72 London - Saint Paul's Cathedral: Cool people commemorated, but bloody Empire heroes too.

 

Saint Paul’s Cathedral London.

I seem to be visiting churches a lot faster than I am finding the time to write them up; I have a real backlog. 

Anyway it was great to visit Saint Paul’s cathedral, one of the four cathedrals in London if I remember correctly (two for the protestants two for the catholics - but I am probably missing some orthodox cathedral).

It was Christopher Wren who was the architect, and it was built as the first Anglican cathedral on the site - previously they had just recycled Catholic hand-me-downs. His advisors, and the committees, wanted him to be sure to make it not too Catholic. So, no stained glass, and no statues, monuments etc. However, in later centuries, once they got less scared of us Catholics, the statues and monuments came by the dozens - and indeed the 20th century high altar looks like it was looted from the Vatican itself.

Lots of people got monuments, mainly heroes of the bloody British Empire, like Wellington. He has the biggest monument, with symbolic statues of valour defeating cowardice etc. Then there is a plaque for the commander of the 14th army of Burma etc.

But some other people, who I prefer, got statues and stuff - Howard, the  19th century prison reformer, for example.

In the crypt you have a monument to Florence Nightingale, who improved efficiency in army hospitals to help win the Crimean War, and then went on to save a lot of civilian lives by explaining statistics on hygiene with cool graphics (even if it is a myth that she invented the pie chart). She is not buried in the crypt here, but a load of other cool people are, including Arthur Sullivan (of the light opera duo, Gilbert and Sullivan). He wrote the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers”, you know. There is also Turner, your painter, and a bunch of pre-raphaelite painters like Holman Hunt. (Holman Hunt’s “Light of the World” is also featured, upstairs).

Charles Booth, who studied the 19th century poor when noone else in the elite really cared, is buried here too. 

Christopher Wren has a tomb with a very simple plaque and a sarcastic comment in Latin (“You reckoned I’d have a bloody great monument, didn’t you: well, look around you, dumbass!”) (Free translation).

I do recommend the guided tour, despite the occasional mentions of how brave the Queen Mother was ‘cos she broke a heel and waited till the end of the service to deal with it.

Much of the architecture and art work is splendid. And the cathedral is hosting right now a few pieces of contemporary art which is a bit rare in cathedrals. There are some white crucifixes on which you can see sculpted models of bombed out cities from today’s wars. And it is the first time I have ever seen video art in a cathedral, with a series of sketches involving someone playing the Virgin Mary.

You do have to pay to get into Saint Paul’s, except if you convincingly pray, but it is well worth it.