St. Paul's Cathedral Library

The tour started with us walking up the Geometric Staircase, an engineering marvel. Click on the picture to go on a virtual tour of the cathedral. Because we were not able to take pictures in the library and because I would never be able to take such a great picture, these pictures are taken from the virtual tour site and the library's webpage.

The weight of the steps of the Geometric Staircase are even divided between those above and below so it 'hangs' off of the wall. For you Harry Potter buffs, the scene in the 4th movie with them coming down from the North Tower was filmed there. Once we came to the top of the steps, we were offered a pretty impressive birds-eye view of the main floor of the cathedral.

Next, we went into the room where the Great Model is held. This model showed how Christopher Wren wanted the cathedral to look like. It was rejected because it looked too much like a Catholic cathedral though he still retained many of the same elements in the finished building. The room where the model is housed was originally supposed to be part of the library because it has huge windows and a ton of natural light and designs on the walls of ink bottles, pens, and books.

Going into the library was like going into your stereotypical image of an old library. Bookshelves on every wall filled with old books with lovely leather bindings. Antique desks piled high with books being worked on. High windows letting in light which picks up the dust swirls. That smell of old books. It was wonderful.

Many of the books there date to after the Great Fire of London 1666 which had destroyed many of the original holdings. You can understand why no one is allowed in there without the supervision of the librarian, Joseph Wisdom! Many of the books in the current collection were donated by Bishop Henry Compton who donated 2000 books. He also convinced other senior clergy to donate their libraries as well. Today, the collection holds approximately 13,500 volumes.

Anyone is allowed to use the library though they do have to be cautious about this. Many of the texts are priceless documents which might be damaged by careless or too much handling. There is also, unfortunately, the risk of theft associated with such valuable documents. Readers are closely supervised by the librarian and only allowed to have 3 documents or texts at a time. In some cases, the librarian will handle the book and turn the pages for the reader.

It was a wonderful experience to have such a "behind the scenes" look at St. Paul's Cathedral and the workings of its library.