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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.

Dr Catherine Okoronkwo

New Year reflections with biblical women

Catherine Okoronkwo looks through the lens of four biblical women to reflect on our faith, our purpose and our relationship with God, self and others.

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.

the cathedral dome seen from south of the river

Terms and conditions of entry

Understand the terms and conditions of entering our building, whether for sightseeing or events.

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.

Richard is a white man with short grey hair and black rimmed glasses. He wears a clerical collar and black shirt under a casual light jacket and stands holding onto the wooden railing of a boat or a jetty on a lake. The shoreline in the distance has trees, and some buildings, and there are mountains in the distant background. The sky is pale blue with some clouds and the sun is shining on Richard.

Advent Reflections from Jerusalem

Richard Sewell, Dean of St George's College in Jerusalem, reflects on Advent in the Holy Land.

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.

a silhouette of a male figure wearing a hat against a background of St Paul's bell tower

Exhibition: Saving St Paul's: The Watch and the Second World War

This exhibition, celebrating 80 years since the end of the Second World War, commemorates the work of the St Paul's Watch - the group of people who saved St Paul's from destruction during the Blitz.

Free and unticketed

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.

candles prayer worship mourning

Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer is a simple, short spoken service which takes place at 7.30am on Monday to Saturday. It lasts for around 25 minutes.

Every weekday at 7.30am

Free and unticketed