The Wren London Series: St James’s Piccadilly
Overview
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 27th 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.