St Paul’s Cathedral at night
(Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)It stood proud throughout the Blitz as a beacon of London’s wartime defiance.
Now St Paul’s Cathedral is to be lit up in all its glory to highlight the capital’s re-emergence from the pandemic.
A proposed £2.1 million relighting campaign will allow Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece to be seen in its entirety across the city at night for the first time in years. LED spotlights will replace broken lights that have left half of the dome in darkness and are said to pose a health and safety risk to people in the cathedral.
The ageing lights on the western and northern sides of the dome are broken — leaving Paternoster Square eerie at night and prompting complaints to the church authorities and the City of London Corporation about the “negative impact” on the city skyline.
The lights on the southern and eastern sides are expected to fail “in due course” — potentially leaving the entire Grade I listed cathedral in darkness.
City Corporation members will next week start to consider whether to fund the project. Officials warn that “the failure of the external lighting system could result in a catastrophic event”.
City bosses hope that the relighting plan will also help to kick-start the Square Mile’s dormant night-time economy — one of the biggest victims of two years of Covid-19.
The City Corporation has had responsibility for lighting the cathedral since 1966. It says replacing the current system with energy efficient LEDs would cut bills by 60 per cent and reduce carbon emissions by two-thirds, in line with the aim of the Square Mile being net zero by 2040.
The work would take until the end of next year to complete but would be done in sections, with relighting the dome being the first priority.
The cathedral is due to host a service of thanksgiving on June 3 to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee. There are fears that a failure to act would lead to damaging images being beamed round the world of the cathedral in partial or total darkness. A City Corporation report said: “The new lighting system would be both a contributor and a symbol of the city’s post-pandemic recovery and in particular the recovery of its night-time economy.”
Meanwhile, the gyratory between the cathedral, St Paul’s Tube station and the Museum of London could be turned into a two-way system. Plans are being considered to create a pedestrian piazza, also be open to cyclists, by closing King Edward Street to vehicles between Newgate Street and Angel Street.
