Sir Christopher Wren

On the 20th October, 1632, Christopher Wren was born in the Rectory at East Knoyle in Wiltshire. His father, also Dr. Christopher Wren, is said to have descended from an ancient...

The question as to when Wren started his University career presents considerable difficulties, but it is worth exploring, because his youth at Oxford had an enduring effect on t...

Of Wren’s mother nothing is known, not even the date of her death. Of his seven sisters (the number given in Rylands’ pedigree), the only one to survive was Susan, who became Mr...

The sketch of Wren’s activities at Wadham (in Chapter II) shows the variousness of his mind, but clearly his many inventions, though they make an astonishing list, were _juvenil...

Wren’s work as an architect seems to have begun in 1661, when, at the instance of John Evelyn, the King sent for him to come from Oxford to serve as assistant to Sir John Denham...

Perhaps the most pregnant thing that Wren learnt in France was the value of planning on spacious lines. England was, in 1665, a country of mediæval cities. Such classical buildi...

Turner said of Wren’s Cathedral that “the dome of St. Paul’s _makes_ London,” but the same shrewd appreciation fell in better phrase from the lips of a friend of mine aged seven...

The parish churches of Sir Christopher Wren once numbered fifty-three. Of these, St. Andrew Holborn, St. Clement Danes, and St. James Piccadilly, cannot rightly be included amon...

Mr. Basil Champneys has recorded a notable observation by Thomas Carlyle on Chelsea Hospital: “I had passed it, almost daily, for many years without thinking much about it, and...

This volume has no claim to be a biography of Wren: still less is it a _catalogue raisonné_ of his buildings. Familiar students of his work will be merciful if they find a bare...

The appreciation a man may win in his own day and generation is no sure guide to his quality as an artist, as witness the cases of Mr. Martin Tupper and many Past Presidents of...

It is of some interest to attempt to form a picture of Wren, not as a great artist in building, but as a professional architect dealing with clients who were often awkward and s...

Before attempting some sketch of Wren’s position in the world of English Architecture, in which will be set down his own outlook on his art, mainly in his own words, it seems re...

In trying to estimate with any precision what is Wren’s position in the history of British Architecture, the immediate and obvious comparison is with Inigo Jones. I refer to Wre...