Old St Paul's Cathedral in length including the portico, and across the transepts, and Winchester Cathedral, the longest remaining medieval church, is long and across the transepts. The cathedral had one of Europe's tallest church spires, the height of which is traditionally given as , surpassing all but Lincoln Cathedral. The King's Surveyor, Christopher Wren (1632–1723), judged that an overestimate and gave . William Benham noted that the cathedral probably "resembled in general outline that of Salisbury, but it was a hundred feet longer, and the spire was sixty or eighty feet higher. The tower was open internally as far as the base of
History of the world's tallest buildings with no iron nails. It had a standing total height of 68 m (223 ft) or 80 m (262 ft), making it the tallest structure in East Asia and the tallest wooden structure in the world at the time of its construction. From the 13th century until 1894, the world's tallest building was always a church or cathedral. Old St Paul's Cathedral with its spire was completed in the 13th century. The central spire of Lincoln Cathedral surpassed Old St Paul's in the early 14th century. The Lincoln Cathedral's spire collapsed in 1549, beginning a long interval where the status