The Legacy of Sir Christopher Wren,
Architect and Urban Planner

Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), eminent scientist and a founder of the Royal Society, is recognized today as one of the world’s greatest architects and a pioneer urban designer whose vision for London endures to this day. Among many accomplishments, he was responsible for the design of 53 churches in London, including his most celebrated, St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Christopher was the only son of Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor. Young Christopher grew up in the court of Charles I, until the Civil War forced his family to flee to the Oxfordshire country home of William Holder, his brother-in-law. Christopher was tutored at home. It was at this time that he showed an aptitude for science, drawing, and model making. In 1649 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1651. In 1653 he graduated M.A. and was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was an active scientist and in 1657 was appointed Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in London. With the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Wren helped found a group of scholars at Gresham, who, with royal patronage, became the Royal Society. In 1661 Wren was elected Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. In the early 1660s Wren was turning to architecture. Beginning in 1661 he became an unofficial advisor on the repair of old St. Paul’s Cathedral. In 1663 he undertook commissions in both Cambridge (Pembroke College chapel) and Oxford (the Sheldonian Theatre).

Ironically, it was the disastrous Great Fire of London in 1666 that confirmed Wren’s course as an architect and urban designer. Within two weeks following the fire, Wren had plans for rebuilding London. He was a major actor in these efforts, and in 1669 Charles II named him surveyor of the king's works. Although he was responsible for many buildings, his greatest work is universally recognized to be St. Paul’s Cathedral. Several plans for this great task had been developed and abandoned, until in 1675 Charles II approved Wren’s design and construction began, to be completed in 1710. Combining Neoclassical, Gothic, and Baroque elements, the structure owed much to St. Peter’s in Rome, but for Wren the cathedral’s design epitomized the learning of the new scientific age of the late 17th century.

During the 35 years St. Paul’s was rising above London’s rooftops, Wren was occupied with a long series of other notable buildings. In addition to the many churches of London, he designed the library of Trinity College Cambridge, the main gateway of Christ Church College Oxford, renovated Whitehall Palace in Westminster, and reconstructed the palaces at Kensington and Hampton Court. Wren’s last great work was the Greenwich Hospital (later the Royal Naval College).

 

Sir Christopher Wren

Parentalia

Epitaph

Architecture & Urban Design