Day 72: St. Paul's Cathedral, Temple Church

If you can stomach the $20 entrance fee, St. Paul's will impress. The church was commissioned after the Great Fire of London in 1666 but it took 35 years to complete Christopher Wren's vision.

Its grandeur becomes even more apparent when up in the galleries that circle the dome.
Climb 163 steps from the cathedral floor and you reach the Whispering Gallery.

It gets its name from the unique acoustics. A whisper spoken against one wall can be heard 100 feet away on the other side of the dome. Climb another 119 steps and you reach the Stone Gallery where you can exit the building and walk the outside of the dome for 360 panoramic views of the city.

portal view to cathedral floor
view from Stone Gallery

A final 152 steps takes you to the Golden Gallery on the tippy top of the dome...outside, where there is nothing more than a metal railing between you and London sky and London pavement. J loves the flippity flop thrill at these heights and was merrily doing laps around peering over the edge. On some parts of the gazebo there is little more than a couple feet to pass but I, no no, I was not anywhere near the railing.

It was a smidge King Kong-y up there at the apex of the building, save the giant ape. You can imagine not Kong's bi-planes but the German Blitzkrieg bombers droning by on their runs. The chancel was punctured by a German bomb during WWII where the American Memorial Chapel now rests.

photo of St. Paul's after a bombing

We tramped over to Temple Church, built in 1185 by the Knights Templar. This is the same church refamoused by Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. The church's dance card is very full in December so we weren't able to tour the inside. Don't try to visit in August or September because it seems it's not open to the public those months either. This church was also damaged during the Blitz but survived. You can see from the outside the original round church modelled after the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.