St Paul’s Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of London and one of London’s iconic landmarks. It stands at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, where it is believed the first church, dedicated to St Paul the Apostle, was built on the same spot in 604AD. The present Baroque cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and replaced ‘Old St Paul’s’, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was built between 1675 and 1708. It famously survived the Blitz of 1940/41 and is the burial place of two of Britain’s greatest heroes, Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. The funeral services of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher were held at St Paul’s. One of its most celebrated attractions is the Whispering Gallery, a circular walkway high in the interior of the cathedral’s dome, which has unique acoustic properties allowing people to whisper to one another from opposite ends of the gallery. St Paul’s is on most visitors’ ‘must see’ list, but the Cathedral, like Westminster, charges a relatively hefty entrance fee.
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