St Pauls Cathedral, London

Since 604AD this is the fourth Cathedral to occupy this spot overlooking the City of London. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710 after the previous building had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London (1666). There are many existing London churches built to designs by Wren who had started his career as a mathematician and scientist and finished it as an astronomer. The most fascinating thing about this buiding is the dome, which weighs 65,000 tons and presented an engineering problem for Wren because a dome will exert tremendous outward as well as downward pressure. The 'secret' of how it stays in place is a huge chain around the outside of the dome (covered in Portland stone, the building material of the cathedral) which grips the dome to restrain outward movement.

Inside view of the dome.

The Whispering Gallery - the most famous of the galleries and the only one on the inside, has been described as one of the most amazing acoustical oddities in the world, because if you talk in a loud whisper facing the wall on one side you can be heard clearly on the diagonally opposite side.

St Paul’s is the cathedral of the Diocese of London and is the nations spirtual focal point. The funeral services of Nelson, Wellington and Churchill were held there as was the celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, Charle's and Diana's Wedding and the memorial service for 9/11.

Sir Christopher Wren is also buried there, in a very plain grave. On the wall at the head of his tomb is a plain inscription, in Latin, arranged by his son. It translates as If you seek his monument, look around you. Wren himself had not wanted a memorial at all.