St Paul’s Cathedral: London’s Greatest Building

There have been churches on Ludgate Hill since the 7th century. The building you see today is Christopher Wren’s fifth attempt at designing a replacement for Old St Paul’s, which burned in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The first four proposals were rejected by the church authorities. The accepted design, the so-called Warrant Design, was itself modified substantially during construction, which took from 1675 to 1710 - Wren outlived the completion by 17 years, dying at 91. The dome was the controversial element: Protestant church authorities mistrusted the Catholic associations of domed buildings and repeatedly pushed for a Gothic spire. Wren had the warrant for a cathedral with a spire; he built a dome. He was never prosecuted.

The dome is the thing. At 111 metres to the cross, it held the record for the tallest building in London from 1710 until 1963. The three-shell structure (brick inner dome, brick and stone intermediate cone, outer timber-framed lead dome) is an engineering solution that Wren developed from close study of Paris’s Les Invalides and St Peter’s in Rome, improving on both. The view of it from the Millennium Bridge is one of the defining vistas in London.

Visiting

The cathedral is at the top of Ludgate Hill in the City of London, served by St Paul’s Underground station (Central Line, 1 minute walk). Opening hours for tourists: Monday to Saturday 08:30-16:30 (last entry 16:00). The cathedral is free for worship but entry for sightseeing costs £23 adult, £10 child, £20 concession (2024 prices). Timed entry is available online at stpauls.co.uk, which is worth booking for weekends.

Audio guides are included with entry and are comprehensive. The standard visit covers the main nave, crypt, and dome levels.

The Whispering Gallery at 99 steps sits just inside the dome’s base. Sound travels along the curved wall with unusual clarity - a whisper against the wall on one side is audible on the opposite side 34 metres away. In practice, the gallery is often loud with visitor noise, which rather limits the experiment. Worth stopping at for the view down into the cathedral and the first close look at the dome’s mosaics.

The Stone Gallery (143 additional steps) is an external viewing platform around the base of the outer dome, 53 metres above the cathedral floor. Good views of the City of London to the east and north.

The Golden Gallery (152 more steps, 85 metres total) is at the base of the lantern, outside and fully exposed. The view from here - 360 degrees, the Thames and Tate Modern to the south, the Gherkin and Tower of London to the east, the West End and Westminster beyond St James’s Park - is better than anywhere else accessible to the public in the City. The climb is steep with narrow staircases in the final section. Allow time. It’s worth it.

The Crypt

The crypt is entered from inside the cathedral and is one of the largest in Europe, running under the full length of the building. Buried here: Lord Nelson (the tomb a copy of the original design in black marble), the Duke of Wellington (a massive porphyry sarcophagus), J.M.W. Turner, Henry Moore, and Christopher Wren himself. Wren’s epitaph, set into the floor, reads: “Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice” - Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you. The crypt also has a good café (open to all, no entry ticket required to access it directly).

The Surrounding Area

Millennium Bridge connects St Paul’s directly to Tate Modern on the South Bank. It opened in 2000, wobbled due to resonance frequency problems on its opening day, was immediately closed, and reopened in 2002 after extensive modification. The view from the bridge looking north toward St Paul’s, particularly at dusk, is the one most photographers use.

St Paul’s Churchyard (the immediate area around the cathedral) was the centre of London’s book trade from the 16th to 18th centuries. Every major English publisher was based here. Almost nothing survives of that period physically, but the area remains notable for banking and finance in the City.

Paternoster Square, the plaza immediately north of the cathedral, has Temple Bar - the original 1672 gate to the City of London, relocated from Fleet Street to Paternoster in 2004. The gate is the point at which the Sovereign must ask permission to enter the City; the ceremony still occurs on state visits.

Where to Eat Nearby

Paternoster Chop House in the square north of the cathedral is the carnivore option: British cuts, good puddings, reasonable wine list. Mains £24-40. The terrace faces the cathedral’s north transept.

Blacklock on Old Bailey (10 minutes walk) does the best chops in the City - grass-fed British lamb and pork cooked over charcoal. The Sunday chops feast at £27 per person is one of the better-value serious lunches in London. Book ahead.

Sweetings on Queen Victoria Street has been a City of London fish restaurant since 1889. Open Monday to Friday lunchtime only, no reservations, no evening service. Classic British seafood: potted shrimp, fish pie, dressed crab, good port. Mains £25-35. A City institution that has survived without changing because it doesn’t need to.

Where to Stay

The immediate City area is efficient rather than atmospheric as a hotel base. Apex London Wall Hotel on Copthall Avenue has good rooms from around £150-200 and is convenient for the City and Barbican. The Ned on Poultry is an extravagant conversion of a former bank building, with nine restaurants and a rooftop pool, from around £350.

For better value, staying 10 minutes by tube in Shoreditch or Borough and commuting to the cathedral makes financial sense without sacrificing much time.