TEXT№1 Christopher Wren

1. Do you know the facts concerning Wren’s genius and talent (in science, in architecture); what else can you say about him?

2. Read the text and check your answers.

Christopher Wren

It was in 1666 that Christopher Wren (1632 – 1723) was appointed Surveyor- General, and principal architect for rebuilding the City of London after the Great Fire, and in 1667 he became Surveyor – General of the Royal Works at the age of thirty-five. Mr. Wren had already achieved European fame as an astronomer and mathematician. For some years he had dabbed in architecture, and in 1662 had designed the Sheldonian Theatre, a building more remarkable for its constructional and acoustical properties than for its architectural attraction.

Wren had produced plans for the rebuilding of the City after the Fire , and had presented them to the King. Unfortunately this plan wasn’t implemented and a great opportunity was lost.

For the next 38 years Wren was kept busy rebuilding the city churches, of which 35 are attributed to him, and with St.Paul’s Cathedrale.

Even before the Fire he had prepared designs for remodeling the cathedral, largely on the lines of the existing building. This design received the royal warrant in 1675, and the last stone is believed to have been laid in 1710. Wren got over the difficulty of satisfying both interior and exterior appearances by using a double dome separated by a structural brick cone which carried the lantern. The exterior wall is thus high enough to dominate the building without giving too well – like an effect inside.

St.Paul exhibits a handling of mass and detail, light and shade, which puts it in the front rank of English building. It is in the Grand manner, sometimes called Baroque, largely conceived yet neither overpowering in scale nor ostentatious in details.

Of other buildings designed by Wren the best known are Hampton Court Palace, Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, and some ranges in the Temple.

During Wren’s lifetime classical design became firmly established, and was adopted almost everywhere, not only by architects but also by working masons and carpenters, whose skill became known even on the continent.