Lucky you!!!

GA, thanks for the tour of the St. Paul’s Cathedral model. Fascinating.

Christopher Wren’s (1632-1723) career was amazing, including having designed some 52 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666. A few years back I stumbled into one of his smaller churches, St. Martin within Ludgate, on Fleet Street a short distance from St. Paul’s. I wandered in, enjoying the intimacy of the small space. I recall the “bread shelves” among the pews to hold donations for the poor.

St. Martin’s steeple is spiky, providing a contrast to the circular dome of St. Paul’s just down the way.

Missing London today …

My own mentor modelmaker tutor, George Rome Innes (ex-Arup and quite the authority on the Great Model) arranged for me to see it early in my career as inspiration for the Henbury Hall Palladian model (built in Spitalfields’ Brune Street in the mid-eighties). Not many people know that.

Nowadays, most, if not all, think that the Great Model’s skills are lost forever. Not so. Not yet.

Quite recently, I and my teammates built a model of Westminster Abbey and presented at Buckingham Palace.

Not many people know that.

In December l went to St Paul’s just to see the model, asking the cheery security guard outside if possible without touring the cathedral again.
In his strong Russian accent he advised checking online for the “triforium’s” next opening in Spring and chatted with me about his vast historical knowledge of my City, thus the day was far from disappointing. He told me of the lumps of ancient stone & artefacts lying about casually on open shelves and the unique wondrous bookish smell of the library of extremely old tomes.

Sadly, so far this year, The Virus has prevented my return but l do have the answer to my own wonderment on how one fits inside like a Lilliputian.

As a model maker myself I am 100% in favour of making actual 3D models of any proposed development or set design as it is by far the best way of showing people how it will look in reality and from different angles. Virtual 3D images are helpful but are never as good – especially if one could actual step inside the model as per St Pauls.

Models are also of course the best way to see what works in the design and what needs altering – it is much easier to change the model than the building!