ST. PAUL'S, LONDON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24460, 20 November 1940, Page 11

ST. PAUL'S, LONDON

TO THE EDITOR Sir,—A short time ago a statement aprjeared in your paper that the foundations of St. Paul's, London, were only four feet deep and were •aid on a bed of wet sand. This is •only partially true. In one corner of the north-west Christopher Wren had great trouble, for he came to sand where he expected to find pot earth and had to excavate more than 40 feet before he got a sound bee on which he built a piece of solid masonry 10 feet square. It is naturally taken for granted that the dome as seen from the street is the same dome as thst which looks so enormous pom the central nave, but this is not so. The interior dome is comparatively small. Built up round it is a core of brick running up like a spire, and this bears the upper stonework of the lantern, ball and cross—no small weight—and the thrust of these is sup ported by buttresses and borne by huge ciers. which pass down into the earth through the building and crypt below. There are 30 or 40 feet of pot earth resting on a bed of wet rand, which in its turn rests on the London clay. And so long as this sand remains wet it is considered sate. —I am etc, W. H. Gough. Green Island.