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Travel Is Awesome In the United Kingdom!
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St Paul's Cathedral - Old St Paul's - 1087 to the Fire of London, 1666 AD In 1086 the Chaplain and Chancellor to King William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror), a man by the name of Maurice, was consecrated the Bishop of London. After the destruction of the last St Paul's on Ludgate Hill Maurice put great effort into building "the longest Christian church in the world." Even though he spent the rest of his life at it, by his death in 1108 little more was done than creating the design and laying the foundations.
The new church was built in the Romanesque style, or what came to be known as Norman architecture. ("Norman" buildings were built by the French of Normandy, in whatever country they wandered to.)
Maurice's successor Richard Belmeis put his own share of effort into the rebuilding as did many others over the more than 200 years it took to go from starting the project to it consecration in 1300. In 1135 yet another fire severely damaged the incomplete church and changes were made as repairs were underway. Work continued on the church until 1314. Over the next 300 years, until the Fire of London in 1666, St Paul's had it's good and bad times. Lightning damaged the church in 1382. In June of 1561 a lightning storm set the church on fire once more. In 1633 the famed architect Inigo Jones was commissioned to restore the church because it had fallen into very hard times. The work stopped in 1642 when the English Civil War broke out. During the Commonwealth period the church was neglected, at least as a place of worship, and was used for many other things. A road was run in one side and out the other, a marketplace sprung up inside it, and horses were stabled in parts of it.
It was not until the Monarchy was restored in 1660 that King Charles copied a much earlier example and threw out the shopkeepers and businessmen using this place built for worship. Christopher Wren was commissioned to restore the church in August of 1666. But restoration became a moot consideration when days later on the 2nd of Sept 1666 the Great Fire of London took matters into it's own hands of flame and reduced St Paul's to ashes.
The fire broke out in the shop of the King's Baker in Pudding Lane (said bakery giving an official apology for that event in 1986!) and burned for four days. At it's end the fire counted over 13,000 houses and another 87 churches as it's victims.
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