On the last Friday of October, members of the Cambridge Society explored Christopher Wren’s 17th century London on a tour led by Blue Badge Guide Caroline Piper.
Christopher Wren is London’s iconic architect, famous to everyone for St Paul’s Cathedral, but he did so much more than that!
We started our tour familiarising ourselves with the old medieval London street layout that Christopher Wren would have known pre-1666, the winding alleyways and the location of old London Bridge. We discussed how these conditions contributed to the spread of the Great Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire in 1666. We wandered down the infamous Pudding Lane, where a forgetful baker called Thomas Farynor failed to put his ovens out properly one night and started a fire that would destroy 80% of the City of London. We discussed the firefighting and the crucial role played by the hapless Lord Mayor, Thomas Bludworth, who, on that first night, failed to take the threat from the fire seriously declaring that “a woman might piss it out”. We admired The Monument, built to commemorate the fire and a wonderful example of Wren’s simple, classical, English Baroque style, with its simple doric column of clean, white Portland stone, topped with a gilded ball of flame to symbolise the fire.
We continued the story with how quickly London rebuilt post-fire, and the regulations introduced by the Commissioners, led by Wren, that regulated the materials, size and style of new houses. Some of the best architecture was of course in the 51 rebuilt City churches, overseen by Wren. Of these St Stephen Walbrook is noteworthy for including the first church dome in England and is considered to be his practice run for St Paul’s Cathedral. Also noteworthy is the elegant, multi-layered tower and steeple of St Mary Le Bow.
We finished the tour reflecting on the impact of the Blitz, often called the Second Great Fire of London, on Wren’s legacy. As pure luck would have it, we were able to enjoy a fabulous sound and light display arranged by Historic England called “Where Light Falls” that was projected onto the exterior of St Paul’s Cathedral. This commemorated one of the worst nights of the Blitz for St Paul’s, when bombs landed on the high altar and north transept and incendiary bombs rained all around, and the incredibly brave members of the St Paul’s Watch (firefighting team) who saved the cathedral for us to enjoy.
If readers notice that the photos this week are excellent, credit is totally due to member of the Society on the tour, whose photography skills far exceed Caroline’s!
Organised by Caroline Piper