#at uni i got told “he put up a lot of scaffolding” which seems like it wouldn't hide enough but who knows?

[nostalgia-tblr]

"Wren had begun advising on the repair of the Old St Paul's in 1661, five years before the fire in 1666."

Hrm... bit sus if you ask me. Do we know where he was when that fire started?

#on another wikipedia spiral #i don't like to call it a “conspiracy theory” but wren was pretty keen to tear down and rebuild large bits of london #and everyone was like “nice plans but obviously we can't do that” at him AND THEN LONDON WENT ON FIRE HOW VERY CONVENIENT #the st paul's cathedral page doesn't really convey the beauty of that bit where Wren's plan got rejected by the Anglican clergy and so he #agreed to build something more to their taste with a huge spire in the middle like they wanted #and then just went ahead and built what he wanted to anyway #nobody seems to be clear on *how* he managed to get so far before anyone willing + able to stop him realised what was going on #at uni i got told “he put up a lot of scaffolding” which seems like it wouldn't hide enough but who knows? #apparently based on the current foundations there is NO WAY he ever intended to build what he'd been told to build #moral of the story: if your architect reluctantly agrees to your ideas it's best to check on him a lot once construction starts #history stuff