Schools & Families Department. Begin in the ... Cathedral you will ... Now enter the American Memorial Chapel and lo
Schools & Families Department
Begin in the Crypt. Find the enormous Churchill Gates. What are the gates made from and which famous person are they named after?
What would have to be done to this material before it could be moulded into these different shapes?
Go through the gates and find the tomb of George Swan Nottage on the floor. floor What is this tombstone made from?
This is an alloy, a mixture of the metals Copper and Zinc. Many decorative items are made from this.
You will find brasses in churches all over Britain. Many people make rubbings of the images which make interesting impressions. At. St. Paul’s we don’t have many brasses, so we do not allow people to make rubbings. What reasons can you think of for this
Stone @ St. Paul’s Around the Cathedral you will see lots of things made of stone. There are three different kinds of stone and all rocks can be classfied as one of these.
Sedimentary rock - this is formed when layers of old eroded rocks and dead organisms were laid down at the bottom of a river or the sea. Over millions of years they were squashed solid and became rocks.
Metamorphic rocks - these were once sedimentary or igneous rocks, but they have been changed by heat and/or pressure.
Igneous rock - this is usually formed near volcanoes. Magma, molten rock inside the earth, cools and forms crystals. The slower the rock cools, the larger the crystals are.
Go on down the steps into the Nelson Chamber and look at Nelson’s tomb. Black limestone (Sedimentary) from Ireland Granite, from Cornwall. (Igneous) Write down as many different materials as you can, that you have spotted in this chamber. Say which are natural and which are man-made. Material
Natural or ManMan-made?
Leave the Nelson chamber by the same way that you came in. in Turn left and go to the end of the corridoor by some big iron gates on your left. Go through the gates. Here you can see lots of statues. They are all made from marble. Marble is a metamorphic rock. It has been used for making statues for thousands of years. It comes in a variety of different colours. Some of the statues here are white and some are black. Look carefully at examples of both kinds. Look at them carefully. Describe the black ones. ones
Why do you think they might be black? (Clue: something happened to St, Paul’s in 1666!)
Now go into the Wellington Chamber and find the tomb of this great soldier. The top of this tomb is made from Luxullianite.. Luxullianite. Look carefully at the rock. Is it luxuliianite Sedimentary or Igneous? Igneous How can you tell?
Go through the gates and into the OBE Chapel. Go right to the front and look at the panels which make up the screen. Find the one with the picture of the Queen. What are these panels made from?
How many different colours of Marble make up the picture of the bishop on the tombstone in the centre of this area?
Go up the stairs now, to the Cathedral Floor, Stand beneath the Dome. The Dome above your head is made from stone, and glass and is reinforced with steel. steel Are these natural or man-made materials? Man-made
Natural
Stone Glass Steel
Go through the right hand gate, down the side aisle and find the statue of John Donne on the wall. What evidence can you find that shows that this statue was in the Great Fire of London?
Walk further up this aisle and find the Tijou Gates.
What are these gates made from?
The gold on them is real but is only a very thin layer of special paint. What is this called?
Now enter the American Memorial Chapel and look at the Baldacchino canopy high above the High Altar. There is a golden figure of St. Paul on the top. Why is gold a good metal to use to decorate places that are difficult to reach? (Clue: Think about cleaning!)
This East end of the Cathedral was bombed during WWII and had to be rebuilt. Look carefully at the wood carving on the far right. Can you find this carving of a rocket? This carving was completed in 1961. Why was the rocket an approriate symbol to carve at that time?
Look at the windows above you. you They show some events from the life of Jesus. They are made from stained glass. During the Victorian period, all the windows in St. Paul’s were stained..
What effect would they have had on the amount of light in St. Paul’s?
During the Second World War the stained glass was blown out by the force of bombs exploding all around St. Paul’s. They were replaced by clear glass, just like it was when St. Paul’s was first built. Now look all the way down the nave to the main, West doors of St. Paul’s. Estimate how many paces it will take you to walk down there. there Write you estimate here. Now walk down there, and count your paces paces! es
Later at school you can measure your own pace and work out approximately how long the Cathedral is. You should now be standing in front of the giant, oak doors of St. Paul’s. On the right of the doors as you look at them is a section of stonework covered by a a glass panel. The stonework behind the panel shows what colour the inside of St. Paul’s was until 2004 when we finished cleaning it. What pollutants do you think there were in the air that made the stone so dirty over the past 300 years?
Turn round and stand around the font, used for baptisms. This is made from grey Carara Marble from Italy. It has been moved here from a different site in the Cathedral. This took nearly six months to organise and complete. Write a list of all the the problems that you think the workmen had to overcome to move it here.
We hope that you have enjoyed your visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Do take time to look view w of London. around the whole building and don’t forget to climb the Dome for an amazing vie COME BACK AND VISIT AGAIN SOON!
