Friday, October 1, 2010

St Paul's Cathedral - London St Paul's Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge - London
St Paul's Cathedral stands on Ludgate Hill, which is the highest point in the city of London. The Cathedral which stand's today is actually the fifth "St Paul's" which has been built on the same site. At 111m in height, it was London's tallest building until the 1960's. The funeral of Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill, jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria and the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana were all held here.

Read on for more images and info. The photographs with Millennium Bridge in the foreground were taken from the opposite bank of the Thames, near the Globe Theatre (which will be covered in a future post). Unfortunately I was unable to photograph the interior of the church as photography is not allowed.

The current St Paul's was built by Sir Christopher Wren, who started designing it in 1668 and was inspired by St Peters Basilica in Rome. Although only one dome is visible, the structure consists of three domes. The inner dome provides the aesthetically pleasing interior. The outer dome serves no structural purpose but again, is good to look at. Between these two domes sits a third structural cone which supports the apex structure and the exterior dome. The stairs which lead to the top of the dome runs between them. The inner dome contains three galleries, The internal whispering gallery, The external stone gallery and the external golden gallery. The climb to the top is not the easiest, especially if you are claustrophobic, but the view from the top is worth it. View from the top of St Paul's - London
The tombs of Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington can be found in the crypt. The crypt also serves as a chapel for the order of the British Empire and the Treasury. A number of valuable artefacts have been stored in the cathedral over the years but a robbery in 1810 took almost all of the remaining artefacts. Getting to St Pauls is pretty easy as there is an underground station right near the church. We visited the area twice while we were in London. Firstly when we went to see the Cathedral and climb the dome adn secondly in the night when we went to the Globe to watch "A comedy of errors". after the performance we wondered around the opposite bank of the Thames and the cathedral taking photographs of it.  It was annoying to have to carry the tripod and camera with me throughout the evening but I'm quite happy with the photographs so I guess it was worth it. St Paul's Cathedral from across the Thames - London
All the images in this post were captured with a Canon 7D and the 24-105mm lens. A Tripod was also used for the night shots, which were long exposures.
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