GREAT LONDON ARCHITECT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19322, 25 October 1932, Page 11

GREAT LONDON ARCHITECT

WORK OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. The three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Sir Christopher Wren, the great London architect, took place last ' week and interesting cerebrations in London will mark the event. In St. Paul’s, Wren’s great masterpiece, now fortunately safe structurally for many years to come, there will be a series of lectures on the history and architecture of the Cathedral by Canon Alexander, whose energy was responsible for the large sum raised to preserve the great dome. Some of Wren's buildings are in need of repair, and perhaps the tercentenary will be made the occasion for drawing public attention to the need of restoration. Ten years ago the Wren Society undertook the important task of publishing the whole mass of the great architect’s drawings, and the first of two volumes dealing with city churches, including some curious contemporary engravings preserved by Pepys, was recently published. To-day’s anniversary will be celebrated by a special service at Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Members of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Academy, the Wren Society, the London Society, and others will attend, and it is expected that the Lord Mayor will be present. The Royal Institute of British Archi tects have just had presented to them by the Wren Society the Ninth Volume of the Society devoted to Wren parochial churches. After the Great Fire, Wren, as Sur-veyor-General, was employed to rebuild not only St. Paul’s, but 54 parish churches within the bounds of the city, many of which have already been destroyed. This volume, edited by Mr Arthur Bolton and Mr Duncan Hendry, is a scholarly record of Wren's great work. In it arc included beautiful reproductions of his original draw - ings and those made about a hundred years ago by John Clayton who, under the inspiration of C. R. Cockerell, R.A., the first architect president of the R.1.8.A.. himself measured up and drew all the chief remaining churches. There are, in addition, reproductions of some twenty of the destroyed churches from a book of engravings by C. Clarke, dated 1820. The Wren Society, which has been busily carrying on its researches into the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren, has just produced its ninth volume in the Wren tercentenary year which is the one dedicated to the Royal Institute of British Architects, and provides a great deal of hitherto unpublished, or inaccessible, information on Wren’s city churches. The subject is dealt with exhaustively. Hardly a stone has been left unturned, or rather, unphotographed. In the presentation of the new volume to the R.1.8.A., Mr Arthur T. Bolton (the curator of the Soane Museum) , who has been most active on this research into Wren’s work, said that several important facts had come to light regarding the building of St. Paul’s. It is now established that the whole of the interior of the Cathedral was originally painted by Wren’s orders; the painting being stripped off In the nineteenth century.

Moreover, it is evident that Wren had very little to do with the final finishing of the Cathedral. He was persona grata at court during the many reigns which he witnessed, but only until the accession of Queen Anne when, finally discouraged by the ignorance of those in authority and the intrigues at Court, he definitely gave up visiting the Cathedral in 1711. He was, in fact, strongly opposed to the balustrade round the dome, which was added during the period in which he was superseded.