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family exploring the crypt

Terms and conditions for tickets

Our terms and conditions apply when pre-booking sightseeing admission tickets, event tickets or concert tickets from St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Become a Friend

For a small annual fee, you can join the Friends of St Paul’s, and benefit from free visits, discounts at our shop and priority access to events and services.

Pope Francis stands against a pale background

A Pastoral Pope amidst God's People

Anna Rowlands reflects on Pope Francis' papacy.

Members of the St Paul's Watch during the Second World War

The St Paul's Watch

Explore the history of the St Paul's Watch and their activities during the Second World War.

Monument to Charles Cornwallis

Charles Cornwallis,1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805)

Learn about the monument to Charles Cornwallis,1st Marquess Cornwallis, and the East India Company with this piece written by Fawzia Mahmood.

grindling gibbons carvings jonathan working

Recreating the Quire carvings

Understand how the Quire has evolved over the past 300 years and how those changes have created conservation considerations today.

Monument to John Jervis

John Jervis

Learn about the monument to John Jervis (1735-1833).

guide welcome visitors group nave entrance

Our guided and self-guided tours

Get to know the fascinating figures in our history – and the story of how the Cathedral was built – with our guided and self-guided tours.

2.1.1 Great Model - Lead Image - Ref 8851

1. Designs for the Great Model, 1673

Wren’s unrealised Great Model, now in the Cathedral’s Trophy Room, took about ten months to design and more than a year afterwards to build and decorate.

Fig. 5. The Bishop's Throne at the east end of the south range of stalls. Carved by Grinling Gibbons, 1696–9

Sources and abbreviations

A bibliography for the Wren Office Drawings online collection.

Monument to Ralph Abercromby

Sir Ralph Abercromby of Tullibody

Learn about the monument to Sir Ralph Abercromby of Tullibody (1734-1801).

Fig. 7. St Paul’s Cathedral. South elevation and half-plan as built, showing the main phases of construction from 1675 to 1688 (Richard Lea and Gordon Higgott)

2. The Design in the First Phase, 1675-85

After the rejection of the Great Model in the latter part of 1674, Wren prepared several designs for a new Cathedral on a cruciform plan.

Carris, a white woman with auburn hair and glasses, stands in the cathedral, the lights of the nave and the decorative ceiling blurred in the background behind her.

Music for Good Friday and Easter

Singer Carris Jones writes about music that illuminates the mystery and meanings of Good Friday and Easter.

Christopher Chapman is a white man with short grey hair wearing a pair grey casual shirt and sitting in front of a bookcase, cupboard and fireplace.

Ripening: reflections for a changing season

Christopher Chapman reflects on signs of God in the changing season.

Fig. 1. ‘The Revised design’: South elevation, drawn by Hawksmoor, c.1686 (© All Souls College, Oxford, G.81)

3. Upper elevations and west end, c. 1685

The dramatic increase in funding from 1686 was the main factor behind a major revision to the design that can be dated from mid-1685.

2.9.1 WRE_6_1_5 (D143)_Lead image

6. The western towers, c. 1685-1710

Wren had always intended a belfry in one of the towers at the west end of the Cathedral.

Fig. 3. Study by Hawksmoor in half-elevation, section and plan, for a mausoleum-like rotunda on the west side of the piazza, c.1696–97 (WRE/7/1/3)

7. Churchyard and paving and miscellaneous drawings, c. 1690-1713

The earliest known scheme to improve the Cathedral churchyard is an outline study by Wren and Hawksmoor, drawn over a survey of the whole precinct prepared by William Dickinson.

Cally is a white woman with white hair and glasses wearing a clerical collar under a black shirt and grey tweed jacket. She is in front of a mantlepiece decorated with card, framed photos and an Icon, and a lit log burner. She is smiling.

Mary

Cally Hammond reflects on Mary, Mother of Christ, for the month of May.

Ellen wears a clerical collar and robes while standing at a lectern, her hand outstretched as she talks

Down-to-earth mysticism

Ellen Clark-King explores mysticism through some well-known and lesser-known mystics this October.

Fig. 1. Engraving of the north elevation, probably by Simon Gribelin, c.1687–88, with cut-outs from a later engraving of the finished dome (St Paul’s Cathedral, SP105)

5. Designs for the Dome, c. 1685-1710

Wren’s revisions to the design in 1685–86 created a podium for a vast, richly modelled Dome, inspired by those of Michelangelo’s St Peter’s in Rome and Jules Hardouin-Mansart’s Invalides church in Paris.