St Paul’s cathedral is a stunning piece of masonry architecture situated in the centre of the busy city of London. The dome of the cathedral is seen from miles and is a centrepiece for the city skyline, but is also said that the dome is to having nothing obstructing its view from the landscape and this is why the cheese grater and the Gherkin are shaped the way they are, as to not obstruct the cathedral from view. The cathedral has 3 galleries; The whispering gallery, which is said that if you whisper at one end of the gallery you can hear it all the way down the other end, meaning it must have pretty good acoustics, its 30 metres from the ground floor of the cathedral and takes 257 steps to get to, the stone Gallery, this one is 53 metres from ground level and is 376 steps away, and the highest one at 85 metres high is the golden gallery with 528 steps to go!

On arrival I was told there were no more tours and that it was closing for service in half an hour. I couldn’t take no for an answer I’d always wanted to go inside St Pauls and I’d already paid to get there, I was even prepared to pay the full 16 pounds. So I walked up to the main entrance and confidently went to speak to one of the staff members. I explained to them I was on a self-managed field trip as all my course mates were in Paris experiencing the French architecture and I’d chosen to come to study St Pauls Cathedral. I explained my passion for architecture and historical masonry buildings. For a while we had a conversation about architects and different periods of architecture and about 10 minutes before the service started she took me inside and started walking me round the main hall, I asked if I could take some photos but was refused but she actually sat with me and wrote down facts about the cathedral while I drew the interior. There were still visitors in the galleries and she took me to all three of them, explaining the reasons behind why they were named and how the dome works. All for free! We were in there for about 30 or 45 minutes and we went round nearly the whole place, and when I was leaving she handed me a tour book with pages full of interesting information about the cathedral and all the things I needed to know about it! It said 4.50 on the front of it but she just handed it to me and told me to keep it, it was wonderful!

Lifecycle and construction of building

From 604 all the way up to now, 2015, this building has been surviving the actions of history. It was founded in 604 by King Ethelbert of Kent. The cathedral was to be for the Church of England but the designs where very catholic, like the hidden buttresses which were found often in catholic churches from the period. The cathedral was re-established in c.680 by the bishop of London but unfortunately only 12 years later it burnt down, but fortunately was rebuilt within the next year.

In 1588 queen Victoria visits St Pauls but finds it rather boring and suggests they make it something of more visual interest. A lot has happened since the year of 1588 and in 1660 the kind comes to visit, luckily he did, because just 6 years after he has a holiday the great fire of London happens and the cathedral burns down again this time the devastation surrounds the city. Sir Christopher Wren, in 1670’s, sets out to design a new cathedral and in 1675 it is royally approved. Work sets out on the construction of the cathedral and by 1697 the first service is held. By 1711 the cathedral was complete and was the quickest it time it’s ever been constructed.

Design process and preconstruction

When the cathedral is being renovated nothing is hidden from view, they like to keep it so that the viewers and tourists can see what is going on when things are being changed on the cathedral. In 2001 the stone was cleaned all over the cathedral except from 1 stone wall behind the door at the main entrance of the building. It cost millions of money to get the stone cleaned and the colour turned from a mouldy black with grey tones, to a dashing white palace with sparkling walls, this would not have happened if it wasn’t for the generous donations from Robin Fleming. The cathedral survives purely of donations from the public and it is very expensive to look after and renovate which is why it must be kept going through generous donations.The design of St Pauls cathedral is based on the Greek cross; a circle with 4 arms at equal length. The design is slightly catholic because of the hidden buttresses in the design, although they probably wouldn’t like to admit it as it is Church of England. The ceilings in the Nave were gilded with gold and the detail in the carvings were magnificent.

The walls are held by strong masonry beams but the dome itself is actually an optical illusion with a false top. It works by having a smaller diameter dome inside which is lower and fits the interior architecture of the cathedral and a larger outer dome which is seen from the London skyline. This dome stands 111.3 metres tall and weighs approximately 65,000 tons, it is one of the world’s largest cathedrals to date.
Not only is it a huge sculpture of beauty, the inside of the dome appears to have more archways and columns stacked up around its walls which seem to be a part of the architecture, but is actually just a gigantic monochrome painting by James Thornhill. Wren wanted it to be mosaicked but it was considered too elaborate and too expensive at the time.
In between the 2 domes is a brick triangular dome which supports the stonework and provides strength for the stone lantern above the dome.