Architecture adventures in St Pauls

To get a little feel of architectural history I visited St Pauls during my weekend in London. I got in quite late and there were not so many visitors now when it is "winter".

St Pauls was made by Christopher Wren in kind of a classical style. It replaced the old St Pauls of which there were some visible remainings outside the church. The interior was fantastic but it was prohibited to take photos. The floor plan was planned to be a Greek cross, but modifications in the plans during the construction made it end up in something else.

It was possible to climb up the cathedral to three stages. The first one was the whispering gallery, which was halfway up the inner dome inside the church. From there, the view of the interior were stunning. 

From The Whispering Gallery, you could climb a narrow stair up to The Stone gallery with a nice 360 degree if you walked around, view over London. I met an American couple who helped me take a picture of me, and as you can see it was quite windy.

I saw "The Shad" which is the tallest building in both the UK and the European Union with 306 meters. I the other direction I saw the Thames and London Eye.

The Shad from St Pauls.

London Eye from St Pauls.

The Stone gallery was at the bottom of both the domes that make the actual dome. The construction of the dome consists of the outer and inner dome, and then almost a triangular shape between them. The original stairs up the the Golden gallery on top of the outer dome had been replaced with moderns stairs, but I think the original one that you can see underneath was very interesting and not so random as it look at first sight, if you start walking with your left foot.

From the Golden gallery there where even better views of London. Here are some of the quite few really high skyscrapers in London. . I don't know about the wide one to the right, and I couldn't really find any information when I googled about it. It is not completed yet though so it will be interesting to know more about it, beacuse to me the shape reminds me of an example from school with a "cartoon" style of perspective with a skyscraper.

From left to right: Heron Tower, Tower 42 (brown one) , 30 St mary Axe "The Gerkhin" (black one), The Leadenhall building (the kind of tilted one)

Here is a view over Tate Modern and Millenium bridge.

Outside St Paul was this modern café that contrasted to St Pauls.

A last view of the Millenium Bridge and St Pauls.