Old St. Paul's Cathedral

Before Wren's dome rose over London, another cathedral dominated the city's skyline for nearly six centuries. William Benham's 1902 history traces the arc of Old St. Paul's from its earliest origins on Ludgate Hill, first a Roman temple to Diana, then a modest Anglo-Saxon church through which Bishop Mellitus brought Christianity to London, through its transformation into one of medieval Europe's most magnificent structures. The cathedral grew over two hundred years, evolving from Norman Romanesque to early English Gothic, eventually stretching among the longest churches in the world with a spire piercing the heavens and stained glass blazing with color. It was both sacred destination and social heartbeat: the shrine of Saint Erkenwald drew pilgrims across England, while "Paul's Walk" served as the city's forum for business, gossip, and political intrigue. Benham chronicles the Reformation's storms, when St Paul's Cross became a lightning rod for radical preaching, and traces the slow decay that left the building a hollowed grandeur by the 1600s, its spire gone since a 1561 fire, its stones crumbling even as Inigo Jones and then Wren attempted restoration. Then came 1666. The Great Fire devoured what remained, and London rebuilt. This is the story of the cathedral that was, the spiritual ancestor whose ghost still haunts the present dome.