Review: St Paul’s Cathedral: archaeology and history

Schofield’s detailed and comprehensive account of Wren’s building programme includes not only the main parts of the cathedral as seen today, but also the more ephemeral structures such as construction huts and the temporary arrangements for services during the building phases of the seventeenth century. For the more serious archaeological points, the author uses cut-away sections (for example, of the dome, diagrams showing the nave roof’s trusses and tie beams and the steel beams used in the peristyle). The later sections of the book provide many detailed archaeological reports from specialists in such areas as pottery, brick, human bone and the wood used in the nave roof beams.