Wren was one of the most extraordinary figures of his time. Although he is now best-known as an architect, he was also an astronomer, a scientist and such a talented mathematician that Sir Isaac Newton - the man who discovered gravity - ranked him as one of the world's three leading geometricians.

Throughout his life, he produced a steady stream of inventions, ranging from a pneumatic engine and an instrument that would copy handwriting to a method of fortifying port wine and a machine for knitting nine pairs of stockings simultaneously.

His lasting fondness for Oxford, where he studied at Wadham College and was Professor of Astronomy from 1661-1673, is reflected in the great buildings he created there, including the Sheldonian Theatre, St John's College and Tom Tower at Christ Church.

At Cambridge, he designed Pembroke and Emmanuel College chapels and Trinity College library. For royalty and the state, his commissions included the Greenwich Observatory and Greenwich Hospital, Chelsea Hospital, and extensive work at Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace.

But his great passion was for the City of London, where he designed many of the replacements for the churches destroyed in the Great Fire. Perhaps his fascination with religious buildings is explained by his definition of the purpose of his work. "Architecture," he once explained, "aims at eternity."