It has long been recognised that Wren took inspiration for his Sheldonian from the theatres of ancient Rome, but at the same time the details of this relationship have been much debated, so that the most recent accounts have tended to downplay the connection. This seminar attempts to redress
the balance and demonstrate that Wren was even more influenced by his understanding of the Roman world – and not just Roman theatres – than has been previously thought. It reassesses some key questions: why would Wren have chosen the ancient Roman theatre as a model or inspiration for
his design? What did he understand about Roman theatres and what were his sources? How did he use them and what else did he use? The key to this reading is to recognise the importance of Wren as a Latin scholar and admirer of the Roman emperor Augustus, to many of Wren’s circle a role model for the newly restored monarch Charles II.

Please register to attend in advance, at https://www.sahgb.org.uk/whatson

A 45 minute talk with Q&A afterwards.

Tony Webb, Past master of carving at St Paul’s Cathedral will speak about his life as a master wood and stone carver and his relationship with this iconic building.  With a slide presentation.

Saturday 28th October 2023 12:00 – 12:45

St Mary at Hill Church, Lovat Lane

Off Eastcheap.

London. EC3R 8EE

Free entry.

To mark the 300th Anniversary of Christopher Wren’s death in 1723 we are introducing a new free-with-admission spotlight talk featuring notebooks written by the legendary architect when he came to Salisbury Cathedral on 31 August 1668 to carry out a survey.

Salisbury Cathedral (meet in the North Quire Aisle)

Every Thursday and Saturday, 2:15pm

1666 and all that – Wren, the Great Fire and its global legacies

This year’s Wren Talk is will be given by Professor Elizabeth McKellar, author of The birth of modern London: the development and design of the city, on Tuesday 17th October at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street.

McKellar will consider how London was remodelled in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London in 1666, exploring Wren’s contribution, the influence of his City plan, and key buildings in places as diverse as Washington, Pretoria and New Delhi.

This year’s lecture is the twelfth in the series. McKellar is Professor Emerita in Architecture and Design History at the Open University, and president of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.

The Talk and Q&A session will be chaired by Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival.

Please register at Eventbrite.

Registration for this event is free, but we hope you might consider making a suggested donation of £10 towards the upkeep and maintenance of this historic building.

You can do so at the Talk or via our St Bride’s JustGiving page. Alternatively, in the UK, text 10STBRIDES or 20STBRIDES to 70470 to donate £10 or £20.

We are most grateful to the Wren Insurance Association for their generous support of this event.

Find out more about the history of the Wren Talk together with an archive of past speakers → https://www.stbrides.com/about-us/wren-talk/

Christopher Wren was a child prodigy.  He entered Oxford University at 17 years of age in 1649/50 during the English civil wars.  He was already famous as an astronomer, mathematician and inventor before he took up architecture in his thirties.  He taught himself architecture with the assistance of books.  Wren was a polymath and a practical intellectual.  He is sometimes referred to as ‘the British Leonardo’.  He excelled in many disciplines, including physiology, geometry, meteorology and drawing.  As a child he made sundials; as a student he dissected human bodies; as an astronomer, he identified the rings of Saturn.

In this lecture to celebrate Sir Christopher Wren’s tercentenary, Rory Coonan will focus on Christopher Wren’s extraordinary but little-known contributions to the scientific revolution from his youth at Wadham from 1640 until his emergence much later as our greatest architect.

Rory Coonan is a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, and of the Royal College of Art.  He is a former director of architecture at the Arts Council of Great Britain, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  He has worked extensively in major projects in health and care with a current focus on creating affordable, sustainable smart homes for adults with care and support needs.

If you seek his monument, look around.

Celebrating the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren, a fascinating series of talks will take place across London in four of Wren’s greatest buildings, the Wren London Series, from July – October 2023.  A speaker, or panel of speakers, will offer an in-depth perspective of Wren and his work at the Old Royal Naval College, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James’s Piccadilly, and onboard a specially commissioned Uber Boat by Thames Clippers vessel.  The Wren London Series is part of Wren 300, a year-long celebration of Wren’s tercentenary, life and works.

On 1^st September Uber Boat by Thames Clippers will host Wren by River, a unique one-hour boat tour led by Colin Thom, Director of the Survey of London, and a leading expert in London’s architectural history.  Passengers will be treated to an introduction to Wren’s London legacy, from the incredible perspective of the river Thames. The boat tour will take passengers past Wren’s greatest hits by the river, including the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, St Paul’s Cathedral, Monument, and Royal Hospital Chelsea, as well as other historic riverside points of architectural interest. The boat will depart at 7.00pm from North Greenwich Pier and arrive at Battersea Power Station Pier at 8.00pm. A café bar will be available on board throughout the journey.

Wren300 thanks Olivia Horsfall Turner for her assistance in putting this series together and Tony Hales CBE for his generous support.

If you seek his monument, look around.

Celebrating the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren, a fascinating series of talks will take place across London in four of Wren’s greatest buildings, the Wren London Series, from July – October 2023.  A speaker, or panel of speakers, will offer an in-depth perspective of Wren and his work at the Old Royal Naval College, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James’s Piccadilly, and onboard a specially commissioned Uber Boat by Thames Clippers vessel.  The Wren London Series is part of Wren 300, a year-long celebration of Wren’s tercentenary, life and works.

The Wren London Series starts at St Paul’s Cathedral on 4^th July in the Wren Suite, with speakers Shahed Saleem, (architect and Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster) and James Campbell (Professor of Architecture and Construction Theory, University of Cambridge; author of Building St Paul’s, Thames & Hudson) in conversation with St Paul’s Cathedral Head of Collections, Simon Carter. The talk will consider the practicalities and process of constructing Wren’s buildings, focusing on the remarkable craftsmen who made his designs a reality and underlining the collaborative nature of design and execution, as well as exploring what it means to build a dome in a place of worship.

Wren300 thanks Olivia Horsfall Turner for her assistance in putting this series together and Tony Hales CBE for his generous support.

If you seek his monument, look around.

Celebrating the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren, a fascinating series of talks will take place across London in four of Wren’s greatest buildings, the Wren London Series, from July – October 2023.  A speaker, or panel of speakers, will offer an in-depth perspective of Wren and his work at the Old Royal Naval College, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James’s Piccadilly, and onboard a specially commissioned Uber Boat by Thames Clippers vessel.  The Wren London Series is part of Wren 300, a year-long celebration of Wren’s tercentenary, life and works.

At the Old Royal Naval College on 20^th September, Simon Thurley (historian, Chair of the National Lottery Heritage Fund) will give a talk about Wren the Courtier, exploring Wren’s position within Court under King William and Queen Mary, and his work for them including designing Greenwich Hospital (now the Old Royal Naval College) on commission from the monarch. Wren’s success was underpinned by his skill as a courtier, retaining the confidence of four monarchs despite socioeconomic turmoil. His life at court can be reconstructed and demonstrates his devotion to the architectural whims of the Stuart dynasty. By using Wren’s history as a courtier, leading architectural historian Simon Thurley will deliver a thorough lecture with new research, painting Wren’s talents and career in a new light.

Wren300 thanks Olivia Horsfall Turner for her assistance in putting this series together and Tony Hales CBE for his generous support.

If you seek his monument, look around.

Celebrating the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren, a fascinating series of talks will take place across London in four of Wren’s greatest buildings, the Wren London Series, from July – October 2023.  A speaker, or panel of speakers, will offer an in-depth perspective of Wren and his work at the Old Royal Naval College, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James’s Piccadilly, and onboard a specially commissioned Uber Boat by Thames Clippers vessel.  The Wren London Series is part of Wren 300, a year-long celebration of Wren’s tercentenary, life and works.

On 5^th July, a panel of speakers at Royal Hospital Chelsea, home since 1692 to the iconic Chelsea Pensioners, will host a unique conversation about health and wellbeing, “Broken by Age or War”: Bringing Wren’s Vision for Veteran Care into the 21st Century. This will explore design for health and well-being in the seventeenth century and the modern day, from historic ideas about contagion and cleanliness to the adaptation of the original building for contemporary use. Until the 17^th century, the state made no provision for former soldiers. In 1681 Wren was charged with the construction and bringing the Royal Hospital Chelsea to contemporary medical understanding. The panel will discuss how Sir Christopher Wren’s vision for the British Military’s care holds up against modern standards of care. The panel will comprise Will Palin (CEO of Barts Heritage Trust), Christine Stevenson (Professor of Early Modern Art and Architecture, The Courtauld) and Peregrine Bryant and Laura Morgante (Directors of Peregrine Bryant Architects & Conservation).

Wren300 thanks Olivia Horsfall Turner for her assistance in putting this series together and Tony Hales CBE for his generous support.

If you seek his monument, look around.

Celebrating the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren, a fascinating series of talks will take place across London in four of Wren’s greatest buildings, the Wren London Series, from July – October 2023.  A speaker, or panel of speakers, will offer an in-depth perspective of Wren and his work at the Old Royal Naval College, St Paul’s Cathedral, Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James’s Piccadilly, and onboard a specially commissioned Uber Boat by Thames Clippers vessel.  The Wren London Series is part of Wren 300, a year-long celebration of Wren’s tercentenary, life and works.

The Wren London Series will conclude on 27^th October at St James’s Piccadilly with a lecture by William Whyte (Professor of Social and Architectural History, University of Oxford). Whyte is an academic historian specialising in architecture and his lecture will focus on Wren’s ecclesiastical architecture, using the context of Wren’s family background and the need for a new ecclesiastical idiom prompted by the religious changes of the seventeenth century. This talk will be introduced by Sir Neil McGregor whose BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship in February explored the way in which Wren’s churches not only achieve beauty but provide different sorts of spaces for diverse congregations.

Wren300 thanks Olivia Horsfall Turner for her assistance in putting this series together and Tony Hales CBE for his generous support.