Saint Paul’s

At the top of Ludgate Hill, in Roman London from 2000 years ago, lies the famous Saint Paul’s cathedral (site of feed the birds from Mary Poppins). 

The site was probably a Roman temple because they would have built on the highest point. This cathedral is quite different than Westminster Abbey. It is built in the English baroque style, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and looks much more like a Roman temple rather than the gothic pointy spires and stained glass that took hundreds of years to built. It was built in 30 years and opened in 1697. 

It has become a symbol of London’s survival and rebuilding after being built after the first Great London Fire (80% of the city burned in 5 days in 1666) and having been home to a church for the last 2000 years. 

This is the church where Princess Diana and Prince Charles married. Out front of the steps is a statue of Queen Anne. 

Nearly all other buildings around the cathedral are post World War 2. In 1940, during the German bombardment, Churchill said let the city burn so firefighters could concentrate efforts on saving the dome of St. Paul to maintain the British moral. During the blitz Britains experienced some 130 nights of consecutive bombing. There are laws to protect height around the cathedral to keep it prominent in the skyline.