Cathedral Setting

At the peak of the London blitz in World War II, the massive dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in the heart of the City was repeatedly showered with incendiaries and pierced by direct hits. But while whole areas surrounding the cathedral were reduced to rubble, the building designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1675 became a symbol of London's ability to take it. The morning after a night's heavy bombing, London bobbies would look up at the cathedral, then proudly pass the word: "It's O.K. St. Paul's is still there."

Away with Clutter. In the eleven years that have passed since war's end, Londoners have been debating how to take advantage of the destruction to rebuild the area into a worthy setting for the cathedral. One group, now headed by Minister of Housing and Local Government (and Churchill's son-in-law) Duncan Sandys, wanted to make away with the clutter of market and business buildings that still hem in St. Paul's, create a majestic plaza in the grand manner.

Another group argued that any such grandiose scheme would destroy St. Paul's traditional position as a church integrated into the design of a busy city. By last week the honors of the debate seemed to have passed to the traditionalists.

In publishing the proposed plans for St. Paul's new setting, drawn up for the City of London's court of common council, Sir William Holford, professor of town planning at the University of London, declared himself against "any changes which tended to drain life away from the precinct." Said he: "It is too late to attempt for St. Paul's what Bernini did for St.

Peter's in Rome, and it would in any case be out of character at the top of Ludgate Hill."

Away with Formality. What Holford's new plan would give St. Paul's (see cut) is more breathing space than the cathedral has ever had before, within a setting of modern business buildings. Main features: i) a paved forecourt, 100 yards wide, before St. Paul's west portal; 2) realigned streets, to provide a sweeping, unbroken expanse of lawn (and possibly a fountain) in place of St. Paul's present traffic-cluttered southeast churchyard; 3) a plan for varying the heights of surrounding buildings, among them a 23-story office building farther down Ludgate Hill, while keeping the distant view of the dome unobstructed; 4) redesign of the close-in area into a series of interconnecting courts (including a 240-car underground garage) to give partial views of the cathedral; 5) moving London's Temple Bar, symbol of the City's independence, where, ceremonially, even the monarch must pause for permission to pass, to a site between St. Paul's north transept and the forecourt.

As the council began weighing the merits of Holford's proposal, the Times rumbled: "The case against a formal design for the setting of St. Paul's has not been satisfactorily made out." But on the whole, Londoners seemed more pleased than disappointed that the new setting fell short of matching the grandeur that is Rome. Commented the London Observer: "The Anglican Church is rather different. So is the forecourt of St. Paul's; it is the place where the Dean and the Mayor say 'How d'ye do' to the Queen."

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