CHRISTOPHER WREN 1632 – 1723

           Sir Christopher Wren was an English architect, scientist, and mathematician. After the great Fire of London in 1666, he redesigned part or all of 55 of the 87 churches that it destroyed. The most famous one is St. Paul’s Cathedral (1675-1710). The grace and variety of many Wren’s church spires are still a feature of the London skyline. His other major buildings include the churches of St. Bride (about 1678) and St. James (about 1684), Royal Hospital, Chelsea (1682-1689), and Greenwich Hospital (about 1715).

            Wren was born on October 20, 1632, in East Knoyle, in the country of Wiltshire. He was a son of a clergyman. He was a precocious child with remarkable talent for science and mathematics and had already invented scientific devices before the age of 14.

            From 1641 to 1646, he attended Westmister School in London, where the poet John Dryden and the philosopher John Locke* were fellow students.

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*Dryden, John (1631-1700) – English poet and dramatist. He is noted for his satirical verse and for his use of heroic couplet.

Locke, John(1632-1704) – English philosopher. His ideas helped to form contemporary ideas of liberal democracy.

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            When he was admitted to Wadham College, University of Oxford. While still a student, he made several original contributions in mathematics, winning immediate acclaim. Wren got his BA degree from Oxford University in 1651 and received his MA* degree there in 1653. In 1657, he was appointed professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London.

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*BA – bachelor of Arts; (a title for someone who has) a first university degree; MA – Master of Art; (a title for someone who has) a university degree in arts subject at the first level above BA.

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           The year later, he returned to Oxford University to accept the post of professor of astronomy.

           Already famous as a scientist and mathema­tician, Wren started his career as an archi­tect at the age of 29. Until then he had dis­played no practical interest in architecture. In 1661, King Charles II appointed Wren to the important architectural position of as­sistant surveyor general in charge of the repair and upkeep of public buildings. There­after Wren devoted himself to the study of architecture with increasing enthusiasm.

            His earliest work included designs for sev­eral new structures at Oxford and at Cam­bridge. His first building, the Pembroke College Chapel, was completed in 1665 at Cambridge. The designs of this period re­flected the classical influence of the Eng­lish architect Inigo Jones^*.

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*Jones, Inigo (1573-1652) — an English architect and theatre designer who was responsible for many important houses and buildings, especially in London.

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      Unlike other English architects of his day, Wren never went to Italy to study classical architecture. However, he visited France in 1665. In France he studied French baroque architecture and met such leading Europe­an architects as Gian Lorenzo Bernini*, a chief exponent of Italian baroque, who exerted an important influence on Wren’s subsequent work.

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*Bernini, Giovanni Lorenzo (1598-1680) — Italian sculptor, architect and painter, a leading figure in the development of the baroque style.

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         The architecture Wren saw in Paris can be seen in his work.

         After his return to England, the fire of 1666 burned the oldest part of London. Within a few days Wren submitted a brilliant plan for rebuilding the area. The plan anticipat­ed many of the features of modern city plan­ning, but it was rejected because of proper­ty disputes.

        In 1667, he was appointed deputy surveyor general for the reconstruction of St Paul’s cathedral, numerous parish churches and other buildings destroyed by the fire. Two years later he received the coveted post of surveyor of all government buildings in Britain. He held this position for the fol­lowing fifty years.

        St Paul’s ranks as one of the world’s most imposing domed edifices. Among his secu­lar buildings still in existence are the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford and the facade for Hampton Court Palace*.

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*Hampton Court Palace— formal Royal residence 24 kilome­tres west of central London, one of the greatest historical monuments in the UK.

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          Wren had a mathematician sense of propor­tion, as seen in the dome of St Paul’s. He also had a baroque sense of the dramatic and a good craftsman’s insistence on quality in the execution of classical decorative detail.

       Wren’s architectural achievements have ob­scured his extraordinary contributions in science. Among his inventions were a weather clock comparable to the modern barometer and new methods of engraving and etching. His biological experiments, in which he injected fluids into the veins of animals, were important in developing blood transfusing.

         Wren was knighted in 1673, he subsequent­ly served for many years as a member of Parliament. One of the founders of the Roy­al Society for Improving Natural Knowledge, he became its president in 1680. He died in London, on February 25,1723, and was bur­ied in St Paul’s Cathedral. Near his tomb is a tablet inscribed with his epitaph, which ends with the following famous words: Si monumentum requiris, circumspice (“If you want to seek his monument, look about you”.)

         Wren’s work in a simple version of the ba­roque style displayed great inventiveness in design and engineering. The Wren style strongly influenced English architecture in the Georgian period and its colonial ver­sion in America.