Wren had always intended a belfry in one of the towers at the west end of the Cathedral.
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The design, construction and decoration of the choir enclosure and sanctuary occupied Wren and his assistants at least four and a half years.
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.
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.
The ingenious architecture of Christopher Wren conceals a secret area of the Cathedral, which is home to a remarkable room – the Cathedral Library.
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.
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.
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.
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.