Words and photography of J. Oliver-Bonjoch, 2015

Commemorating the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London

The dream of the Royal architect

ondon suffered a great fire in 1666, but, like mother Rome sixteen centuries before, resurged from the ashes as a successful and monumental city, because the Londoners took advantage of the catastrophe and raised firmer, more functional and nicer buildings above the medieval foundations. One of the makers of this prodigy was Sir Christopher Wren, a scientist who studied mathematics, geometry, astronomy, optics... taught in Oxford and was one of the

founders of the Royal Society. Wren just embraced the passion for Architecture, when he was appointed King's Surveyor of Works to rebuilt St. Paul’s Cathedral and other 50 churches destroyed by the flames. He would have rebuilt all the City had they let him do it, but his ambitious urban project did not captivate the City’s owners, who wouldn’t renounce not even an inch of their burnt estates.

As a worthy son of the Renaissance who admired Brunelleschi’s and Michelangelo’s achievements, Sir Christopher was determined to culminate the new Cathedral with a great dome which would dominate London’s skyline, like the ones in Florence and Rome, but he had to be ingenious enough to accomplish constructive challenges and, at the same time, fool the canons who distrusted ‘Roman flavour’ of Wren’s project.

While London was being reborn, in one narrow street, far from the exigencies, the overwhelming responsibilities and the pressures that surrounded him in St. Paul’s, Wren could dream like a true Quattrocento architect and play with architecture like Augustus Hadrian in his tiburtine villa. This creative dream and his erudite knowledge about the ancient rotundas of Rome and Jerusalem inspired his project for St. Stephen Walbrook. In this church, Wren somehow made us believe that a Roman dome can float above twelve slim Greek columns; thanks to the complicity of his master carpenters and their discrete, precise and efficient craftsmanship.

In my opinion, this is Sir Christopher Wren’s most spiritual work, because its ethereal and elegant structure and its diaphanous and bright space. These walls welcome the spirits who know how to enjoy contemplation and infect them with desire of harmony and elevation.