St. Paul's Cathedral

Friday, January 17, 2020: Today Eddie and I spent most of the day exploring the spectacular St. Paul's Cathedral.  Fortuitously, we were able to join a 90-minute tour of the building because, in hindsight, one can't truly appreciate this magnificent building without a proper introduction.  St. Paul's has been on this exact site for 1400 years, established in 604 AD.  There were several St. Paul's, each one destroyed one way or the other, including the great gothic building that burned in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The present cathedral was built in the late 17th century by the architect Christopher Wren.  When this cathedral was constructed, no one knew what an Anglican cathedral looked like or should look like, except that the architects and clerics did not want St. Paul's to resemble a Roman Catholic church.   The building has an interesting history. Princess Diana and Prince Charles married here.  There are numerous notable people buried in the crypt, including the artist Frederic Leighton and the Duke of Wellington (both of whom are mentioned earlier in this blog), as well as the architect Christopher Wren.  Eddie tried to get me to climb the 528 steps to the balcony that circles the exterior of the upper dome, but it was too much for me.  Once he came back down, he told me how challenging it was, but that the view was amazing.  The cathedral was bombed during WWII, but damage was minimal.

John Donne, Poet and Dean of Saint Paul's Catherdral

Spiral Staircase by Christopher Wren

Tombs of Wren and Leighton

Memorial to Florence Nightingale

Memorial to William Blake, Poet and Mystic

St. Paul's from the Millennium Bridge

The Shard Building on the South Bank of the Thames

One Blackfriars Tower by Blackfriars Bridge