Friday 21 October 2011

Happy Birthday, Christopher Wren

England’s architect of the Enlightenment era would have been 379 this week. To celebrate, the Telegraph has a small gallery of his works, including evidence he did build more than just the tourist’s favourite, St Paul’s Cathedral.

imageTrinity College Library, Cambridge – a perfect, stripped down external expression of the building’s function.

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Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford – not bad for an architect’s second work.


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St Mary le Bow – the City church within earshot of whose bells the true Cockney is born.

Wren has perhaps the best epitaph of any Master Builder: On his resting place in St Paul’s is the Latin inscription, “Si monumentum requiris, circumspice” ('If you are seeking his monument, look around you').

3 comments:

Dave Mann said...

I really like the way you keep European civilisation and its achievments alive on your blog. A culture is defined by its architecture, its music and its art and you highlight these so well - thanks.

The only fault I find with your article is the picture of the Sheldonian. You must have got a PhotoShop expert to work on that sky... it hasn't been THAT blue in England since the good Sir Christopher was alive!

Peter Cresswell said...

Thanks Dave.

I have to say though that I lived in the UK for five years (for my sins) and in all that time there were at least two days when the sky was blue.

But maybe not quite that blue.

Dave Mann said...

Well I've just come back from UK and even though I was raised there I had forgotten that their weather office is sponsored by the makers of Prozac. On the few occasion that their summer cleared to just a light drizzle the inmates (sorry, locals) skipped with joy... Hahaha! The Empire I think was founded by the British - which at that time included the Celts of those isles - spreading round the world looking for better weather. But anyway... Sorry... I digress from the subject .... Apologies ...