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A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren
Watercolour: C.R. Cockerell (1838)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings & Archives Collection

Sir Christopher Wren (1632 -1723) remains Britain’s best-known architect. Like the mighty dome of St Paul’s Cathedral (1666 -1709), his finest building, he has had an enduring influence on British architecture. A scientist by training, his architectural career ranges from his early Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (1663-9), the remarkable variety of the City churches rebuilt after the Great Fire of London, to the striking Fountain Court of Hampton Court Palace (1690-96). Characterising all is an understanding of function, structural innovation, and a striving for originality.

A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren, exhibited at the Royal Academy (1838), collects all the buildings then believed to be designed by Wren, centred on St Paul’s Cathedral. Its artist, Charles Robert Cockerell, (1786-1863), was a leading architect who had a then unfashionable admiration for Wren. It began a revival of interest in Wren’s work. Perceived as a uniquely British architect, Wren’s buildings came to be regarded as suitable models for a revival style that reached its zenith between 1890-1914.

Most of Wren’s work was constructed in silvery-grey Portland stone, but the combination of red brick and stone dressings shown in many buildings here became the hallmark of late seventeenth-century English Baroque architecture. The result was that many buildings not by Wren were attributed to him. Can you spot any?