The Geometric Staircase

This morning I went on a tour of the triforium of St Paul's Cathedral - this is the arched gallery above the nave. We began the tour by visiting the Geometric Staircase designed by Christopher Wren. Did you know he never trained as an architect, he was a mathematician, scientist and astronomer and those skills can clearly be seen in this clever staircase.  It is a spectacular stone spiral staircase linking the cathedral floor to the triforium. The 88 Portland stone treads rise for 50 feet around the perimeter of a cylindrical space and, unusually, they were not built into the masonry as the walls were raised but were placed in later, each step individually shaped to bear on the edge of the one below. Each step has a steel pin attaching it to the supporting wall, and then balanced on the adjoining step, quite a mathematical marvel .


We visited the St Paul's Library which was fascinating but the smell of the decaying books was so strong it made me feel a bit queasy. We also saw the Great Model of the cathedral that Wren built, a huge model that gives one a good overall view of the building. After the tour I took a few photos of the cathedral including my favourite view from One New Change, as per the extra. 


While I was out Murdoch was having the time of his life at home. My cleaner was in today so I told her that while she was there he could spend time in the garden with the gardeners who are working on the lawn, as by now he has got to know them and likes their company. Imagine the chaos that ensued when a deer suddenly came into our garden, Murdoch spotted it and was off chasing after it! I am not quite sure what he would have done if he had caught up with it, he probably would have just barked at it thinking it was a big dog. The gardeners were desperately trying to catch Murdoch and at the same time trying to chase the deer out of a fully fenced property - in the end the deer jumped over the fence and Murdoch was brought in, by now covered in mud! Thankfully no one was hurt but everyone was a bit exhausted!