The Medieval Cathedral destroyed by the Fire of London

Walking around St. Paul’s Cathedral you come across a footprint, which is a footprint of the Chapter House and Cloister of the Medieval Cathedral that was destroyed by the Great Fire of London (1666). Nevertheless, the actual remains lie a few feet below the pavement.

The Chapter House and Cloister, designed by the royal mason William Ramsay in 1332, were among the first and finest paradigms of the ‘perpendicular’ style, which was to dominate English architecture for the next 200 years.

Both the octagonal Chapter House and the square Cloister were two-storeyed enabling the prominent buttresses at each angle to form ‘a crown surrounding the casket within’. The Chapter Room, with its huge windows, was on the first floor above an open undercroft and it was here that the Chapter or governing body of the Cathedral held its meetings.