Site search | St Paul's Cathedral

2.3.2 D95_Supporting Image

Wren 300: Innovation and Restoration

In 2023 we mark the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren, a visionary and architect of St Paul's Cathedral.

A man dressed as Sir Christopher Wren standing under the dome of St Paul's

Wren300: Exploring a Masterpiece

A film most suitable for KS2 which investigates the ‘humanly constructed world’ through Wren’s architectural masterpiece.

2.3.1 D94_Lead Image

The Wren Office drawings

The St Paul’s Collection of Wren Office drawings is unrivalled as a record of the design and construction of a single great building by one architect in the early modern era.

wren suite carousel image 1

Wren Suite

The elegant Wren Suite is kitted out for seminars as well as family celebrations, and can host up to 100 guests for receptions.

Wren Office drawings: sources

A photo of the signature of Sir Christopher Wren

Exhibition: Christopher Wren: The Quest for Knowledge

This exhibition, new for 2023, explores the life and career of Sir Christopher Wren, scientist, mathematician and architect of St Paul's Cathedral.

Opens 27th April 2023

Free with a ticket

Service of Thanksgiving for Sir Christopher Wren

A special service to celebrate the life of Sir Christopher Wren on the 300th anniversary of his death.

Free with a ticket

Equal access entrance at North Transept

The first Equal Access entrance to Wren's masterpiece opens

St Paul’s has opened a permanent accessible entrance to the Cathedral. Designed by Caroe Architecture, the project is the most significant change to Christopher Wren’s exterior in 300 years.

A young child wearing a long black, curly wig and wide brimmed hat, dressed as Christopher Wren.

Family activities: Sir Christopher Wren and how to build a new Cathedral

Join us for drop-in family activities during August, included with your sightseeing ticket.

Thursday 14th, Friday 15th and Saturday 16th August 2025, 10.30am until 3.30pm

Free with a ticket

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.

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.

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. 6. Robert Trevitt's engraved view of the choir at a thanksgiving service attended by Queen Anne, 31 December 1706 (© City of London, London Metropolitan Archives)

4. The Choir and Morning Prayer Chapel, 1693-97

The design, construction and decoration of the choir enclosure and sanctuary occupied Wren and his assistants at least four and a half years.

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.

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.

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.

library books dark

Transforming the Library

The ingenious architecture of Christopher Wren conceals a secret area of the Cathedral, which is home to a remarkable room – the Cathedral Library.

St Pauls seen over the millennium bridge

Explore

Explore St Paul’s Cathedral with its architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Use our virtual tours to visit the Cathedral from your computer or mobile device.

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.

2.11.2 SPCAA-D-2-5

The Penrose architectural drawings

Following in Wren’s footsteps, architect Francis Crammer Penrose made some major changes to the Cathedral – and, after his death, helped modern archaeologists uncover our history.