Famous Image Of London Cathedral, St Pauls

[RichardB]

Was the image "doctored" for the morale of the country ? Was it damaged ? Was it possible to blanket bomb an area and miss the target that would have reduced the morale of the Nation you were attacking ?

Does anyone have a better copy of the image than my poor copy, which I don't have a scanner to scan anyway ? I'm turning into a Luddite, no scanner, no printer connected on a regular basis, not this year anyway here at home, trying to grow my own spuds and carrots; writing on paper with a pencil (my choice, loving it).

[SteveHB]

[RichardB]

Thanks Steve, another variation :

http://www.iwmshop.org.uk/product/12871/St_Pauls_During_the_Blitz_1940_Print

[RichardB]

Aye, but who took the photo ? and when ?

[syrup]

Aye, but who took the photo ? and when ?

On this Photograph: engraving you cant see St Pauls. But did they have Cameras in 1666 ?

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Past/LondonsBurning/objects/record.htm?type=object&id=486284

[RichardB]

On this Photograph: engraving you cant see St Pauls. But did they have Cameras in 1666 ?

http://www.museumofl...bject&id=486284

Can't see The Post Office Tower or much of anything there Syrup, nice work.

[DaveH]

On this Photograph: engraving you cant see St Pauls. But did they have Cameras in 1666 ?

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Past/LondonsBurning/objects/record.htm?type=object&id=486284

1

They only had "camera obscuras", so you could have drawn / painted the picture, back to front and upside down, by sitting inside an obscura room and "going over" the projected image from the "pinhole" on the opposite wall which was facing out to the fire.

I know this engraving wasn't done like this but some of the top 17th century artists frequently used this technique.

2

Would you recognise St. Pauls in this 1666 engraving?

The current St. Pauls, designed by Christopher Wren, was built after the 1666 fire to replace the one which was destroyed in the fire.

Wren's design was new and not a copy of the original it replaced so the 2 churches must have looked totallly different.

[syrup]

Old St Paul's Cathedral, prior to its destruction in the Fire of London in 1666, was the largest church in Britain, and the third largest in Europe.

Pictures before and after the great fire.

http://www.explore-stpauls.net/oct03/textMM/OldStPaulN.htm

[SteveHB]

Aye, but who took the photo ? and when ?

Sorry no idea who took it or of the date taken.

This one was taken on the evening of December 29th, 1940 at 2140 hrs.

[DaveH]

Old St Paul's Cathedral, prior to its destruction in the Fire of London in 1666, was the largest church in Britain, and the third largest in Europe.

Pictures before and after the great fire.

http://www.explore-stpauls.net/oct03/textMM/OldStPaulN.htm

Thanks syrup, that illustrates my point well, that the church burning in the 1666 fire looked nothing like the one surrounded by burning destruction in 1941.

As for the size of churches I have recently been on holiday in Italy and went around the Vatican. Inside St. Peters, which is the largest church in Europe, there are marks on the floor to show where other large churches would come to if placed inside / alongside St Peters.

Unless I have counted wrong or missed a mark on the floor while marvelling at all the other wonders in St Peters it would appear that the current St. Pauls in London (the Wren design in the Blitz photo) is currently the largest church in Britain and the second largest in Europe, - after St Peters in the Vatican.

[RichardB]

Sorry no idea who took it or of the date taken.

This one was taken on the evening of December 29th, 1940 at 2140 hrs.

Herbert Mason, 29 December 1940

http://www.icons.org...ns/stpaulsblitz