Wren, Sir Christopher

born Oct. 20, 1632, East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Eng.

died Feb. 25, 1723, London

British architect, astronomer, and geometrician.

He taught astronomy at Gresham College, London (1657–61) and Oxford (1661–73), and did not turn to architecture until 1662, when he was engaged to design the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. Though Classical in form, the theatre was roofed with novel wood trusses that were the product of Wren's scholarly and empirical approach. As King's Surveyor of Works (1669–1718), he had a hand in the rebuilding of more than 50 churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Meanwhile, he was evolving designs for Saint Paul's Cathedral, a work that occupied him until its completion in 1710. Other works, generally in the English Baroque style, include the classical Trinity College library, Cambridge (1676–84), additions to Hampton Court (begun 1689), and Greenwich Hospital (begun 1696). Wren was buried in Saint Paul's; nearby is the famous inscription: "Reader, if you seek a monument, look around."

Sir Christopher Wren, detail of an oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1711; in the National ...

By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London

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▪ English architect

Introduction

born Oct. 20, 1632, East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Eng.

died Feb. 25, 1723, London

 designer, astronomer, geometrician, and the greatest English architect (Western architecture) of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral (Saint Paul's Cathedral), as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton (Newton, Sir Isaac) and Blaise Pascal (Pascal, Blaise). He was knighted in 1673.

Early academic career and scientific pursuits

      Wren, the son of a rector, was the youngest child, the only boy, and delicate in health. Before Christopher was three, his father was appointed dean of Windsor, and the Wren family moved into the precincts of the court. It was among the intellectuals around King Charles I that the boy first developed his mathematical interests. The life at Windsor was rudely disturbed by the outbreak of the English Civil Wars in 1642. The deanery was pillaged and the dean forced to retire, first to Bristol and then to the country home of a son-in-law, William Holder, in Oxfordshire. Wren was sent to school at Westminster but spent much time under Holder's tuition, experimenting in astronomy. He translated William Oughtred (Oughtred, William)'s work on sundials into Latin and constructed various astronomical and meteorological devices. If the general direction of his studies was toward astronomy, however, there was an important turn toward physiology in 1647 when he met the anatomist Charles Scarburgh. Wren prepared experiments for Scarburgh and made models representing the working of the muscles. One factor that stands out clearly from these early years is Wren's disposition to approach scientific problems by visual means. His diagrams that have survived are beautifully drawn, and his models seem to have been no less elegant.

      In 1649 Wren went to Wadham College, Oxford, as a “gentleman commoner,” a status that carried certain privileges, and graduated with a B.A. in 1651. Oxford at that time had passed through a rigorous purgation of its more conservative elements by the parliamentary government. New men had been introduced, some of whom possessed great ability and had a special interest in the “experimental philosophy” so eloquently heralded by the scientific philosopher Sir Francis Bacon.

      Receiving his M.A. in 1653, Wren was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford (Oxford, University of), in the same year and began an active period of research and experiment, ending with his appointment as Gresham professor of astronomy in Gresham College, London, in 1657. In the following year, with the death of Oliver Cromwell and the ensuing political turmoil, the college was occupied by the military, and Wren returned to Oxford, where he probably remained during the events that led to the restoration of Charles II in 1660. He returned to Gresham College, where scholarly activity resumed and an intellectual circle proposed a society “for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimental Learning.” After obtaining the patronage of the restored monarchy, this group became the Royal Society, Wren being one of the most active participants and the author of the preamble to its charter.

      In 1661 Wren was elected Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, and in 1669 he was appointed surveyor of works to Charles II. It appears, however, that, having tested himself successfully in so many directions, he still, at 30, had not found the one in which he could find complete satisfaction.

Turn to architecture

      One of the reasons why Wren turned to architecture may have been the almost complete absence of serious architectural endeavour in England at the time. The architect Inigo Jones (Jones, Inigo) had died about 10 years previously. There were perhaps half a dozen men in England with a reasonable grasp of architectural theory but none with the confidence to bring the art of building within the intellectual range of Royal Society thought—that is, to develop it as an art capable of beneficial scientific inquiry. Here, for Wren, was a whole field, which, given the opportunity, he could dominate—a field in which the intuition of the physicist and the art of a model maker would join to design works of formidable size and intricate construction.

      Opportunity came, for in 1662 he was engaged in the design of the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. This, the gift of Bishop Gilbert Sheldon of London to his old university, was to be a theatre in the classical sense, where university ceremonies would be performed. It followed a classical form, inspired by the ancient Theatre of Marcellus in Rome, but was roofed with timber trusses of novel design, thereby combining the classical point of view with the empirical modern in a way entirely characteristic of a Royal Society mind. At the same time, Sheldon probably was consulting Wren about London's battered—and in parts nearly derelict—St. Paul's Cathedral. So Wren was drawn, deeply and immediately, into building problems. What he desperately needed at that moment was contact with the European tradition of classicism, and he seized a chance to join an embassy proceeding to Paris.

      By 1665 architecture at the court of Louis XIV had reached a climax of creativity. The Louvre Palace (Louvre Museum) was approaching completion, and the remodeling of the Palace of Versailles (Versailles, Palace of) had begun. Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Bernini, Gian Lorenzo), the great sculptor and architect, was in Paris making designs for the Louvre's east front, and the aged Italian allowed Wren to peruse his drawings. There was considerably more for Wren to see in the French capital, including the domed churches of the Val-de-Grâce and the Sorbonne and a marvelous array of châteaus within easy range of Paris.

      At Oxford in the spring of 1666, he made his first design for a dome for St. Paul's. It was accepted in principle on August 27, 1666. One week later, however, London was on fire. The Great Fire of London reduced two-thirds of the City (London, City of) to a smoking desert and old St. Paul's Cathedral to a ruin. Wren was most likely at Oxford at the time, but the news, so fantastically relevant to his own future, drew him at once to London. Between September 5 and 11 he ascertained the precise area of devastation, worked out a plan for rebuilding the City on new and more regular lines, and submitted it to Charles II. His plan reflected both his familiarity with Versailles and his acquaintance, through engravings, with the Rome of Pope Sixtus V. Others also submitted plans, and the king proclaimed on September 13 that a new plan for London would be adopted. No new plan, however, proceeded any further than the paper on which it was drawn. The problems of survey, compensation, and redistribution were too great. A rebuilding act was passed in 1667. It allowed only for the widening of certain streets, laid down standards of construction for new houses, levied a tax on coal coming into the Port of London, and provided for the rebuilding of a few essential buildings.

      In 1669 the king's surveyor of works died, and Wren was promptly installed. In December he married Faith Coghill and moved into the surveyor's official residence at Whitehall, where he lived, so far as is known, until his dismissal in 1718.

      In 1670 a second rebuilding act was passed, raising the tax on coal and thus providing a source of funds for the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral and several churches within the City of London and the erection of a column (The Monument (Monument, The)) to commemorate the Great Fire. The city was now being rebuilt at a considerable pace. Wren himself had nothing to do with the general process. He did give occasional advice to the City authorities on their major projects but designed no houses or City companies' halls. He was the king's surveyor operating from Whitehall, not an official of the City of London. St. Paul's and the City churches did not fall automatically within the sphere of the royal works, though there was a long tradition of royal responsibility for St. Paul's.

      In 1670 the first churches were rebuilt. Eighty-seven churches had been destroyed in the fire, but some parishes were united so that only 52 were rebuilt. Although Wren was personally responsible for all these, it is not to be supposed that each of them represents his own fully developed design. That there was much delegation is shown by the surviving drawings. Only a few are in Wren's hand. There is no doubt, though, that Wren approved the design in every case, and in certain churches the impress of his personality is distinct.

Construction of St. Paul's

      While the churches were being built, Wren was slowly and painfully evolving designs for St. Paul's. The initial stage is represented by the First Model of 1670, now in the trophy room at the cathedral. This plan was approved by the king, and demolition of the old cathedral began. By 1673, however, the design seemed too modest, and Wren met his critics by producing a design of spectacular grandeur. A wooden model was made of this, and the Great Model, as it is called, is still preserved at St. Paul's. It failed to satisfy the canons of St. Paul's and clerical opinion generally, however, and Wren was compelled to withdraw from the ideal and compromise with the traditional. In 1675 he proposed the rather meagre Classical-Gothic Warrant Design, which was at once accepted by the king, and within months building started.

      What happened then is something of a mystery. The cathedral that Wren started to build bears only a slight resemblance to the Warrant Design. A mature and superbly detailed structure began to rise. In 1694 the masonry of the choir was finished and the rest of the fabric well in hand. In 1697 the first service was held in the cathedral. There was still, however, no dome. Building had been in progress for 22 years, and some restless elements in the government seemed to think this too long. As an incentive for more rapid progress, half of Wren's salary was suspended until the cathedral would be complete. Wren was now 65. Construction was completed in 1710, and in 1711 the cathedral was officially declared to be finished. Wren, 79, petitioned for the withheld moiety of his salary, which was duly paid. The cathedral had been built in 35 years under one architect. (See also Saint Paul's Cathedral and related classic articles from the 2nd (1777–84) and 3rd (1788–97) editions of Encyclopædia Britannica.)

Concurrent projects

      Through all those years Wren was not only the chief architect of St. Paul's and the City churches but also the head of the King's Works and thus the responsible officer for all expenditure on building issuing from the royal exchequer. He had an able staff to look after routine maintenance, but much business passed through his hands, including the control of building developments in and around Westminster. About 1674 the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, University of) considered building a Senate House for purposes similar to those for which the Sheldonian Theatre had been built. Wren made designs, but the project was abandoned. The master of Trinity College (Dublin, University of), who had promoted the scheme, was disappointed, but he persuaded his own college to undertake the erection of a new library (1676–84) and to employ Wren to design it. Wren's classicism here is impressive. There is no hint of the Baroque style prevalent in Europe at the time, and the building could well be mistaken for a Neoclassical work of a century later.

      At Oxford (Oxford, University of) in 1681 the dean of Christ Church invited Wren to complete the main gateway of the college. The lower part of Tom Tower, as the gateway was called, had been built by Thomas Cardinal Wolsey in a richly ornamental Gothic style. The octagonal tower that Wren imposed illustrates both his respect for Gothic and his reservations about it. His attitude toward Gothic design was consistent and influenced Gothic construction in England well into the 18th century. In 1682 Charles II founded the Royal Hospital at Chelsea for the reception of veterans superannuated from his standing army. The idea doubtless derived from Louis XIV's Hôtel des Invalides (1671–76) in Paris, but Wren's building, completed about 1690, is very different from its prototype. Charles II died in 1685. In the short reign of his brother, James II, Wren's attention was directed mainly to Whitehall (Whitehall Palace). The new king, a Roman Catholic, required a new chapel; he also ordered a new privy gallery and council chamber and a riverside apartment for the queen. All these were built by Wren but were destroyed in the Whitehall fire of 1698.

      There is not much information about Wren's personal life after 1669. He was knighted in the year of the Great Model, 1673. His first wife died of smallpox in 1675, leaving him with one young son, Christopher (another had died in infancy). His second wife, Jane Fitzwilliam (Fitz William), by whom he had a daughter, Jane, and a son, William, died in 1679. In these years he never wholly abandoned his scientific pursuits. He was still at the centre of the Royal Society and was its president from 1680 to 1682. He was sufficiently active in public affairs to be returned as member of Parliament for Old Windsor in 1680 and, although he did not again take his seat, in 1689 and 1690.

      With the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which drove James II from the throne, Wren found himself chief architect to William of Orange. William III and Mary II proved to be the most active builders of them all. They disliked Whitehall Palace, and in 1689 Wren was at work reconstructing two palaces: one at Kensington (Kensington Palace) on the outskirts of London and the other at Hampton Court, 15 miles (24 km) away, up the River Thames. Kensington Palace was a piecemeal conversion of an older house, with new courts and galleries added. It is not a totally satisfactory composition, but the south front is a noble piece of brickwork. Hampton Court Palace, on the other hand, started as a project of huge dimensions—nothing less, in fact, than a rebuilding of the entire palace begun by Wolsey. Wren's first designs have survived, and in these he is seen, for the first time, spreading his wings as a palace architect. It was decided to demolish only half of the old palace, however, and Wren's design was reduced considerably. Nevertheless, he brought to it many innovations and a unique use of English building materials. Hampton Court is a mixture of red and brown brick and Portland stone combined in masterly equilibrium.

 Queen Mary died in 1694. The king lost heart, and building at Hampton Court was suspended; the palace was not completed until 1699. Two years before her death the queen had initiated a scheme for the building of a royal hospital for seamen at Greenwich. For this Wren made his first plans in 1694. The work began in 1696, but the whole group of buildings was not completed until several years after his death. Greenwich Hospital (later the Royal Naval College) was Wren's last great work and the only one still in progress after St. Paul's had been completed in 1710.

      Queen Anne granted him a house at Hampton Court. He had, besides, a London house on St. James's Street, and it was there that a servant, noticing that he was taking an unusually long nap after dinner one evening, found him dead in his chair. Wren was buried with great ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral, the tomb covered by a simply inscribed slab of black marble. On a nearby wall his son later placed a dedication, including a sentence that was to become one of the most famous of all monumental inscriptions: “Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice” (“Reader, if you seek a monument, look about you”).

Assessment

      At his death Wren was 90. He had far outlived the age to which his genius belonged. Even the men he had trained and who owed much to his original and inspiring leadership were no longer young. The Baroque school they had created was already under fire from a new generation that brushed Wren's reputation aside and looked back beyond him to Inigo Jones (Jones, Inigo). Architects of the 18th century could not forget Wren, but they could not forgive those elements in his work that seemed to them unclassical. The churches (church) left the strongest mark on subsequent architecture. In France, where English architecture rarely made much impression, St. Paul's Cathedral could not be easily ignored, and the Church of Sainte-Geneviève (now the Panthéon) in Paris, begun about 1757, rises to a drum and dome similar to St. Paul's. Nobody with a dome to build could ignore Wren's, and there are myriad versions of it, from St. Isaac's Cathedral (Saint Isaac's Cathedral) (dome constructed 1840–42; completed 1858) in St. Petersburg to the U.S. Capitol (Capitol, United States) at Washington, D.C. (dome built 1855–63).

      It was only in the 20th century that Wren's work ceased to be a potent and sometimes controversial factor in English architectural design. The last major architect to have been confessedly dependent on him was Sir Edwin Lutyens (Lutyens, Sir Edwin), who died in 1944. The Wren Society, founded at the bicentenary of Wren's death in 1923, published 20 volumes of Wren material (1924–43), edited by A.T. Bolton and H.D. Hendry.

Sir John Summerson Ed.

Additional Reading

An early biographical source by his son is Christopher Wren, Parentalia; or, Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens (1750, reissued 1965), also available in a condensed version, Life and Works of Sir Christopher Wren, ed. by Ernest J. Enthoven (1903). Modern illustrated studies of Wren's life include Eduard F. Sekler, Wren and His Place in European Architecture (1956); John Summerson, Sir Christopher Wren (1953, reissued 1965), which deals more fully than most books with the scientific aspects; Margaret Whinney, Christopher Wren (1971; also published as Wren, 1971, reissued 1998), a well-illustrated biographical study; Adrian Tinniswood, His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren (2001), which includes insight into Wren's times; and Lisa Jardine, On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Sir Christopher Wren (2002), a comprehensive study. J.A. Bennett, The Mathematical Science of Christopher Wren (1982, reissued 2002), discusses Wren's early career as a scientist. Other, more specific studies include Kerry Downes, The Architecture of Wren, rev. ed. (1988), Sir Christopher Wren (1987), a catalog of Wren's 220 drawings for St. Paul's Cathedral, and Christopher Wren (2007), a very brief biography; Geoffrey Beard and Anthony Kersting, The Work of Christopher Wren (1982), with more than 200 illustrations; James W.P. Campbell, Building St Paul's (2007); and Paul Jeffery, The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren (1996), a survey of Wren's surviving London churches.

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