Christopher Wren’s Seven Defining Buildings, from St Paul’s to the Royal Observatory

A survey of Sir Christopher Wren’s architecture traces how the 1666 Great Fire of London reshaped his career. Flames reached St Paul’s Cathedral by Tuesday, September 4, and by September 5 more than 13,000 houses and 87 churches were gone. Wren, born in 1632 and dead in 1723, served nearly 50 years as Surveyor-General of the King’s Works, appointed in 1669 and holding the post until 1718. His geometric plan for a rebuilt London, with grid streets and octagonal piazzas, was never realized because of land ownership and the push to rebuild fast. St Paul’s, begun June 1675 under the Warrant Design approved by Charles II, was finished in 1711; its triple dome hides a brick cone carrying an 850-metric-ton stone lantern. The Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, commissioned in 1664 by Archbishop Gilbert Sheldon, spans 21 meters with a hidden roof truss. Trinity College, Cambridge, got the Wren Library in 1675, designed without fee at the request of Isaac Barrow, 48 meters long with 28 windows and woodwork by Grinling Gibbons. Hampton Court Palace, the Royal Hospital Chelsea (first residents 1692), the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich (completed 1714) and the Royal Observatory (1676, Flamsteed House) complete the list. Robert Hooke and Nicholas Hawksmoor contributed heavily to the Wren churches and The Monument. Protected Views legislation still governs towers near St Paul’s dome.