Sir Christopher Wren Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was an English astronomer, mathematician and architect, the most important architect of the English Baroque. After the Great Fire of London in 1666 he designed St Paul’s Cathedral and 51 City churches, and he built the Royal Hospitals at Chelsea and Greenwich, the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford and the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Science and Oxford

Wren was born in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, in 1632 and studied at Wadham College, Oxford. He became professor of astronomy at Gresham College and then Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and was a founding member of the Royal Society. His first buildings were Pembroke College Chapel in Cambridge and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (1664-1669).

After the Great Fire

After the fire of 1666 Wren drew a plan for rebuilding London and, as Surveyor of the King’s Works from 1669, rebuilt 51 parish churches with towers and steeples of great variety. St Paul’s Cathedral, begun in 1675 and completed in 1711, with its great dome, became his masterpiece.

Hospitals and later years

He designed the Royal Hospital Chelsea and the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, and additions to Hampton Court Palace. He was knighted in 1673, served as president of the Royal Society and died in London in 1723. He is buried in St Paul’s, under the inscription “If you seek his monument, look around you.”