Christopher Wren

English architect, inventor, and scientist

• Born: October 20, 1632
• Birthplace: East Knoyle, Wiltshire, England
• Died: February 25, 1723
• Place of death: London, England

Combining his skill as an engineer with a thorough knowledge of the classical principles of art, Wren became one of the greatest architects of all time, influencing not only the designers and builders of his own era but also those of successive generations.

Early Life

Sir Christopher Wren was the son of the well-known clergyman Christopher Wren, who was at one time chaplain to Charles I , and the nephew of Matthew Wren, bishop of Hereford, Norwich, and Ely. He was very young when his mother, Mary Cox Wren, died, and his elder sister, Susan, assumed the task of rearing the sickly child. His brother-in-law, the Reverend William Holder, a noted mathematician, later introduced young Wren to one of the academic interests of his life.

His health improved, Wren was sent to Westminster School in London, which, under Richard Busby, was quickly becoming one of the great public schools. Wren thrived in the school’s rigorous atmosphere, and while he excelled in all of his subjects, he did particularly well in mathematics and the natural sciences. When his studies were finished at Westminster in 1646, he was selected to assist Charles Scarburgh, who was a regular lecturer at Surgeons’ Hall in London; for a brief period, Wren built the models that Scarburgh used in his lectures in anatomy. Wren matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, in 1649 as a “fellow commoner.” Although he was only in residence at Wadham for two years during the four and a half years he was a member of the college, Wren nevertheless became a part of the group of scholars that formed the nucleus of the future Royal Society . He took his bachelor of arts degree in 1651 and his master of arts degree two years later.

At the age of twenty-one, Wren was elected a fellow of All Souls College. His time during the next four years was devoted to his many scientific interests, until the chair of astronomy at Gresham College, London, became vacant and he was appointed to fill it in 1657. Many of Wren’s friends from his college days gathered around him again in London and continued their scientific studies and philosophical inquiries, while the political situation in England began to disintegrate following the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658. Then in May, 1660, the return of Charles II restored stability to the kingdom. In December, Wren and his associates petitioned the king, who was also an amateur scientist, to grant them a charter for a permanent scientific society. Wren proved to be one of the most faithful members of the Royal Society, and from 1680 to 1682 he served as its president.

Wren resigned his professorship in February of 1661, shortly after the founding of the Royal Society, to become Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. He also received two honorary degrees that same year—a doctor of civil laws from Oxford and a doctor of laws from Cambridge—but his life in the academic cloister was about to end. Although he retained his professorship in astronomy until 1673, Wren had been seduced by the real passion of his life, architecture. After Sir Isaac Newton , he was probably the most gifted scientist of his day, and his inventions were numerous and useful. His experiments with the barometer established its use as a device for predicting changes in the weather. An interest in medicine born of his student days provided a constant source of experiments, but these accomplishments are all but forgotten when compared to the vast legacy of architectural treasures left by Wren.

Life’s Work

Charles II was obviously impressed by Wren, for in 1661 the king offered the young professor the position of assistant to Sir John Denham, surveyor general to His Majesty’s Works. This post was not a frivolous appointment; Wren was a well-known mathematician, and he had some knowledge of both architectural design and building techniques, thanks to his father, who had been an amateur architect. For two years, Wren devoted himself to mastering his new profession, and then, in 1663, his first two original designs appeared.

Chronologically, the chapel at Pembroke College, Cambridge, is the first work by Wren to be completed. Built with funds supplied by Bishop Matthew Wren, his uncle, it was finished by 1665 when Wren made a journey to Paris to broaden his knowledge of classical architectural forms. The second structure, the Sheldonian Theater at Oxford, was not completed until 1669 and clearly shows a number of refinements obviously gleaned from his travels and his encounter with the great Italian master of the baroque style , Gian Lorenzo Bernini . After six months on the Continent, Wren returned home overflowing with ideas but with limited opportunities to apply his newly acquired knowledge. Then in September, 1666, most of London was destroyed in the Great Fire, which raged for six days. This tragedy gave Wren the chance for which he longed, and he fully realized the opportunity.

Denham, more poet than builder, willingly surrendered most of his authority to his assistant; before the embers were cold, Wren presented a plan for the rebuilding of London to Charles II, who enthusiastically endorsed it. Unfortunately, the private landowners refused to pool their property in the interest of the city’s future. They insisted on rebuilding on streets and plots that dated from the Middle Ages, reproducing the maze of twisting streets and narrow lanes that were familiar to their great-grandparents. Wren’s magnificent plan, which would have created the most beautiful capital in Europe, was shelved. Luckily, some of its components were salvaged to adorn the city of red bricks that arose from the ashes of an earlier London.

Wren was not one who allowed disappointment to discourage him. Instead of brooding over his lost plan for London, he devoted his energies and talents to the overwhelming task of rebuilding Saint Paul’s Cathedral, more than fifty parish churches, and a number of public buildings and private homes. In recognition of his efforts, Charles II created a special title for him, but Wren was less concerned with honors than with the resistance to his dream for a new and better London.

Despite the damage done to the fabric of Saint Paul’s, a number of the members of the chapter wanted to repair the decayed medieval structure. As early as 1662, Wren had made a thorough study of the building and submitted a report calling for drastic changes. While the dean and the chapter argued over his findings, the Great Fire essentially ended their debate. The dean, William Sancroft, agreed with Wren that a new cathedral was both more practical and more desirable, but the collapse of another part of the building was necessary before those who still resisted Wren’s planned reconstruction were persuaded. It took two years to pull down the cathedral’s remains, and Wren devoted those months to developing his first plan for the new Saint Paul’s.

In 1669, Denham died, and Wren was finally named surveyor general, an office he held until 1718. He also married Faith Coghill in December of that year. Their first son was born in 1672, the year that Wren was knighted and finished his first design for the cathedral. Charles II approved the plan, finding it innovative and exciting, but many opposed it, especially among the clergy. Even James, duke of York, voiced his objections to it.

Disappointed but undaunted, Wren began to prepare a series of new designs reflecting a number of ideas. Finally, in 1675, one of them was approved, but the death of his wife robbed Wren of his satisfaction at finally succeeding in pleasing most of the factions. If the cathedral had been built according to his original specifications, it would not have been an exceptional building, but luckily, as Saint Paul’s was being built, the architect was able to make a number of important changes. He was fortunate to secure the talents of a number of exceptional artists and craftspeople to adorn his masterpiece, such as the superb woodcarver Grinling Gibbons, whom his friend John Evelyn had discovered.

The cornerstone was laid on June 2, 1675, the choir was opened for use on December 2, 1697, and the final stone was placed in 1711. Wren was able to oversee the entire project, and almost every detail reflects his genius. In the early stages of the cathedral’s construction, Wren had the complete support as well as the advice of Charles II.

Wren literally devoted the rest of his life to rebuilding the parish churches of London. Each year saw a plan completed or a cornerstone laid. Each decade saw the skyline of London change, as new and elegant spires rose heavenward. No two churches were alike, and each one had its particular feature that made it unique. Like the floor plans, these special features were chosen to harmonize with their surroundings.

While he was designing churches by the score, Wren was also busily engaged in carrying out a number of commissions, both royal and private. Despite political upheavals and a revolution, Wren continued to adorn England with buildings of exceptional beauty, such as the original Ashmolean Museum and Tom Tower at Oxford, Chelsea Hospital, and Greenwich Hospital, as well as additions to Kensington Palace and Hampton Court. The only building actually designed by Wren for construction in America was the main academic building at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, but the Colonies were filled with structures that reflected the ideas of design and construction that he had made distinctly his own.

Despite the loss of his second wife and two of his four children, Wren never lost his creative abilities or his desire to master new fields of endeavor. In 1685, he entered politics as a Member of Parliament. He remained active until he was forced out of office in 1718 by his rivals, who had the support of the first Hanoverian monarch, George I. Wren died, after a short illness, on February 25, 1723, and was buried in Saint Paul’s. The last words of his epitaph are a fitting summation of his career: “Si monumentum requiris, circumspice” (If you seek a monument, look around you).

Significance

Trained in mathematics and the natural sciences, Wren left a successful career as a professor to pursue his particular passion for architecture. Charles II recognized his genius, and when the city of London was ravaged by fire in 1666, he commissioned Wren to develop a plan for the rebuilding of the capital. Unfortunately, it was not adopted, but Wren was able to adorn the rebuilt city with a number of beautiful churches, including the new Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and countless public buildings. He was the English master of the baroque style, and his ideas were widely copied by his contemporaries in England and America. No English architect has had so profound an influence as Wren had on public taste in his own time as well as in future generations.

Bibliography

Briggs, Martin S. Wren the Incomparable. London: Allen and Unwin, 1953. The treatment of Wren’s early life is brief, since this work concentrates on his achievements in the field of architecture. The book is rich in photographs and drawings.

Dutton, Ralph. The Age of Wren. London: B. T. Batsford, 1951. A profusely illustrated work containing an interesting treatment of “the lesser company,” the architects, artists, and artisans who were Wren’s contemporaries and copied his style.

Edwards, Ralph, and L. G. G. Ramsey, eds. The Stuart Period, 1603-1714. London: Connoisseur, 1957. Within this survey of the arts in the seventeenth century, Margaret Whinney’s essay on architecture places Wren in the context of his time by examining what preceded and followed him in his field.

Fürst, Viktor. The Architecture of Sir Christopher Wren. London: Lund Humphries, 1956. Exhausting as well as exhaustive, this work is sometimes turgid, but it never lacks detail. Many of the drawings are remarkable, and the notes give insight into the character of Wren the artist.

Gilbert, Adrian. The New Jerusalem. New York: Bantam, 2002. Discusses Wren and the other architects who rebuilt London as the site of the New Jerusalem after the Great Fire of 1666.

Jardine, Lisa. On a Grander Scale: The Outstanding Life of Christopher Wren. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. A recent biography describing the tumultuous nature of Wren’s life and the versatility and genius of his career.

Sekler, Eduard F. Wren and His Place in European Architecture. New York: Macmillan, 1956. Sekler takes a novel approach to Wren and his work, making the great architect’s accomplishments even more outstanding. Includes an exceptionally good bibliography.

Summerson, John. Architecture in Britain, 1530-1830. Rev. ed. London: Penguin Books, 1969. The third part of this survey, “Wren and the Baroque,” contains seven well-written and comprehensive chapters.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Sir Christopher Wren. New York: Macmillan, 1953. Brief, compact, and well balanced, this is an excellent biography.

Tinniswood, Adrian. His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. A scholarly yet entertaining biography by a British architectural historian, providing a detailed study of Wren’s personality, life, and work.

Webb, Geoffrey. Wren. London: Duckworth, 1937. This slim volume is well written and provides a good introduction to Wren and the major events of his life and career.