Old St Paul's Cathedral
Old St Paul's Cathedral | |
---|---|
Dean of St Paul's | |
Building details | |
Record height | |
Tallest in the world from the mid-13th century to 1311[I] | |
Preceded by | Great Pyramid of Giza |
Surpassed by | Lincoln Cathedral |
Old St Paul's Cathedral was the
Work on the cathedral began after a
The continuing presence of the shrine of the 7th century bishop
The cathedral was in structural decline by the early 17th century. Restoration work begun by Inigo Jones in the 1620s was temporarily halted during the English Civil War (1642–1651). In 1666, further restoration was in progress under Sir Christopher Wren when the cathedral was devastated in the Great Fire of London. At that point, it was demolished, and the present cathedral was built on the site.[3]
Construction
Old St Paul's Cathedral was perhaps the fourth church at Ludgate Hill dedicated to St Paul.[2] A devastating fire in 1087,[4] detailed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, destroyed much of the cathedral.[5] King William I (William the Conqueror) donated the stone from the destroyed Palatine Tower on the River Fleet towards the construction of a Romanesque Norman cathedral, an act sometimes said to be his last before death.[6][7]
Henry I's death was followed by a period of unrest and civil war known as "
New work (1255–1314)
After a succession of storms, in 1255 Bishop Fulk Basset appealed for money to repair the roof. The roof was rebuilt in wood, which ultimately ruined the building. At this time, the east end of the cathedral church was lengthened, enclosing the parish church of St Faith, which was now brought within the cathedral.[9] The eastward addition was referred to as "The New Work".[10]
After complaints from the dispossessed parishioners of St Faith's, the east end of the west crypt was allotted to them as their parish church. The congregation were also allowed to keep a detached tower with a peal of bells east of the church which had historically been used to peal the summons to the
This "New Work" was completed in 1314, although the additions had been consecrated in 1300.[12] Excavations in 1878 by Francis Penrose showed the enlarged cathedral was 586 feet (179 m) long (excluding the porch later added by Inigo Jones) and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet (88 m) across the transepts and crossing).[13]
The cathedral had one of Europe's tallest church spires, the height of which is traditionally given as 489 feet (149 m), surpassing all but Lincoln Cathedral. The King's Surveyor, Christopher Wren (1632–1723), judged that an overestimate and gave 460 feet (140 m).[14] In 1664, Robert Hooke used a plumb-line to calculate the height of the tower as "two hundred and four feet very near, which is about sixty feet higher than it was usually reported to be."[15] William Benham noted that the cathedral probably "resembled in general outline that of Salisbury, but it was a hundred feet longer, and the spire was sixty or eighty feet higher. The tower was open internally as far as the base of the spire, and was probably more beautiful both inside and out than that of any other English cathedral."[14]
Chapter house
According to the architectural historian
Interior
The finished cathedral of the Middle Ages was renowned for the beauty of its interior. Canon William Benham wrote in 1902: "It had not a rival in England, perhaps one might say in Europe."[14]
The nave's length was particularly notable, with a Norman triforium and vaulted ceiling. The length earned it the nickname "Paul's walk". The cathedral's stained glass was reputed to be the best in the country, and the east-end rose window was particularly exquisite. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer used the windows as a metaphor in "The Miller's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales,[19] knowing that other Londoners at that time would understand the comparison:
His rode was red, his eyen grey as goose,
With Paule's windows carven on his shoes
In hosen red he went full fetisly.
From the cathedral's construction until its destruction, the shrine of
The shrine was adorned with gold, silver and precious stones. In 1339, three London goldsmiths were employed for a whole year to rebuild the shrine to a higher standard.[23] William Dugdale records that the shrine was pyramidal in shape with an altar table placed in front for offerings.[24]
Monarchs and other notables were often in attendance at the cathedral, and
Later that year,
Several kings of the Middle Ages lay in state in St Paul's before their funerals at
A number of figures such as
Paul's Walk
The first historical reference to the nave, "Paul's walk", being used as a marketplace and general meeting area is recorded during the 1381–1404 tenure of Bishop Braybrooke.[32] The bishop issued an open letter decrying the use of the building for selling "wares, as if it were a public market" and "others ... by the instigation of the Devil [using] stones and arrows to bring down the birds, jackdaws and pigeons which nestle in the walls and crevices of the building. Others play at ball ... breaking the beautiful and costly painted windows to the amazement of spectators."[33] His decree goes on to threaten perpetrators with excommunication.[34]
By the 15th century, the cathedral had become the centre of the London
According to Francis Osborne (1593–1659):
It was the fashion of those times ... for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all professions not merely mechanic, to meet in Paul's Church by eleven and walk in the middle aisle till twelve, and after dinner from three to six, during which times some discoursed on business, others of news. Now in regard of the universal there happened little that did not first or last arrive here ... And those news-mongers, as they called them, did not only take the boldness to weigh the public but most intrinsic actions of the state, which some courtier or other did betray to this society.[37]
St Paul's became the place to go to hear the latest news of current affairs, war, religion, parliament and the court. In his play Englishmen for my Money, William Haughton (d. 1605) described Paul's walk as a kind of "open house" filled with a "great store of company that do nothing but go up and down, and go up and down, and make a grumbling together".[38]
Infested with beggars and thieves, Paul's walk was also a place to pick up gossip, topical jokes, and even prostitutes.[39][40] In his Microcosmographie (1628), a series of satirical portraits of contemporary England, John Earle (1601–1665), described it thus:
[Paul's walk] is the land's epitome, or you may call it the lesser isle of Great Britain. It is more than this, the whole world's map, which you may here discern in its perfectest motion, justling and turning. It is a heap of stones and men, with a vast confusion of languages; and were the steeple not sanctified, nothing liker Babel. The noise in it is like that of bees, a strange humming or buzz mixed of walking tongues and feet: it is a kind of still roar or loud whisper ... It is the great exchange of all discourse, and no business whatsoever but is here stirring and a-foot ... It is the general mint of all famous lies, which are here like the legends of popery, first coined and stamped in the church.[41][42]
Decline (16th century)
By the 16th century the building was deteriorating. Under
Many of these former religious sites in
Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. It was there in the Cross Yard in 1549 that radical Protestant preachers incited a mob to destroy many of the cathedral's interior decorations. In 1554, in an attempt to end inappropriate practices taking place in the nave, the Lord Mayor decreed that the church should return to its original purpose as a religious building, issuing a writ stating that the selling of horses, beer and "other gross wares" was "to the great dishonour and displeasure of Almighty God, and the great grief also and offence of all good and well-disposed persons".[45]
Spire collapse (1561)
On 4 June 1561, the spire caught fire and crashed through the nave roof. According to a newsheet published days after the fire, the cause was a lightning strike.[47] In 1753, David Henry, a writer for The Gentleman's Magazine, revived a rumour in his Historical description of St Paul's Cathedral, writing that a plumber had "confessed on his death bed" that he had "left a pan of coals and other fuel in the tower when he went to dinner."[48] However, the number of contemporary eyewitnesses to the storm and a subsequent investigation appears to contradict this.[47]
Whatever the cause, the subsequent conflagration was hot enough to melt the cathedral's bells and the lead covering the wooden spire "poured down like lava upon the roof", destroying it.[11][49] This event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions.[49] Queen Elizabeth I contributed £1,000 in gold towards the cost of repairs as well as timber from the royal estate[50] and the Bishop of London Edmund Grindal gave £1200, although the spire was never rebuilt.[49] The repair work on the nave roof was sub-standard, and only fifty years after the rebuilding was in a dangerous condition.[51]
Restoration work (1621–1666)
Concerned at the decaying state of the building,
In addition to cleaning and rebuilding parts of the Gothic structure, Jones added a classical-style portico to the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, which William Benham notes was "altogether incongruous with the old building ... It was no doubt fortunate that Inigo Jones confined his work at St Paul's to some very poor additions to the transepts, and to a portico, very magnificent in its way, at the west end."[53]
Work stopped during the English Civil War, and there was much defacement and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during which old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed, and the nave used as a stable for cavalry horses.[54] Much of the detailed information historians have of the cathedral is taken from William Dugdale's 1658 History of St Pauls Cathedral, written hastily during The Protectorate for fear that "one of the most eminent Structures of that kinde in the Christian World" might be destroyed.[55]
Indeed, a persistent rumour of the time suggested that Cromwell had considered giving the building to London's returning Jewish community to become a synagogue.[56] Dugdale embarked on his project due to discovering hampers full of decaying 14th and 15th century documents from the cathedral's early archives.[57][58] In his book's dedicatory epistle, he wrote:
... so great was your foresight of what we have since by wofull experience seen and felt, and specially in the Church, (through the
Presbyterian contagion, which then began violently to breake out) that you often and earnestly incited me to a speedy view of what Monuments I could, especially in the principall Churches of this Realme; to the end, that by Inke and paper, the Shadows of them, with their Inscriptions might be preserved for posteritie, forasmuch as the things themselves were so neer unto ruine.[55]
Dugdale's book is also the source for many of the surviving engravings of the building, created by
Great Fire of London (1666)
After the
Both the clergy and citizens of the city opposed such a move.[61] In response, Wren proposed to restore the body of the gothic building, but replace the existing tower with a dome.[61] He wrote in his 1666 Of the Surveyor's Design for repairing the old ruinous structure of St Paul's:
It must be concluded that the Tower from Top to Bottom and the adjacent parts are such a heap of deformaties that no Judicious Architect will think it corrigible by any Expense that can be laid out upon new dressing it.[62]
Wren, whose uncle Matthew Wren was Bishop of Ely, admired the central lantern of Ely Cathedral and proposed that his dome design could be constructed over the top of the existing gothic tower, before the old structure was removed from within.[62] This, he reasoned, would prevent the need for extensive scaffolding and would not upset Londoners ("Unbelievers") by demolishing a familiar landmark without being able to see its "hopeful Successor rise in its stead."[63]
The matter was still under discussion when the restoration work on St Paul's finally began in the 1660s but soon after being sheathed in wooden scaffolding, the building was completely gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666.[61] The fire, aided by the scaffolding, destroyed the roof and much of the stonework along with masses of stocks and personal belongings that had been placed there for safety.[64] Samuel Pepys recalls the building in flames in his diary:[65]
Up by five o'clock, and blessed be God! find all well, and by water to Paul's Wharf. Walked thence and saw all the town burned, and a miserable sight of Paul's Church, with all the roof fallen, and the body of the choir fallen into St. Faith's; Paul's School also, Ludgate, and Fleet Street.
John Evelyn's account paints a similar picture of destruction:
September 3rd – I went and saw the whole south part of the City burning from Cheapeside to the Thames, and ... was now taking hold of St Paule's Church, to which the scaffolds contributed exceedingly.
September 7th – I went this morning on foote from White-hall as far as London Bridge, thro' the late Fleete-streete, Ludgate Hill, by St Paules ... At my returne I was infinitely concern'd to find that goodly Church St Paules now a sad ruine, and that beautiful portico ... now rent in pieces, flakes of vast stone split asunder, and nothing now remaining intire but the inscription in the architrave, shewing by whom it was built, which had not one letter of it defac'd. It was astonishing to see what immense stones the heate had in a manner calcin'd, so that all the ornaments, columns, freezes, capitals, and projectures of massie Portland-stone flew off, even to the very roofe, where a sheet of lead covering a great space (no less than six akers by measure) was totally mealted; the ruines of the vaulted roofe falling broke into St. Faith's, which being fill'd with the magazines of bookes belonging to the Stationers, and carried thither for safety, they were all consum'd, burning for a weeke following. It is also observable that the lead over the altar at the East end was untouch'd, and among the divers monuments, the body of one Bishop remain'd intire. Thus lay in ashes that most venerable Church, one of the most antient pieces of early piety in the Christian world.[66]
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The tomb of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster in the choir of St Paul's Cathedral, as represented in an etching of 1658 by Wenceslaus Hollar. The etching includes a number of inaccuracies, for example in not showing the couple with joined hands. The tomb was lost in the Great Fire of 1666.
-
The Great Fire of London, depicted by an unknown painter (1675), as it would have appeared from a boat in the vicinity of Tower Wharf on the evening of Tuesday, 4 September 1666. To the left is London Bridge; to the right, the Tower of London. St Paul's Cathedral is in the distance, surrounded by the tallest flames.
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Old St Paul's Cathedral in flames, 1666
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Remains of the Cathedral after the fire drawn byThomas Wyck, c. 1673
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Sir Christopher Wren's approved "warrant design"
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Sir Christopher Wren's final design for the new cathedral
Aftermath
Temporary repairs were made to the building. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead, a step which had been contemplated even before the fire. Wren declared that it was impossible to restore the old building.[67]
The following April, the Dean William Sancroft wrote to him that he had been right in his judgement: "Our work at the west end," he wrote, "has fallen about our ears." Two pillars had collapsed, and the rest was so unsafe that men were afraid to go near, even to pull it down. He added, "You are so absolutely necessary to us that we can do nothing, resolve on nothing without you."[67]
Following this declaration by the Dean, demolition of the remains of the old cathedral began in 1668. Demolition of the Old Cathedral proved unexpectedly difficult as the stonework had been bonded together by molten lead.[68] Wren initially used the then-new technique of using gunpowder to bring down the surviving stone walls.[69] Like many experimental techniques, the use of gunpowder was not easy to control; several workers were killed and nearby residents complained about noise and damage. Eventually, Wren resorted to using a battering ram instead. Building work on the new cathedral began in June 1675.[70]
Wren's first proposal, the "Greek cross" design, was considered too radical by members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church. Members of the clergy decried the design as being too dissimilar from churches that already existed in England at the time to suggest any continuity within the Church of England.[71] Wren's approved "Warrant design" sought to reconcile the Gothic with his "better manner of architecture", featuring a portico influenced by Inigo Jones' addition to the old cathedral.[71] However, Wren received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and over the course of the construction made significant alterations, including the addition of the famous dome.[71]
The
Notable burials in Old St Paul's
Nicholas Stone's 1631 monument to John Donne survived the fire. It depicts the poet, standing upon an urn, dressed in a winding cloth, rising for the moment of judgment. This depiction, Donne's own idea, was sculpted from a painting for which he posed.[74]
No further memorials or tombs survive of the many famous people buried at Old St Paul's. In 1913 the letter-cutter MacDonald Gill and Mervyn Macartney created a new tablet with the names of lost burials which was installed in Wren's cathedral:[75]
- Sæbbi King of Essex (d.695)
- King Æthelred II ("the Unready") (d.1016)
- Edward the Exile (d.1057), exiled son of Edmund Ironside
- Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln(d. 1311), confidant of King Edward I
- Sir John de Pulteney (d. 1349), four times Mayor of London
- John Beauchamp, 1st Baron Beauchamp of Warwick (d.1360), Knight of the Order of the Garter
- Sir Paon de Roet (d.1380), herald and knight for Edward III
- Sir Alan Buxhull (d.1381), Knight of the Order of the Garter and Constable of the Tower of London
- John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (d.1399), and his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster (d.1368)
- Sir Henry Barton (d.1435), twice Lord Mayor of London
- Robert Morton (d.1497), Bishop of Worcester
- Sir Thomas Murfyn (fl. 1510s), Sheriff and Lord Mayor of London
- John Colet (d.1519), Dean of St Paul's, Christian humanist and founder of St Paul's School[76]
- Thomas Linacre (d.1524), physician, founder of the Royal College of Physicians
- William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d.1570), courtier
- Sir Nicholas Bacon (d.1579), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
- Sir Philip Sidney (d.1586), poet, courtier, scholar, and soldie
- Sir Francis Walsingham (d.1590), spymaster for Elizabeth I
- Sir Christopher Hatton (d.1591), Lord Chancellor of England
- Sir Thomas Heneage (d.1595), politician and courtier
- Sir Thomas Baskerville (d.1597), commanded the English Army at the Siege of Amiens (1597)
- Ursula St Barbe (d.1602), lady at court, wife of Sir Francis Walsingham[77]
- Robert Hare (d.1611), antiquary and chancellor of the exchequer
- Sir William Dethick (d.1612), officer at the College of Arms
- Sir William Cockayne (d.1626), Lord Mayor of the City of London
- John Donne (d.1631), poet and Dean of St Paul's
- John Howson (d.1632), Bishop of Durham
- Sir Anthony van Dyck (d.1641), painter
- Brian Walton (d.1661), Bishop of Chester
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Memorial to John Donne, St Paul's Cathedral
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A memorial listing those buried or memorialised in the old cathedral
See also
- Children of Paul's, associated theatre troupe
- List of demolished buildings and structures in London
- List of tallest structures built before the 20th century
- Montfichet's Tower, a Norman fortress on Ludgate Hill in London
References
- ^ Benham, 3–7.
- ^ a b Milman, 22.
- ^ Clifton-Taylor, 237–243.
- ^ "The City Churches" Tabor, M. p107:London; The Swarthmore Press Ltd; 1917
- ^ Milman, 21.
- ^ Milman, 23.
- ^ Benham, 3.
- ^ a b Benham, 4–5.
- ^ a b Benham, 5.
- ^ Benham, 6.
- ^ a b Reynolds, 194.
- ^ a b "1087 cathedral". St Paul's official website. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ Clifton-Taylor, 275.
- ^ a b c Benham, 8.
- S2CID 144311552– via JSTOR.
- ^ Harvey, 105.
- ^ Clifton-Taylor, 196.
- ^ Peterkin, Tom (4 June 2008). "St Paul's Cathedral opens new South Churchyard". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
- ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Miller's Tale”, The Canterbury Tales at Project Gutenberg
- ^ a b Webb, 29.
- ^ Anon. St. Erkenwald, lines 39–48.
- ^ Meyer, 163–164.
- ^ Cummings, 56.
- ^ Jones, 172.
- ^ a b c Benham, 36.
- ^ Milman, 38.
- ^ Benham, 28.
- ^ Milman, 81.
- ^ Benham, 17.
- ^ Benham, 15–18.
- ^ "1087 cathedral". St Paul's official website. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
- ^ Benham, 16.
- ^ Milman, 83–84.
- ^ Milman, 84.
- ^ Benham, 14.
- ^ Notestein, 31.
- ^ Chamberlain, 1. Quotation of Osborne, Francis (1689), 449–451.
- ^ Quoted in Ostovich, 61.
- ^ Notestein, 30–32.
- ^ Ostovich, 108n, 215n.
- ^ Earle, 103–104.
- ^ Quoted in Notestein, 31n.
- ^ a b Chambers, 135–136.
- ^ Gollancz. xxvi.
- ^ Quoted in Benham, 47.
- ISBN 978-1-61147-659-0.
- ^ a b Pollard, A. F., ed., Tudor Tracts, (1903) pp. 401–407, from the contemporary newsheet; The True Report of the Burning of the Steeple and Church of St Pauls, London (1561)
- ^ Henry, 13.
- ^ a b c Benham, 50.
- ^ Simons, Paul. "Lightning strike on St Paul's Cathedral". The Times. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
- ^ Benham, 64.
- ^ Quoted in Benham, 68. A muld was a tribute or an offering.
- ^ Benham, 67–68.
- ^ Kelly, 50.
- ^ a b Dugdale, William (1658). The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London from its Foundation until these Times. London: T. Warren.
- ^ Benham, 68.
- ^ Kelly, 56–59.
- ^ a b "Detailed Drawing of London's Old St Paul's Cathedral, to Be Sold at Sotheby's". www.artdaily.com. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
- ^ Lang, 47–63.
- ^ Wightwick, G. (1859). "On the Architecture and Genius of Sir Christopher Wren". The Civil Engineer & Architect's Journal. 22. Kent: 257.
- ^ a b c Cassell, 605.
- ^ a b Clifton-Taylor, 237.
- ^ van Eck, 155–160.
- ^ Chambers, 137.
- ^ Pepys, Samuel (1666). Diary at Project Gutenberg
- ^ Quoted in Benham, 74–75.
- ^ a b Benham, 74–75.
- ^ Hart, 18.
- ^ Benham, 76.
- ^ "1668 — The Demolition". St Paul's official website. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
- ^ a b c Downes, 11–34.
- ^ Wright, James (1697). The Choire. London. Quoted in Baron, 117–119.
- ^ Tinniswood, 31.
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Weaver, Lawrence (1915). Memorials & Monuments Old and New: Two hundred subjects chosen from seven centuries. London: Country Life. p. 349.
- ^ Dimock, Arthur (1900). The Cathedral Church of St Paul. London: George Bell & Sons. p. 20.
- ISBN 978-0-297-84613-0.
Bibliography
- Baron, Xavier (1997). London 1066–1914: Literary Sources and Documents. London: Helm Information. ISBN 978-1-873403-43-3.
- Benham, William (1902). Old St Paul's Cathedral. London: Seeley & Co at Project Gutenberg
- Cassell, John (1860). John Cassell's Illustrated History of England. Vol. 4. Oxford: W. Kent and Co.
- Chambers, Robert; Chambers, William (1869). "St Paul's". Chambers's Journal. 46. London: W. & R. Chambers.
- Clifton-Taylor, Alec (1967). The Cathedrals of England. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-20062-9.
- Cook, George Henry (1955). Old St Paul's Cathedral: a lost glory of mediaeval London. London: Phoenix House.
- Cummings, E. M. (1867). The Companion to St Paul's Cathedral. London.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - van Eck, Caroline; Anderson, Christy (2003). British Architectural Theory, 1540–1750: an anthology of texts. London: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-0315-3.
- Dugdale, William (1658). The History of St Pauls Cathedral in London from its Foundation until these Times. London: T. Warren.
- Earle, John (1628). Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered at Project Gutenberg
- Gollancz, Israel, ed. (1922). Saint Erkenwald: an alliterative poem. London: Oxford University Press.
- Harbens, H. A. (1918). A Dictionary of London: being notes topographical and historical relating to the streets and principal buildings in the City of London. London: Herbert Jenkins.
- Hart, Vaughan (1995). St Paul's Cathedral: Sir Christopher Wren. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-2998-2.
- ISBN 978-0-7134-1610-7.
- Henry, David (1753). An Historical Description of St Paul's Cathedral. London: J. Newbery.
- Huelin, Gordon (1996). Vanished Churches of the City of London. London: Guildhall Library Publishing. ISBN 0-900422-42-4.
- Jones, William (2009) [1880]. History and Mystery of Precious Stones. London: Bentley and Son, BiblioBazaar (reprint). OCLC 84564730.
- Jonson, Ben (2001). "Introduction". In Ostovich, Helen (ed.). Every Man out of His Humour. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-1558-8.
- Kelly, Susan (2004). Charters of St Paul's, London. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-726299-3.
- Kerry, Adrian (1987). Sir Christopher Wren: the Design of St Paul's Cathedral. London: Trefoil Publications. ISBN 978-0-86294-091-1.
- Lang, Jane (1956). Rebuilding St Paul's after the Great Fire of London. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Meyer, Ann Raftery (2000). Medieval Allegory and the Building of the new Jerusalem. London: DS Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-796-4.
- Milman, Henry Hart (1868). Annals of St Paul's Cathedral. London: Murray.
- OCLC 1562848.
- Oggins, Robin S. (1996). Cathedrals. New York: Sterling Publishing. ISBN 1-56799-346-X.
- Reynolds, H. (1922). The Churches of the City of London. London: Bodley Head.
- Schofield, John, ed. (2011). St Paul's Cathedral before Wren. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN 978-1-848020-56-6.
- Thomson, Elizabeth McClure, ed. (1966). The Chamberlain Letters: a selection of the letters of John Chamberlain concerning life in England from 1597 to 1626. New York: Capricorn. OCLC 37697217.
- Tinniswood, Adrian (2002). His Invention so Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren. London: Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-7364-8.
- Webb, Diana (2000). Pilgrimage in Medieval England. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-85285-250-4.
External links
- Official website, with history of Old St Paul's
- Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project