cathedral, as it left a crater when it was later remotely detonated in a secure location. As a result of this action, Davies was awarded the George Cross, along with Sapper George Cameron Wylie.

On 29 December 1940, the cathedral had another close call when an incendiary bomb became lodged in the lead shell of the dome but fell outwards onto the Stone Gallery and was put out before it could ignite the dome timbers. One of the most iconic images of London during the war was a photograph of St Paul's taken the same day by photographer Herbert Mason, from the roof of the Daily Mail in Tudor Street showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke.

Lisa Jardine of Queen Mary, University of London has written:

Memorials

The cathedral has a very substantial crypt, holding over 200 memorials, and serves as both the Order of the British Empire Chapel and the Treasury. The cathedral has very few treasures: many have been lost, and in 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723: on the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written, "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (''Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you'').

St Paul's is home to other plaques, carvings, statues, memorials and tombs of famous British figures including:

General Sir Isaac Brock

Sir Edwin Lutyens

John Donne, whose funeral effigy (portraying him in a shroud) but not his tomb survives from Old St Paul's.

Lord Kitchener

The Duke of Wellington Lord Nelson

Henry Moore

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

Sir William Alexander Smith

Sir Winston Churchill

T. E. Lawrence, whose bust faces Nelson's sarcophagus

Sir Alexander Fleming

Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley

Sir Philip Vian

John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe

David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

Sir Arthur Sullivan

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Sir Hubert Parry

Florence Nightingale

J. M. W. Turner Sir Joshua Reynolds Dr. Samuel Johnson

Ivor Novello

Charles Cornwallis

Frederick George Jackson

Mandell Creighton and Louise Creighton

Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet

Most of the memorials commemorate the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the most recent being the Gulf War. There are special monuments to Lord Nelson in the south transept and to the Duke of Wellington in the north aisle; both are buried here. Also remembered are poets, painters, clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years.

The cathedral has been the site of many famous funerals, including those of Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill and George Mallory.

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher is set to have a state funeral at the cathedral upon her eventual death.

American Memorial Chapel

The apse of the cathedral is home to the American Memorial Chapel. It honours American servicemen and women who died in World War II, and was dedicated in 1958. It was paid for entirely by donations from British people, and was designed, as a modern exercise in the Wren style, by Godfrey Allen and Stephen Dykes Bower. The Roll of Honour contains the names of more than 28,000 Americans who gave their lives while on their way to, or stationed in, the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It is in front of the chapel's altar. The three chapel windows date from 1960; they feature themes of service and sacrifice, while the insignia around the edges represent the American states and the US armed forces. The limewood panelling incorporates a rocket - a tribute to America's achievements in space.

St Paul's Cathedral Arts Project

The St Paul’s Cathedral Arts Project is an ongoing programme which seeks to explore the encounter between art and faith. Projects have included installations by Antony Gormley, Rebecca Horn, Yoko Ono and Martin Firrell.

Internationally acclaimed artist Bill Viola has been commissioned to create two altarpieces for permanent display in St Paul's Cathedral. The project commenced production in mid 2009 with completion in early 2012. Following the extensive programme of cleaning and repair of the interior of St Paul's, completed in 2005, Bill Viola has been commissioned to create two altarpieces on the themes of Mary and Martyrs. These two multi-screen video installations will be permanently located at the end of the Quire aisles, flanking the High Altar of the Cathedral and the American Memorial Chapel where US Service men and women who gave their lives in the Second World War are commemorated. Each work will employ an arrangement of multiple plasma screen panels configured in a manner similar to historic altarpieces. The screens will be mounted on hinged panels, allowing them to be closed.

In Summer 2010, St Paul's chose two new works by the British artist Mark Alexander to be hung either side of the nave. Both entitled Red Mannheim, Alexander's large red silkscreens are inspired by the Mannheim Cathedral altarpiece (1739–41), which was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The original sculpture depicts Christ on the cross, surrounded by a familiar retinue of mourners. Rendered in splendid giltwood, with Christ's wracked body sculpted in relief, and the flourishes of flora and incandescent rays from heaven, this masterpiece of the German Rococo is an object of ravishing beauty and intense piety.

In March 2010, Flare II, a sculpture by Antony Gormley, was installed in the dramatic setting of the Geometric Staircase.

In 2007, Dean and Chapter commissioned public artist Martin Firrell to create a major public artwork to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Wren's building. The Question Mark Inside consisted of digital text projections to the cathedral dome, West Front and inside onto the Whispering Gallery. The text was based on blog contributions by the general public as well as interviews conducted by the artist and the artist's own views. The project presented a stream of possible answers to the question: 'what makes life meaningful and purposeful, and what does St Paul's mean in that contemporary context?' The Question Mark Inside opened on 8 November 2008 and ran for eight nights.

A 15 year restoration project - one of the largest ever undertaken in the UK - was completed on 15 June 2011.

Interpretation Project

The Interpretation Project is a long term project concerned with bringing St Paul’s to life for all its visitors.

In 2010, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's opened Oculus: an eye into St Paul'. Oculus is a 270° film experience that brings 1400 years of history to life. Located in the atmospheric former Treasury in the crypt, Oculus takes visitors on a journey through the history and daily life of St Paul's Cathedral. Oculus was funded by American Express Company in partnership with the World Monuments Fund, J. P . Morgan, the Garfield Weston Trust for St Paul’s Cathedral, the City of London Endowment Trust and AIG.

In 2010, new touchscreen multimedia guides were also launched. These guides are included in the price of admission. Visitors can discover the cathedral’s history, architecture and daily life of a busy working church with these new multimedia guides. They are available in 12 different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and British Sign Language (BSL). The guides have fly-through videos of the dome galleries and zoomable close-ups of breathtaking ceiling mosaics, painting and photography. Interviews and commentary from experts include the Dean of St Paul’s, conservation team and the Director of Music. Archive film footage includes major services and events from the cathedral's history.

Organ and organists

Organ

The organ was commissioned in 1694: the current instrument is the third-biggest in Britain with 5 manuals, 189 ranks of pipes and 108 stops, enclosed in an impressive case by Grinling Gibbons.

Details of the organ from the National Pipe Organ Register

Organists and directors of music

c.1525–1547 John Redford (also Almoner)

1547 Philip ap Rhys (until c.1559)

1573 Henry Mudd

1587? - 1592? Thomas Morley

1598 Thomas Harrold

1619 John Tomkins

1638–1642 Albertus Bryne

1660–1668 Albertus Bryne

1687 Isaac Blackwell

1699 Jeremiah Clarke (also Almoner 1704-7)

1707 Richard Brind

1718 Maurice Greene

1756 John Jones

1796 Thomas Attwood

1838 Sir John Goss

1872 Sir John Stainer

1888 Sir George Clement Martin

1916 Charles Macpherson

1927 Sir Stanley Marchant

1936 Sir John Dykes Bower

1968 Christopher Dearnley

1990 John Scott (Organist & Director of Music)

2004 Malcolm Archer

2007 Andrew Carwood (Director of Music)

Sub-organists and assistant organists

George Cooper (father) 1???-1838

George Cooper (son) 1838–1876 (also Organist HM Chapel Royal)

George Clement Martin 1876–1888 (subsequently Organist)

William Hodge 1888–1895

Charles Macpherson 1895–1916 (subsequently Organist)

Stanley Marchant 1916–1927 (subsequently Organist)

Douglas Edward Hopkins 1927–1946 (subsequently Organist Peterborough Cathedral; later Organist Canterbury Cathedral)

Harry Gabb 1946–1974 (also Organist, Choirmaster & Composer HM Chapel Royal)

Barry Rose 1974–1984 (Master of the Choir 1977–1984; later Master of Music St Albans Abbey)

John Scott 1985–1990 (subsequently Organist and Director of Music; now Director of Music St Thomas, Fifth Avenue)

Andrew Lucas 1990–1998 (now Master of Music, St Albans Abbey)

Huw Williams 1998–2008 (now Sub Organist, HM Chapel Royal)

In 2007 the posts of Organist and Director of Music were separated, the Sub-Organist post being re-titled Organist & Assistant Director of Music in September 2008.

Simon Johnson 2008 (September) - present

Assistant sub-organists and sub-organists

Gerald Wheeler 1953–1956

Derek Holman 1956–1958

Richard Popplewell 1958–1966 (subsequently Organist, Choirmaster & Composer HM Chapel Royal)

Timothy Farrell 1966–1967 (subsequently Organist, Choirmaster & Composer HM Chapel Royal)

Christopher Herrick 1967–1978 (subsequently Sub-Organist Westminster Abbey)

John Scott 1978–1985 (simultaneously held post of Assistant Organist Southwark Cathedral; subsequently Sub-Organist)

Andrew Lucas 1985–1990 (subsequently Sub-Organist)

Martin Baker 1990–1991 (later Sub-Organist & Acting Organist Westminster Abbey; now Master of Music Westminster Cathedral)

Richard Moorhouse 1992–2000 (now Organist & Master of the Choristers Llandaff Cathedral)

Mark Williams 2000–2006 (now Director of Music Jesus College, Cambridge)

Tom Winpenny 2006–2008 (now Assistant Master of Music St Albans Abbey)

In 2007 the posts of Organist and Director of Music were separated, the Assistant Sub-Organist post being re-titled Sub-Organist in April 2008.

Timothy Wakerell 2008–present

Almoners and masters of the choristers

Thomas Hickman ? - 1534

John Redford ?1534–1547 (also Organist)

Sebastian Westcote 1554–1582 (Vicar Choral)

Thomas Giles 1584–1600

Edward Pearce 1599–1612

John Gibbs 1613–1624

Martin Peerson 1626–1642

Randall Jewett 1661–1675

Michael Wise 1687

John Blow 1687–1703

Jeremiah Clarke 1704–1707 (also Organist)

Charles King 1707–1748 (Vicar Choral)

William Savage 1748–1773 (Vicar Choral)

Robert Hudson 1773–1793 (Vicar Choral)

Richard Bellamy 1793–1800 (Vicar Choral)

John Sale 1800–1812 (Vicar Choral)

William Hawes 1812–1846

The title of Almoner then passed to one of the Minor Canons, while the post of Master of the Choristers was held by a succession of Vicars Choral, including -

Fred Walker 1867–1874 (Vicar Choral)

until -

George Clement Martin 1874–1876 (subsequently Sub-Organist & then Organist)

The training of the choristers was then entrusted to the Organist & his deputies until -

Barry Rose 1977–1984 (Master of the Choir)

The post was re-united with that of Organist under John Scott in 1990

Organ scholars

John Dexter 1975 (Organist and Master of the Choristers at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin 1977–2001)

Ian Sadler 1978

Gareth Green

Martin Cooke

Mark Blatchly (now Organist Charterhouse School)

Andrew Lucas 1980–1984 (subsequently Assistant Sub-Organist)

Simon Lole 1979–1982 (later Organist & Director of Music Sheffield Cathedral & then Salisbury Cathedral)

Andrew Shenton (now Associate Professor of Music at Boston University)

Roger Sayer (now Organist Rochester Cathedral)

Lee Ward 1989 (now Director of Music London Oratory School & Director of Music Hampstead Parish Church)

David Whitehead 1990

Fraser Simpson 1992

Huw Williams 1993 (later Sub-Organist)

Stuart Nicholson (now Organist & Master of the Choristers St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin)

Lionel Steuart Fothringham (now Director of Music Highgate School)

Simon Johnson 1997 (subsequently Assistant Master of the Music St Albans Abbey; now Organist & Assistant Director of Music)

Benjamin Nicholas 1998 (now Director Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum & Director of Music Merton College, Oxford)

Nicholas Chalmers 2000 (now Assistant Chorus Master English National Opera)

Thomas Corns 2001 (now Organist St Mary's Warwick)

Duncan Ferguson 2003 (now Organist & Master of the Music St Mary's, Edinburgh)

James Kennerly 2005 (now Associate Director of Music Christ Church, Greenwich, Connecticut)

James McVinnie 2006 (now Assistant Organist Westminster Abbey)

Tim Harper 2008 (Assistant Director of Music Birmingham Cathedral)

Donald Hunt 2010

Simon Hogan (from July 2011)

Some notable choristers and vicars choral

;16th century

William Mundy (Vicar Choral), composer.

Peter Philips (chorister), composer.

;17th century

Adrian Batten (Vicar Choral), composer.

;18th century

Jonathan Battishill (chorister), composer.

William Boyce (chorister), composer.

Maurice Greene (chorister), composer and Organist of St Paul's Cathedral.

;19th century

William Cummings (chorister), composer and organist.

John Stainer (chorister), Organist of St Paul's Cathedral and Professor of Music at Oxford University.

;20th century

Simon Russell Beale (chorister), actor.

Alastair Cook (chorister), cricketer.

Alfred Deller (Vicar Choral), counter-tenor.

Jimmy Edwards (chorister), actor.

Gerald English (Vicar Choral), tenor.

Charles Groves (chorister), conductor.

Paul Hillier (Vicar Choral), conductor.

Robin Holloway (chorister), composer.

Neil Howlett (chorister), opera singer and teacher.

James Lancelot (chorister), Organist of Durham Cathedral.

Walter de la Mare (chorister), poet and novelist.

Stephen Oliver (chorister), composer.

Julian Ovenden (chorister), actor and singer.

John Shirley-Quirk (Vicar Choral), bass-baritone.

Robert Tear (Vicar Choral), tenor and conductor.

Anthony Way (chorister), treble.

Filming

Films and TV programmes made at St Paul's Cathedral include:

Climbing Great Buildings (2010)

Industrial Revelations: Best of British Engineering - Buildings, with Rory McGrath series 5, episode 1, 2008, features St.Paul's Cathedral.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban shows the Geometric Staircase in the South West Bell Tower.

The Madness of King George shows the Geometric Staircase in the South West Bell Tower.

Interior view

See also

:Category:Bishops of London

:Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral

:Category:Deans of St Paul's

College of Minor Canons

List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom

List of churches and cathedrals of London

List of Christopher Wren churches in London

St Paul's Cathedral School

Paternoster Square

Tall buildings in London

The Light of the World (painting)

Cyril Raikes (fire watching on the dome of St Pauls in the 2nd World War)

References

;Notes

;Sources

Lang, Jane (1956). ''Rebuilding St Paul's after the Great Fire of London''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Campbell, James W.P. (2007). ''Building St Paul's''. London: Thames and Hudson ISBN 978 0 500 34244 2

;Further reading

''St Pauls and the City'' by Frank Atkinson (With numerous photographic plates, both in colour, and black and white). Michael Joseph - Park Lane Press (London) in 1985 with an ISBN 0 7181 2629 7

'' The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire'' by Frederic Hood with a foreword by Prince Phillip. (Mainly colour plates on glossy paper relating to St Paul's Cathedral - 65 pages with descriptive text) Detail from a copy of the book published by OUP (Oxford University Press) at Oxford in 1967 with no ISBN

''St Paul's - The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004'' ed Keene, Burn & Saint. Yale University Press 2004 ISBN 0 300 09276 8

External links

St Paul's Cathedral official website

A Popular Description of St. Paul's Cathedral By Maria Hackett, published 1828, 87 pages.

Biographical Illustrations of St. Paul's Cathedral By George Lewis Smyth, published 1843, 284 pages.

St Paul's Cathedral by Canaletto (painting)

Wren's various designs

St Paul's Cathedral Photo Gallery — 125 photos

Old St Paul's Cathedral by William Benham - eText from Project Gutenberg

S.E. Kelly, editor, 2004. ''Charters of St Paul's, London'' in series Anglo-Saxon Charters'' (Oxford University Press)

The 'Registrum Statutorum..' of St Paul's - collected charters and other documents from the earliest years until the nineteenth century. Published by the cathedral in 1873, Latin and English.

BBC News account of the bombing

Bells of St Paul's

A history of the choristers of St Paul's Cathedral

Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website

Central London live webcam showing St Paul's, Westminster and Big Ben

The Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - OBE Chapel

St Paul's lithographs c. 1647–1817

The Jubilee Cope commissioned for the Bishop of London by St Paul’s Cathedral in honor of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II &.

Category:1708 architecture London Category:Churches in the City of London Category:Domes Category:English Baroque architecture Category:Grade I listed churches in London Category:Grade I listed cathedrals Category:Christopher Wren churches in London Category:Surviving Christopher Wren London churches Category:Nicholas Hawksmoor buildings Category:Pipe organs Category:Buildings and structures in London Category:Visitor attractions in the City of London Category:Anglican Diocese of London

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