In praise of St Paul's, one of London's greatest buildings

St Paul's Cathedral has been the scene of some great events in British history: the funeral of Winston Churchill, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth 11, the funeral of Wellington, the bombing of the blitz in the Second World War.

We watched the Diamond Jubilee service take place in St Paul's last week so I thought it was time for another visit to this wonderful building and although I know it well, I was bowled over again as I explored it. There are no pictures allowed inside but the exterior is so grand, iconic and beautiful that it is hard to stop snapping!

The first thing I saw before  I entered the church was a great reminder of the Diamond Jubilee history of the church as there is a stone recording Queen Victoria's visit in 1897.

There has been a church on this site since 604 and the current church was built following the destruction of the previous one in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is a masterpiece by Christopher Wren who was the architect for many post fire buildings. This one is an iconic part of the London skyline with its instantly recognisable dome. One of the amazing facts you find out on your visit is that the dome is actually 2 domes, one on top of the other, because the full dome would be too high to see properly when you are inside, so the smaller one inside brings the paintings within sight. Clever bloke that Wren! 

Make sure you allow plenty of time for your visit as you'll want to spend time seeing the wonderful interior, the huge crypt with Wellington and Nelson's tombs as well as plaques to a wide range of famous people. You get an audio guide as part of your entry fee so do use it to give you lots of good info as well as a guide through the various places to visit. 

For the energetic there are the 3 galleries to climb up to.  The famous Whispering Gallery is 257 steps up and is a fun visit as if you stand on one side you can whisper something and another person across the dome can hear you. You'll see lots of people trying. As well as this you get great views of the dome and down into the cathedral floor. For those with a head for heights and good legs there are 2 further galleries, both on the outside of the dome. The Stone Gallery is 121 steps up from the Whispering Gallery but the Golden Gallery right at the top is the one to go for if you are up to it - a further 152 steps and 365 feet above the floor of the cathedral! The view is 360 degrees and incredible -  down the river through Tower Bridge and to the nearly completed Shard tower, to the City across One New Change shopping centre's roof, up river to the London Eye and curves of the river Thames. the 'Wobbly bridge' with the Tate Modern and the Globe theatre and way over in the distance to the Olympic park and the Orbit red tower.

Towards the Shard and Tower Bridge

The City and One New Change roof in the foreground

Upstream along the curve of the Thames

'Wobbly bridge', Tate Modern and The Globe Theatre

Hopefully you will want to visit St Paul's Cathedral, or revisit it as a second viewing is well worth it.  I have one more photo before I sign off as I want to show you this wonderful building at night when it is magical.

Bye for now,
Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
@itsyourlondon

2011 here we go....

Here's hoping 2011 is a great year for you all, for me and for London! I spent new year in Dartmouth, Devon which I highly recommend tho' I was very jealous to read that the massive Thames fireworks were rated higher than the Sydney ones which are always considered the best NYE ones in the world - well done London!

So what's been happening so far this year? Well... ballet, mass knitting (yes!), a brilliant new perspective on St Paul's cathedral, and seeing Jean Cocteau in Leicester Square (yes! -again)

Let's start with St Paul's as there are some cracking photos. A new shopping centre has opened up just next to this great church called One New Change and they have a roof top viewing terrace as well as a glass lift. You can see St Paul's from a whole lot of new angles and admire more of its beauty and grandeur. The glass lift rushes you up to the 6th floor and is not for those who quake at the thought of heights but the views on the way up (see photo) and when you get there are amazing. St Paul's is one of London's great iconic sights and it's good to see if from a different angle. Jamie Oliver's new restaurant Barbarcoa is ideally placed for views but it was so sunny this weekend that they had to pull the blinds down to save lunchers from the dazzle! One New Change is on Cheapside and Cheap was another word for market so I guess a shopping centre carries on that medieval tradition for the area and was designed by Jean Nouvel who created the 2010 Serpentine Gallery outdoor installation - busy man. You can also see one photo of the Shard - soon to be the tallest building in Europe I hear and it's growing really fast now.

The ballet we were lucky enough to get tickets for was a sell out performance of Cinderella by Matthew Bourne at Sadler's Wells. It was reset in the Second World War with contemporary dress, a Prokoviev score, which was itself written during the Second World War, and was performed by Sadler's Wells own resident company New Adventures. The sets were evocative of the blitz and featured the bombed out Cafe de Paris for the famous ball (as in 'you shall go to the ball Cinderella'). Here Cinderella wore the most sparkling dress and shoes possible and danced until midnight with her RAF pilot as the Prince. The haunting sound effects gave us sirens, bombs and songs evocative of the era. Some found that it was not involving enough but I loved the imagination and vision but agreed that some of the story lines were a bit confusing for example strange hospital scenes when the step mother tries to kill Cinderella - strange indeed..

So, what's this about knitting? There is a group called Stitch London although they used to be called Stitch and Bitch - what a great name! Groups of people gather and knit and chat, which seems a cheery idea to me. The event I went to was their 5th birthday held in the Royal Festival Hall and as we wondered around looking for the group we suddenly saw a huge gang of people all chatting loudly while clicking away with the needles. We settled in and got knitting - well I didn't as I hadn't tried since about age 8 so was lucky that Laura had kindly agreed to show me how. Have a look at us both busily knitting, my piece being rather smaller than all the others! They have smaller events all the time all over London and there was a great friendly atmosphere between regulars but they were very welcoming to new comers too. More at http://www.stitchldn.com/

Lastly, what's Jean Cocteau doing in Leicester Square? Well, in 1959 he spent 3 weeks making beautiful murals for the Notre Dame de France church in Leicester Place. The church was almost completely destroyed by a Second World War bomb (bit of a theme for this blogpost) and was rebuilt in the 1950s including a commission for a set of murals by Jean Cocteau which are simple and elegant. I don't usually take pictures in churches so here's a link instead: www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=123 (their own site http://www.notredamechurch.co.uk/ isn't working right now) One sad sight was the number of people sleeping in the pews, the church being a warm dry place for those who sadly have to sleep rough, especially in this cold winter. At least Notre Dame lets them in.

Bye for now
Sue

http://www.itsyourlondon.co.uk/

@itsyourlondon