Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren spent his first creative life as an astronomer at Oxford and his second as London's architect. The bridge between the two was the 1660s, when the Royal Society — formed out of the Wadham scientific circle he had joined as an undergraduate — gave him both the network and the intellectual licence to take on architectural commissions at scale.

Wadham, All Souls, and the Wilkins circle

Wren entered Wadham College on 25 June 1650, studying Latin and Aristotle. The college's Warden was John Wilkins, the convenor of the Oxford Philosophical Club, and Wren — described in Wikipedia as "a young protégé of Scarburgh" — became closely associated with him. The Wilkins circle, the Wadham article puts it directly, was "a group whose activities led to the formation of the Royal Society." Wren took his BA in 1651 and MA in 1653, was elected a Fellow of All Souls in the same year, and began active research — among the experiments he conducted there was what is now recognised as the first injection of fluids into the bloodstream of a live animal under laboratory conditions.

Astronomer

In 1657 Wren left All Souls to become Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London. In 1660 his Gresham lectures became the occasion for the formal weekly meetings that, on 28 November 1660, gathered the figures whose memorandum (Brouncker, Boyle, Moray, Wilkins, Goddard, Petty, Rooke, Wren, and others) effectively founded what became the Royal Society. In 1661 Wren returned to Oxford as Savilian Professor of Astronomy, holding the chair until 1673. From 1661 to 1668 his life was Oxford-based, though he travelled to London for Royal Society meetings.

Wren's astronomical work was prodigious: he built a transparent beehive for scientific observation, made models of the Moon for Charles II, invented the tipping-bucket rain gauge in 1662, designed a "weather clock" recording temperature, humidity, rainfall and pressure in 1663, and a year later was challenged by Edmond Halley to provide a mathematical theory linking Kepler's laws to a specific force law. Halley took the problem to Isaac Newton — and Newton's nine-page answer, De motu corporum in gyrum, was the seed of the Principia.

Sheldonian and the architectural turn

Wren's first major building was the Sheldonian Theatre on Broad Street, designed while he was Savilian Professor and completed in 1669. After visiting Paris in 1665 he submitted a first design for a redesigned St Paul's Cathedral — and a week later the Great Fire destroyed two-thirds of the City. Appointed King's Surveyor of Works in 1669, knighted on 14 November 1673, Wren was personally responsible for the rebuilding of 51 City churches. St Paul's Cathedral, the masterpiece, was completed in 1710. He held the Surveyor's post until being dismissed on the pretext of failing powers in 1718, at age 86.

Wren also designed Tom Tower at Christ Church (1681–1682), the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the south front of Hampton Court Palace, and what is now the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich. He served as President of the Royal Society from 1680 to 1682.

Death

Wren died at his London leasehold on 25 February 1723 (Old Style) — 8 March 1723 by the modern calendar — at the age of 90. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's, near the centre of the dome. The plain stone plaque, written by his son, reads in part:

Reader, if you seek his monument — look around you.

Sources: Wikipedia: Christopher Wren · The Royal Society — Past Fellows: Sir Christopher Wren

Last verified: Fri May 15 2026 01:00:00 GMT+0100 (British Summer Time)