After the destruction of the city of London Wren was employed to make designs for rebuilding its fifty burnt churches, and he also prepared a scheme for laying out the whole city on a new plan, with a series of wide streets radiating from a central space. Difficulties arising from the various ownerships of the ground prevented the accomplishment of this scheme.
Among Wren's city churches the most noteworthy are St. Michael's, Cornhill; St. Bride's, Fleet Street, and St. Mary-le Bow, Cheapside, the latter remarkable for its graceful spire; and St. Stephen's, Walbrook, with a plain exterior, but very elaborate and graceful interior. In the design of spires Wren showed much taste and wonderful power of invention. He was also very judicious in his expenditure; he did not fritter away his limited resources in an attempt to make the whole of a building remark able, but devoted it chiefly to one part or feature, such as a spire or a rich scheme of internal decoration. Thus he was in some cases, as in that of St. James's, Piccadilly, content to make the exterior of an almost barnlike plainness.
Wren's buildings were very numerous. Among the principal ones are :—the Custom House, the Royal Exchange, Marlborough House, Buckingham House, and the Hall of the College of Physicians—now destroyed; others which exist are—at Oxford, the Sheldonian theatre, the Ashmolean museum, the Tom Tower of Christ Church, and Queen's College chapel; at Cambridge, the library of Trinity College and the chapel of Pembroke, the latter at the cost of Bishop Matthew Wren, his uncle. The western towers of Westminster Abbey are usually attributed to Wren, but they were not carried out till many years after Wren's death, and there is no reason to think that his design was used. Wren (D.C.L. from 166o) was knighted in 1673, and was elected president of the Royal Society in 1681. He
was in parliament for many years, representing Plympton from 1685, Windsor from 1689, and Weymouth from 1700. He occupied the post of surveyor of the royal works for fifty years, but by a shameful cabal was dismissed from this office a few years before his death. He died on Feb. 26, 1723, and is buried under the choir of St. Paul's; on a tablet over the inner north doorway is the well-known epitaph—Si monumentum requiris, circum spice. At the bicentenary of his death on Feb. 26, 1923, a memo rial service was held in St. Paul's Cathedral.
For further information the reader should consult the Parentalia, published by Wren's grandson in 175o, an account of the Wren family and especially of Sir Christopher and his works; also the two biogra phies of Wren by Elmes and Miss Phillimore; Milman, Annals of St. Paul's (1868) ; and Longman, Three Cathedrals dedicated to St. Paul in London (1873), pp. 77 seq. See also Clayton, Churches of Sir C. Wren (1848-1849) ; Taylor, Towers and Steeples of Wren (London, 1881) ; Niven, City Churches (London, 1887), illustrated with fine etchings; A. H. Mackmurdo, Wren's City Churches (1883) ; A. Strat ton, The Life, Work and Influence of Sir Christopher Wren (1897) ; Lena Milman, Sir Christopher Wren (19o8). The proceedings and publications of the Wren Society, incl. the vol. of drawings (1923) ; Sir Laurence Weaver K.B.E., Sir Christopher Wren (1923) ; Letters (Tom Tower) to Fell, Bishop of Oxford (Oxford, 1923) ; and the bicentennial memorial volume published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (1923). In the library of All Souls at Oxford are preserved a large number of drawings by Wren, including the designs for almost all his chief works, and a fine series showing his various schemes for St. Paul's Cathedral. (J. H. MO