Our next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. There has been a church on this spot since 604. After the Great Fire in 1666 it destroyed the old cathedral. It was rebuilt afterwards and designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Wren is a very famous English architect and you hear his name often in London on tours. This cathedral even survived all the WWII bombings in London and since then has been Britain's symbol of resilience. This was the first Anglican cathedral built in London. You can see the dome of St. Paul's over the rooftops in the area and it definitely stuck out when we went on the London Eye.
There have been famous funerals at this church - Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill and the most famous ceremony was the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981. I remember watching the wedding on tv as a small child. It was such a big event. The church is the 4th largest in Europe and it does feel HUGE inside.
The crypt is full of tombs and cathedral models. Many legends were buried in here - Haratio Nelson, Duke of Wellington and Christopher Wren.
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| This was just some shrine/monument across the street from St. Paul's |
This monument was built around 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire and to celebrate the rebuilding of the city. The Great Fire was started here in a bakers house in 1666 on September 2nd and was not put out until September 5th. The fire destroyed a great part of the city. There were not that many lives that were lost but thousands of houses, hundreds of streets, public buildings and churches were all destroyed. The only buildings to survive where those that were built of stone.
Next we drove over the Tower Bridge which everyone knows is the symbol of London. The bridge was finished in 1894 and was built so that tall ships could pass into the port. Its such a pretty bridge!
We finally arrived at the Tower of London....
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