Bruce’s ‘winter’ visit to Scotland usually concludes with a joint weekend in London, and 2022 was no exception. On the Friday afternoon, while Bruce was working, I had the opportunity to make a solo visit to one of the City of London’s most celebrated landmarks, St Paul’s Cathedral. It was my first such visit in many years.
St Paul’s is the seat of the Bishop of London in the Church of England. The current building, designed by Sir Christopher Wren in the 17th century, replaced an earlier cathedral lost in the Great Fire of London. St Paul’s stands on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in ‘the City’, making its large dome a feature of the wider London skyline. The famous – but rather vertiginous – Whispering Gallery was closed during this visit, presumably as it was deemed incompatible with any concept of social distancing.
High-profile services held at St Paul’s during my lifetime have included the funerals of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, as well as a number of royal occasions, most notably the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer.
