Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren, (1632-1723). English architect and scientist. He became professor of astronomy at Gresham College in London and subsequently at Ox-ford (when he was only 28). However, he gradually abandoned science for architecture. After the Great. Fire of London (1666) he rebuilt 51 London churches, as well as St Paul’s Cathedral, one of his greatest achievements. His style was largely neoclassical and he often decorated his churches with elaborate steeples; he also showed considerable ingenuity in fitting his buildings into irregular sites. He also built the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (1676) and Greenwich Hospital (1696). Wren was also elected an MP (1685-87; 1701-02). He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral; his epitaph reads `Si monumentum requiris, circumspice’ (If you seek a monument, look around you).
