CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 



G41 



Old St 



i'auT* 



ttKticc. the arch 85 feet. Height to the top of interior dome 218 

 "" , -"*' feet. Diameter of ditto, at whispering gallery, 112 feet. 

 Diameter of exterior dome HO feet. The total ex- 

 pence is stated at 736,752 ; of which 126,000 was 

 raised by contribution, 1000 a year was paid by the 

 king, and the remainder was raised by a tax upon coals 

 brought into the port of London. 



Old St Paul's Church was tirst built in theyear 610. It 

 was burnt down in 964, and rebuilt in 1240. The steeple 

 was struck with lightning in 1443, and rebuilt in 1631. 

 The whole was totally destroyed by the great fire in 

 1666. 



Of the other numerous churches erected during the 

 restoration of the city of London, after the before men- 

 tioned great fire, under the direction of Sir C. Wren, 

 we shall only select that of St Stephen's Walbrook, which 

 stands near the Mansion-house. We have fixed upon 

 this, on account of the variety of forms it exhibits, and 

 the ingenuity and taste displayed in the arrangement and 

 decorations. The ground-plan, as will be seen, (Plate 

 CLXXV. Fig 1.) is a parallelogram, 75 feet in length, 

 and 56 in breadth, which affords room for two rows of 

 (eats, with a passage along each wall and in the middle ; 

 and this is the space judged convenient for an Eng- 

 lish church, to enable an audience to hear the service, if 

 distinctly performed. The columns are placed along the 

 outer passages, so as also, to form a parallelogram ; but 



St Ste- 



phtn's, 

 Walbrook. 



PLATE 

 CLXXV. 



fc'. 1. 



within these, at each end, two others are introduced, by Practice, 

 which a column is placed upon each angle of an octagon. Xl ^"Y~*"' 

 The entablature, supported by the columns, is upon a 

 rectangular plan ; but upon it, the archivolts, rising up- PL*T 

 on every two of the before mentioned inner columns, CLXXV. 

 complete an octagon, as in Fig 2. ; and between these Fl S- 2> 

 archivolts, spheric spandrels, being carried up to the level 

 of the top of them, form a circle, as in Fig 3. Over Fl S- ' 

 the top of the archivolts, a piece of plain wall is carried 

 up, equal in breadth to the margins, which surround the 

 pannels in the spheric spandrels. Upon the cornice, which 

 is laid upon the top of this, rises u dome 44 feet diame- 

 ter, and 22 feet high, upon the apex of which stands a 

 small cupola. The dome is decorated with enriched 

 sunk pannels. The ceiling, supported by the columns, 

 is flat adjacent to each angle of the great parallelogram ; 

 but the roof is supported by groin arches, with archi- 

 volts springing from the top of the entablature, and both 

 the soffits and faces of the archivolts are enriched. By 

 the columns being raised upon pedestals, and being of 

 the Corinthian order, they appear rather too diminutive 

 for the support of the dome. If the wliok light had 

 been procured from the upper part, and if the face of 

 the walls had been divided by pilasters, and the spacei 

 between them filled with niches, paintings, and sculptu- 

 red tombs, this beautiful and ingenious piece of archi- 

 tecture would have been rendered still more perfect. 



Dimensions of 51 Parochial Churches of the City of London, erected according to the Designs, and under 

 the care and conduct of Sir Christopher Wren, in room of those tt-hich were burnt and demolished ly the great 

 fire in the Year 1 666 ; together with other Churches built and repaired, and Public Buildings. 



