October 21, 2009 • 10 mins
Saint Paul's Cathedral stands on the site of four previous churches, the earliest of which dates back to 604. When German forces bombed London in World War II, Churchill formed a group to protect the ancient church. Tune in to learn what happened next.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Daddy and Katie and
I were doing some research for another podcast recently and
we were talking about the Grand Tour, that great trek
(00:24):
around Europe that people have been making for so long.
And uh, I went on a condensed version of the
Grand Tour myself, because you know, we have cheap airlines
now and and fast trains and not just boats and
horses or whatever people used to take to get around Europe.
And you show me your pictures. I did, and of
(00:44):
course I have not been, so if you have any
disposable income, send it my way. But I saw St.
Paul's Cathedral. I started off in London, and of you know,
of course you see a lot of old monuments and
really great things. But one of the things that really
impressed me about St. Paul's Cathedral in London was that
it's got all this old historical significance, but it also
(01:08):
has a really modern significance to it. So we'll go
back to the beginning. Um, it was a very important
place in general, the Roman temple to Diana may have
been on this exact site. And there were a lot
of iterations of St. Paul's, most of which burned at
some point. We don't even need to go over all
of them. There were so many. Most burned. One was
(01:30):
sacked by vikings, one was struck by lightning. Cromwellian cavalry
troops camped out in one and messed it up so
bad that was about it. And then the old old St.
Paul's as it's known, was burned by the Great London
Fire right in the late sixt undreds, and Christopher Wren
had been hired to make some renovations, but then it
(01:53):
burned down completely. So he had the wonderful opportunity of
building from scratch, and he came up with three different designs,
two of which the board rejected and he was heartbroken.
And the third one may not have even been It
definitely was his third choice, but he made some embellishments
on what was actually built. And this design, of course
(02:15):
is a famous part of the London Skyline now, probably
the symbol of it if you if you don't count
the Gherkin or the London Eye Ferris, but which I
don't know, let's not count let's not count this, but
it's known for its enormous dome, and the dome itself
is actually really cool. You can go up in it
(02:36):
and there's a whispering gallery where yeah it's I was
visiting by myself, so I didn't get to test this. Help.
If you whisper near one side of the dome, somebody
on the complete other side of it can hear. You
have to go battle acoustical trick. I had heard of
it because it was the wedding site of Charles and Diana,
(02:58):
and which was really unusual, because normal they do that
sort of thing at Westminster Abbey, it's usually um. Saint
Paul's is usually the site of state occasions instead of
royalty occasions, and there are a lot of famous dead
folks buried. They're including Lord Nelson, and the funeral for
Churchill was there, I think. But despite all this, St
(03:19):
Paul's best known as being a symbol of hope for
London during the Blitz, and I hadn't known anything about
this until you started telling me, So I think this
stuff is pretty cool. We should give you some background
on the Blitz. First um in July of nineteen forty,
Hitler turns his eye toward Great Britain because France has
been conquered and this is the next place he'd like
(03:42):
to take his own. But he knows he can't just
make an amphibious invasion on the great naval power of Britain,
so he decides to bombard the country by air. First.
The lift FAVA, which is the German Air Force, has
no systematic plan about doing this, but the British are
prepared and they are organized, so it's not going to
(04:03):
be as easy as Hitler had hoped. Yeah, they the British.
Then the children of London and other cities out to
the country, which I knew about from Narnia little. That's
why they end up in the country, and by the wardrobe. Um,
and people the people of London take shelter in the
tube stations, and some people actually even move in because
(04:24):
they're tired of going back. Yeah, going back and forth.
But London is bombarded over starting in the summer of
nineteen forty and the Blitz happens in the winter of
nineteen forty one. Um, just constant assault by bombs and
fire bombs, and much of the city burns and um,
(04:47):
the intensity of it all all really picks up in
September of nineteen forty when the British actually retaliate by
launching an unexpected bombing raid on Berlin and Hitler is
so angered by the US that he shifts the shifts
to attacking the cities instead of focusing more in military installations. Right, so,
(05:08):
now we're right on the city of London and the
civilians and all of the buildings, and lots of buildings
were damaged during the blitz, including the British Museum and
Westminster Abbey and the House of Commons which is almost
completely destroyed. Even Buckingham Palace is at one point hit
So the city of London is all the monuments are
(05:28):
are taking heavy fire. But there's one that turns into
a symbol of hope for all of the British people,
and that is St Paul's Cathedral, and it's because of
a group called Saint Paul's Watch. Yeah, Winston Churchill actually
declares that at all costs, St Paul's must be saved
and it's just the symbol of resistance. And Saint Paul's
(05:52):
Watch is a group of two volunteers, most of them
are from the Royal Institute of British architects, and they're
famililier with the blueprints and the plans of St. Paul's.
They know their way around it and working with the
city's firefighters, they guard the cathedral at night. Uh you know,
obviously not sheltered from the bombs. We we've mentioned that
(06:15):
people get into the tube stations or leave town, so
it's a dangerous place to be and just sit up
all night watching the cathedral and running in when firebomb
hits to put it out with water or sandbags. It
was incredibly dangerous and it's just so cool to get
that mental image of these people staying up all night
(06:38):
to guard this building that had become a symbol for
a whole group of people against Hitler. One of them
later wrote, eight solid hours fighting to save St. Paul's.
We put out every sort of fire, but couldn't cope
with the terrific h E high explosive crashes. It rocked
so much. Once we were sure it was over, there
were a few direct hits. Obviously you could stop a
(07:01):
little fire, but you can't stop a bomb from destroying
part of the building. The high altar was destroyed by
a bomb in October nineteen forty, and another bomb fell
in the North Aisle in April ninety one and damaged
the crypt. But the big one was in September ninety
a two hundred pound bomb that didn't detonate but landed
(07:21):
right on the front steps. And this is actually dug
up and transported. I'm imagining what a terrifying job that
would be stuck up and transported to Hackney Marshes, where
when it is detonated it leaves a hundred foot crater,
and that would have been Apparently, these unexploded bombs were
(07:42):
also a part of London. I saw this picture of
a policeman escorting a mother and two little girls passed
a sign that says danger unexploded bombs, and everyone looks
so cheery and happy except one girl who must have
like just learned how to read or something, and she's
kind of looking at the sign like, oh my gosh.
(08:03):
But why the cathedral is so indelibly recorded in our
minds is because of a single photograph um on December
twenty nine, nineteen forty, which is actually the same night
that the American news correspondent Edward R. Murrow broadcast that St.
Paul's was burning and destroyed, which it wasn't. It was
the same night that photographer Herbert and Mason took the
(08:27):
picture of the cathedral, the famous dome ringed in smoke
of burning London, and it was pretty much all you
can see in the picture. Everything just looks there's death
and destruction, charred buildings in the foreground, but it's just
all smoke and then this absolutely beautiful dome rising above it.
(08:48):
And it was published two days later in the Daily
Mail with the headline War's Greatest Picture. St. Paul's stands
unharmed in the midst of the burning city and it
made it through the rest of the blitz thanks to you,
the St. Paul's Watch and the firefighters and um I
thought this was kind of a nice bookend to the
whole thing, but by nineteen the cathedral bells were rung
(09:13):
to celebrate the liberation of Paris, so it was worthwhile.
So thanks to those brave volunteers and architects. St. Paul's
is still a huge tourist spot, is Sarah found out,
and definitely a big part of the London skyline. And
if you'd like to learn more about the American reaction
to the Blitz, you can check out the article how
(09:34):
the Office of Civilian Defense Works at our homepage on www.
Dot how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, Send an email to
podcast at how stuff works dot com, and be sure
to check out the stuff you missed in History Glass
Blog on the how stuff works dot com homepage two
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Daddy and Katie and
I were doing some research for another podcast recently and
we were talking about the Grand Tour, that great trek
(00:24):
around Europe that people have been making for so long.
And uh, I went on a condensed version of the
Grand Tour myself, because you know, we have cheap airlines
now and and fast trains and not just boats and
horses or whatever people used to take to get around Europe.
And you show me your pictures. I did, and of
(00:44):
course I have not been, so if you have any
disposable income, send it my way. But I saw St.
Paul's Cathedral. I started off in London, and of you know,
of course you see a lot of old monuments and
really great things. But one of the things that really
impressed me about St. Paul's Cathedral in London was that
it's got all this old historical significance, but it also
(01:08):
has a really modern significance to it. So we'll go
back to the beginning. Um, it was a very important
place in general, the Roman temple to Diana may have
been on this exact site. And there were a lot
of iterations of St. Paul's, most of which burned at
some point. We don't even need to go over all
of them. There were so many. Most burned. One was
(01:30):
sacked by vikings, one was struck by lightning. Cromwellian cavalry
troops camped out in one and messed it up so
bad that was about it. And then the old old St.
Paul's as it's known, was burned by the Great London
Fire right in the late sixt undreds, and Christopher Wren
had been hired to make some renovations, but then it
(01:53):
burned down completely. So he had the wonderful opportunity of
building from scratch, and he came up with three different designs,
two of which the board rejected and he was heartbroken.
And the third one may not have even been It
definitely was his third choice, but he made some embellishments
on what was actually built. And this design, of course
(02:15):
is a famous part of the London Skyline now, probably
the symbol of it if you if you don't count
the Gherkin or the London Eye Ferris, but which I
don't know, let's not count let's not count this, but
it's known for its enormous dome, and the dome itself
is actually really cool. You can go up in it
(02:36):
and there's a whispering gallery where yeah it's I was
visiting by myself, so I didn't get to test this. Help.
If you whisper near one side of the dome, somebody
on the complete other side of it can hear. You
have to go battle acoustical trick. I had heard of
it because it was the wedding site of Charles and Diana,
(02:58):
and which was really unusual, because normal they do that
sort of thing at Westminster Abbey, it's usually um. Saint
Paul's is usually the site of state occasions instead of
royalty occasions, and there are a lot of famous dead
folks buried. They're including Lord Nelson, and the funeral for
Churchill was there, I think. But despite all this, St
(03:19):
Paul's best known as being a symbol of hope for
London during the Blitz, and I hadn't known anything about
this until you started telling me, So I think this
stuff is pretty cool. We should give you some background
on the Blitz. First um in July of nineteen forty,
Hitler turns his eye toward Great Britain because France has
been conquered and this is the next place he'd like
(03:42):
to take his own. But he knows he can't just
make an amphibious invasion on the great naval power of Britain,
so he decides to bombard the country by air. First.
The lift FAVA, which is the German Air Force, has
no systematic plan about doing this, but the British are
prepared and they are organized, so it's not going to
(04:03):
be as easy as Hitler had hoped. Yeah, they the British.
Then the children of London and other cities out to
the country, which I knew about from Narnia little. That's
why they end up in the country, and by the wardrobe. Um,
and people the people of London take shelter in the
tube stations, and some people actually even move in because
(04:24):
they're tired of going back. Yeah, going back and forth.
But London is bombarded over starting in the summer of
nineteen forty and the Blitz happens in the winter of
nineteen forty one. Um, just constant assault by bombs and
fire bombs, and much of the city burns and um,
(04:47):
the intensity of it all all really picks up in
September of nineteen forty when the British actually retaliate by
launching an unexpected bombing raid on Berlin and Hitler is
so angered by the US that he shifts the shifts
to attacking the cities instead of focusing more in military installations. Right, so,
(05:08):
now we're right on the city of London and the
civilians and all of the buildings, and lots of buildings
were damaged during the blitz, including the British Museum and
Westminster Abbey and the House of Commons which is almost
completely destroyed. Even Buckingham Palace is at one point hit
So the city of London is all the monuments are
(05:28):
are taking heavy fire. But there's one that turns into
a symbol of hope for all of the British people,
and that is St Paul's Cathedral, and it's because of
a group called Saint Paul's Watch. Yeah, Winston Churchill actually
declares that at all costs, St Paul's must be saved
and it's just the symbol of resistance. And Saint Paul's
(05:52):
Watch is a group of two volunteers, most of them
are from the Royal Institute of British architects, and they're
famililier with the blueprints and the plans of St. Paul's.
They know their way around it and working with the
city's firefighters, they guard the cathedral at night. Uh you know,
obviously not sheltered from the bombs. We we've mentioned that
(06:15):
people get into the tube stations or leave town, so
it's a dangerous place to be and just sit up
all night watching the cathedral and running in when firebomb
hits to put it out with water or sandbags. It
was incredibly dangerous and it's just so cool to get
that mental image of these people staying up all night
(06:38):
to guard this building that had become a symbol for
a whole group of people against Hitler. One of them
later wrote, eight solid hours fighting to save St. Paul's.
We put out every sort of fire, but couldn't cope
with the terrific h E high explosive crashes. It rocked
so much. Once we were sure it was over, there
were a few direct hits. Obviously you could stop a
(07:01):
little fire, but you can't stop a bomb from destroying
part of the building. The high altar was destroyed by
a bomb in October nineteen forty, and another bomb fell
in the North Aisle in April ninety one and damaged
the crypt. But the big one was in September ninety
a two hundred pound bomb that didn't detonate but landed
(07:21):
right on the front steps. And this is actually dug
up and transported. I'm imagining what a terrifying job that
would be stuck up and transported to Hackney Marshes, where
when it is detonated it leaves a hundred foot crater,
and that would have been Apparently, these unexploded bombs were
(07:42):
also a part of London. I saw this picture of
a policeman escorting a mother and two little girls passed
a sign that says danger unexploded bombs, and everyone looks
so cheery and happy except one girl who must have
like just learned how to read or something, and she's
kind of looking at the sign like, oh my gosh.
(08:03):
But why the cathedral is so indelibly recorded in our
minds is because of a single photograph um on December
twenty nine, nineteen forty, which is actually the same night
that the American news correspondent Edward R. Murrow broadcast that St.
Paul's was burning and destroyed, which it wasn't. It was
the same night that photographer Herbert and Mason took the
(08:27):
picture of the cathedral, the famous dome ringed in smoke
of burning London, and it was pretty much all you
can see in the picture. Everything just looks there's death
and destruction, charred buildings in the foreground, but it's just
all smoke and then this absolutely beautiful dome rising above it.
(08:48):
And it was published two days later in the Daily
Mail with the headline War's Greatest Picture. St. Paul's stands
unharmed in the midst of the burning city and it
made it through the rest of the blitz thanks to you,
the St. Paul's Watch and the firefighters and um I
thought this was kind of a nice bookend to the
whole thing, but by nineteen the cathedral bells were rung
(09:13):
to celebrate the liberation of Paris, so it was worthwhile.
So thanks to those brave volunteers and architects. St. Paul's
is still a huge tourist spot, is Sarah found out,
and definitely a big part of the London skyline. And
if you'd like to learn more about the American reaction
to the Blitz, you can check out the article how
(09:34):
the Office of Civilian Defense Works at our homepage on www.
Dot how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think, Send an email to
podcast at how stuff works dot com, and be sure
to check out the stuff you missed in History Glass
Blog on the how stuff works dot com homepage two
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