Questions about Christopher Wren
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is Christopher Wren best known for designing?
Christopher Wren is best known for St Paul's Cathedral on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1711, which is regarded as his masterpiece. He was also responsible for rebuilding fifty-one churches in the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666, and designed notable buildings including the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich, and the south front of Hampton Court Palace.
When did Christopher Wren die and how old was he?
Christopher Wren died on the 25th of February 1723, at the age of ninety-one. A servant found him having died in his sleep after he had caught a cold on a visit to St Paul's Cathedral. He was laid to rest on the 5th of March 1723 in the crypt of St Paul's.
What scientific contributions did Christopher Wren make before becoming an architect?
Wren invented the tipping bucket rain gauge in 1662 and designed a weather clock in 1663 capable of recording temperature, humidity, rainfall, and barometric pressure. He performed what is now recognised as the first injection of fluids into the bloodstream of a living animal under laboratory conditions, and his challenge to Halley and Hooke over planetary motion indirectly prompted Newton to write De motu corporum in gyrum, which later expanded into the Principia Mathematica. He served as president of the Royal Society from 1680 to 1682.
How long did it take Christopher Wren to build St Paul's Cathedral?
The new St Paul's Cathedral was built over thirty-six years under Wren's direction. The first service was held there in 1697, but the cathedral was not declared complete by Parliament until 1711. Parliament withheld half of Wren's salary from 1697 until completion to accelerate the work, paying him the accumulated arrears only when the building was finished.
Was Christopher Wren married and did he have children?
Wren married twice. His first wife, Faith Coghill, died of smallpox on the 3rd of September 1675; they had two children, Gilbert, who died in infancy, and Christopher, who later supervised the topping-out ceremony of St Paul's. Wren remarried in 1677 to Jane Fitzwilliam, who is believed to have died of tuberculosis in September 1680; they had a daughter Jane and a son William. Wren never married a third time.
What role did Christopher Wren play in founding the Royal Society?
Wren was a founding member of the Royal Society. The weekly meetings he hosted at Gresham College, London, from 1660 onward -- attended by colleagues from his Oxford circle around John Wilkins -- directly led to the formation of the body that received its Royal Charter from Charles II as "The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge". Wren served as its president from 1680 to 1682.