St. Paul's Cathedral Interior Dome

St. Paul’s Cathedral is an iconic site in London, England in the United Kingdom that should be on any tourist’s list of places to visit in London and for good reason. It is the “new” cathedral after the Great Fire of London damaged the old cathedral beyond repair in the late 1600s. It’s designed in the English Baroque style of architecture. Opened in 1710, it stands over 365 feet tall. Architect Sir Christopher Wren was inspired by Michealangelo’s grand dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Atop St. Paul’s Cathedral he incorporated what is now the largest church dome in the world. The 3-dome structure allows the exterior to be shaped as it is while the inner dome rises proportionally with that of the interior architecture. Paintings covering 6,000 square feet illustrate the life of St. Paul on the interior ceiling. Eight spandrels under the dome depict other saints through elaborate mosaic tiles.

I shot this photo during a family trip to London in the summer of 2024. Our enthusiastic docent brought the rich history of this cathedral to life and ended the tour in the center of the nave. It’s hard for photos to give the interior space a sense of scale. The dome of St. Paul’s is massive and staring straight up in the center gives a dizzying effect when absorbing the artwork and scale. In the very center of the dome, you can see a small dot which is in fact a window. We climbed the 500+ steps to get to the top of the dome and along the climb you pass right over that window and can see the floor far below.

Climbing to the top, we paused at The Whispering Gallery, the circular promenade that provides spectacular views of the cathedral interior and a place for quiet reflection. It’s also a good place to catch your breath from the first set of spiral stairs. We continued up to the Stone Gallery and then the Golden Gallery on the final level which offers 360-degree panoramic views of London.

Due to the space and tripod restrictions, I had to take this VAST Photo hand-held. I would have loved to have my tripod and special rotating head planted in the center of the floor for an hour or so. Alas, I had to work with what I had, rotating myself and hoping that I was steady enough to get through the series without blurry photos and/or missed sections entirely. I errored on the side of caution and shot nearly 100 photos to make sure I didn’t miss anything and put it all together afterward. Most of the input images for the panorama are composites of 2-3 blended exposures to get the full dynamic range. My family patiently waited for me to take the series before moving on to our next destination in the day. I enjoy taking these types of images to convey the beauty of a place and by finding the best compositions to do so. I also enjoy “traveling” when I get home as I work on these photos and can enjoy the fond memories at these beautiful sites.