Editing St Paul's Cathedral (section)

===Development of the design===
{{Quote box|align=right|quote=<poem>
Sir Christopher Wren
Said, "I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls,
Say I'm designing Saint Paul's."

A [[clerihew]] by [[Edmund Clerihew Bentley]]
</poem>
}}
In designing St Paul's, Christopher Wren had to meet many challenges. He had to create a fitting cathedral to replace Old St Paul's as a place of worship and as a landmark within the City of London. He had to satisfy the requirements of the church and the tastes of a royal patron, as well as respecting the essentially medieval tradition of English church building, which developed to accommodate the liturgy. Wren was familiar with contemporary Renaissance and Baroque trends in Italian architecture and had visited France, where he studied the work of [[François Mansart]].

Wren's design developed through five general stages. The first survives only as a single drawing and part of a model. The scheme (usually called the ''First Model Design'') appears to have consisted of a circular domed vestibule (possibly based on the [[Pantheon in Rome]]) and a rectangular church of [[basilica]] form. The plan may have been influenced by the [[Temple Church]]. It was rejected because it was not thought "stately enough".{{sfn|Campbell|2007|pp=27–28}} Wren's second design was a Greek cross,{{sfn|Tabor|1919|p=108}} which was thought by the clerics not to fulfil the requirements of Anglican liturgy.{{sfn|Downes|1987|pp=11–34}}

Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great Model" of 1673. The model, made of oak and plaster, cost more than £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and is more than {{convert|13|ft|m|0}} tall and {{convert|21|ft|m|0}} long.{{sfn|Saunders|2001|p=60}} This design retained the form of the Greek-Cross design but extended it with a nave. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church, and clergy decried the design as too dissimilar to other English churches to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. The Great Model was Wren's favourite design; he thought it a reflection of [[Renaissance]] beauty.{{sfn|Hart|1995|pp=17–23}} After the Great Model, Wren resolved not to make further models and not to expose his drawings publicly, which he found did nothing but "lose time, and subject [his] business many times, to incompetent judges".{{sfn|Downes|1987|pp=11–34}} The Great Model survives and is housed within the cathedral itself.

Wren's fourth design is known as the ''Warrant design'' because it received a royal warrant for the rebuilding. In this design, Wren sought to reconcile Gothic, the predominant style of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture". It has the longitudinal Latin Cross plan of a medieval cathedral. It is of {{frac|1|1|2}} storeys and has classical porticos at the west and transept ends, influenced by Inigo Jones's addition to Old St Paul's.{{sfn|Downes|1987|pp=11–34}} It is roofed at the crossing by a wide shallow dome supporting a drum with a second cupola, from which rises a spire of seven diminishing stages. Vaughan Hart has suggested that some influence in the design of the spire may have been drawn from the oriental [[pagoda]]. Not used at St Paul's, the concept was applied in the spire of [[St Bride's, Fleet Street]].{{sfn|Hart|2002}}{{page needed|date=February 2016}} This plan was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned, not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration was informed by Wren's knowledge of astronomy.{{sfn|Lang|1956|pp=47–63}}
{{multiple image
| align = centre
| direction = horizontal
| header_align = center
| header = 
| image1 = St Paul's Cathedral, London, South elevation of the Great Model – Royal Academy Collection.jpg
| width1 = 204
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = The Greek Cross design
| image2 = 74 - AS II.13. S elevation.jpg
| width2 = 220
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = The Warrant design
| image3 = The South Prospect of St. Paul's Church London.jpg
| width3 = 200
| alt3 = 
| caption3 = St Paul's, as it was built
| total_width = 
}}