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| Through a window from the Tate Modern |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| 533 steps to the top! |
Okay, how do you put a place like St. Paul’s Cathedral into words? I’m not really sure you can, but I am going to try anyway. But keep this word in mind as you read my weak attempt to capture its magnificene: TRANSCENDENT. Yes, everything pertaining to St.Paul’s Cathedral, from the view of from across town, to the view of it from above its Golden Gallery, to its subterranean crypt, is transcendent. There is no other word that even comes close to describing its sublime impact.The Cathedral had been flirting with me for days now. Showing off with its domineering dome that seemed to appear on the horizon no matter where I found myself in the city. But until today, St. Paul's Cathedral had alluded me. The first time I went to see it, it was nearly closing time and the second time I went, it was raining, but today it was perfect. St. Paul’s on St. Patrick’s Day. It was my lucky day and it was time.
Six years ago when I had come to St. Paul’s the Dome was under construction and the stairwell to the top was closed. This would be my first time to the top. As I photographed its outside steps, I took the last remaining sips of my coffee and prepared myself for what I was about to see. I had studied Christopher Wren’s architecture of St. Paul’s Cathedral in art history class in high school, I remember it taking many days to get through, but I had never really experienced it. Reading all the maps of the world, however much in detail, never even comes close to preparing you for what a country is really like. That was this moment. I had read and studied all the “maps” on this “country” called St. Paul’s, but now I was going to finally walk it. I had landed. St. Paul’s Cathedral sits on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in London. It is one of five different St. Paul cathedrals that have been built on the same site since 605 AD. At one time it was the tallest building in London. Christopher Wren designed it to be exactly 365 feet tall for every day of the year. Many famous people are enterred in St. Paul’s, Winston Churchill, Admiral Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington to name a few. Jubilees, inagurations, and famous weddings have been held here commemorating some of Britain's greatest moments.
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| The Whispering Gallery |
It has survived bombings during World War II and the Great Fire of London. But despite all of its history, pomp and regalia, St. Paul’s Cathedral is a working church. Every hour on the hour, a 2 minute prayer is given by a member of the clergy and visitors are requested to stop what they are doing and stand in silence. Worshipers come for service, to take the Eucharist and to say confession. It is still very much a place for the people. When you walk into the great hall of St. Paul’s cathedral the first thing you do is look up. You cannot help it. It doesn’t matter what’s on the right or the left, what’s on the walls or written on the floor, you look up. The colossal dome is a spectacular sight all on its own, it demands you notice it first.
The monochrome paintings of the cupola painted by James Thornhill, are eight scenes depicting the life of St. Paul. The dome looks like an overturned, ornate bowl. There are not many sights outside of the natural world (sunsets, full moons, starry skies, majestic mountains, etc.) that take my breath way. This man-made structure, this colossal dome, took my breath away. After nearly four weeks of ocular bombardment now of everything from the glorious to the gaudy, you would think I would be used to this opulence. But no. This was unlike anything I have ever seen before.
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| Made it to the top! |
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| London from 365 feet above. |
This was sublime. Photographs were not allowed in the cathedral, so you’re going to have to take my word for it, or better yet, go on this adventure yourself.
Number one on my agenda was to get to the top of the dome. I had waited 6 years to do this, it was time. I grabbed the pre-recorded tour ipod and made way for the stairs. There was a warning sign to the entrance that stated narrow passageways and 533 steps to the top, and if you suffered from claustrophobia, acrophobia or had any predisposing heart conditions you should not attempt the climb. Good thing I had my tennis shoes on. I took off my jacket, stuffed my camera in my pack, rolled up my sleeves, checked my pulse and began. And yes, just like every 9 year old that had run up and down past me, I counted the steps as I climbed.
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| The Globe, the Tate and the Millennium Bridge |
The first 257 steps takes you to the Whispering Gallery. There the view of the dome becomes even more spectacular because you are that much closer to the top. But what is truly amazing here is the whispering. If you sit on one end of the enormous rotunda, and whisper something to someone clear on the other side, they hear it as clearly as you had just whispered it in their ear. 
The docent told us of many a marriage proposal was made up there in this way, whispering sweet “will you marry me’s” across the great Thornhill Dome, how romantic. 
The next 119 steps from that point takes you to the Stone Gallery. At this point the stairwell becomes even narrower than the first 257 steps, the ceiling lower, the turns spiralier and there is no way to see the top. A few people who had made it to the Whispering Gallery weren’t brave enough to journey the rest of the way. But I was making it to the top, despite my fear of heights, so? Onward.
The Gallery is an open walkway around the first dome and offers a panoramic view of all of London, and the chance for you to stop and catch your breath. 
The next, and last, 157 steps up takes you to the Golden Gallery, this is as far as you can go, and that totals 533 steps. Wow. The cathedral is topped off with a cross, which helps complete its height of 365 feet. Christopher Wren, an architect and an astronomer, designed it that way for the 365 days of the year. 
The view of London from this height is mesmerizing and a little dizzying. Many who had made it to this height, couldn’t stay for long. This is truly not the place for anyone with a fear of heights. But the view can’t be beat. I stayed up there, pausing a moment around each side, taking in the view, for as long as the weather allowed me to. But as the cold chill moved in, I decided it was time to make my way back down.
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| Wow, what an incredible feat this was to build. |
I spent another few hours walking every inch of the cathedral floor, ensuring I missed nothing. I walked to the altar, sat at the quire and perused every inch of the crypt below.
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| Graffiti |
At the top of the hour, the priest stopped and said a prayer for Japan, all in attendance stopped wherever they were in the cathedral and spent the moment in silence with him. I thought about all the hundreds and thousands of prayers that must have been made in these halls, spoken on this hill for the hundreds of years that this cathedral had stood here. 
It was indeed hallowed ground. As the priest prayed for a time of peace, tolerance and understanding in a world of chaos, famine and natural disaster, I thought too of all the catastrophes the cathedral itself had seen and witnessed in its own history and survived them.
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| Breathtaking |
Plagues, fires, bombings, burnings, raids….the building itself was a testament to the fortitude the priests who spoke in it preached of.
The grandeur, the splendor, the stateliness, the epic size of St. Paul’s Cathedral, are all the obvious features you’d predict from such a famous landmark. It is an expectation that is built into its grandiosity. But what is not so obvious, what is most unexpected, is how one feels within its walls. The quiet, pervasive, peace can only be described as transcendent.
Within its sanctified spaces, its hallowed halls, its riches and domes, its golden gilded mosaics and spectacular ceiling, there are no religions, or denominations or sects unless you look for them. There is no right way or wrong way of prayer, or worship or offering, unless you follow them.
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| Who says you can't take pics inside? |
There is simply the overwhelming and overarching recognition of belief, a powerful testament of mankind’s faith in something larger than himself and the creation of an edifice large enough to display that. Nowhere else have I been surrounded by so many tourists and felt such a definitive solitude and peace like I did today underneath the great dome of St. Paul’s.
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| I lit the only candle at her altar. |
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'Mother and Child'
Henry Moore, 1981
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And just like the candle I lit on my way out, a little light left behind in the vastness of a great illumination, I too was rendered insignificant and humbled by the power of what belief could build.
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| What Belief Can Build |
It has survived bombings during World War II and the Great Fire of London. But despite all of its history, pomp and regalia, St. Paul’s Cathedral is a working church. Every hour on the hour, a 2 minute prayer is given by a member of the clergy and visitors are requested to stop what they are doing and stand in silence. Worshipers come for service, to take the Eucharist and to say confession. It is still very much a place for the people. When you walk into the great hall of St. Paul’s cathedral the first thing you do is look up. You cannot help it. It doesn’t matter what’s on the right or the left, what’s on the walls or written on the floor, you look up. The colossal dome is a spectacular sight all on its own, it demands you notice it first. 
The monochrome paintings of the cupola painted by James Thornhill, are eight scenes depicting the life of St. Paul. The dome looks like an overturned, ornate bowl. There are not many sights outside of the natural world (sunsets, full moons, starry skies, majestic mountains, etc.) that take my breath way. This man-made structure, this colossal dome, took my breath away. After nearly four weeks of ocular bombardment now of everything from the glorious to the gaudy, you would think I would be used to this opulence. But no. This was unlike anything I have ever seen before. 
The first 257 steps takes you to the Whispering Gallery. There the view of the dome becomes even more spectacular because you are that much closer to the top. But what is truly amazing here is the whispering. If you sit on one end of the enormous rotunda, and whisper something to someone clear on the other side, they hear it as clearly as you had just whispered it in their ear. 
The docent told us of many a marriage proposal was made up there in this way, whispering sweet “will you marry me’s” across the great Thornhill Dome, how romantic. 
The next 119 steps from that point takes you to the Stone Gallery. At this point the stairwell becomes even narrower than the first 257 steps, the ceiling lower, the turns spiralier and there is no way to see the top. A few people who had made it to the Whispering Gallery weren’t brave enough to journey the rest of the way. But I was making it to the top, despite my fear of heights, so? Onward.
The Gallery is an open walkway around the first dome and offers a panoramic view of all of London, and the chance for you to stop and catch your breath. 
The next, and last, 157 steps up takes you to the Golden Gallery, this is as far as you can go, and that totals 533 steps. Wow. The cathedral is topped off with a cross, which helps complete its height of 365 feet. Christopher Wren, an architect and an astronomer, designed it that way for the 365 days of the year. 
The view of London from this height is mesmerizing and a little dizzying. Many who had made it to this height, couldn’t stay for long. This is truly not the place for anyone with a fear of heights. But the view can’t be beat. I stayed up there, pausing a moment around each side, taking in the view, for as long as the weather allowed me to. But as the cold chill moved in, I decided it was time to make my way back down.
It was indeed hallowed ground. As the priest prayed for a time of peace, tolerance and understanding in a world of chaos, famine and natural disaster, I thought too of all the catastrophes the cathedral itself had seen and witnessed in its own history and survived them.
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