The west portico of St. Paul’s Cathedral stands as a beautiful testament to the recycling of architectural ideas from earlier structures. By the time the 14th-century St. Paul’s was damaged by fire and subsequently demolished, the Gothic cathedral had already lost its Gothic spire in the fire of 1561. In the 1620s, Inigo Jones, commissioned by King James I to restore the cathedral, added a classical-style portico influenced by Palladian architecture.
In 1660, King Charles II invited Sir Christopher Wren to restore the cathedral, which had been neglected during the Civil Wars and even used as stables. Initially, Wren proposed demolishing the structure altogether, but his proposal was rejected. The Great Fire of 1666 severely damaged the cathedral, leading to its complete rebuilding in a new Baroque style with a prominent dome but a smaller size than the previous Gothic structure. The west portico serves as a reminder that Wren particularly respected Jones’s earlier work on the classical portico.
The lower section of the current west portico is embellished and supported by twelve fluted columns, each of a respective order, adorned with an architrave, marble frieze, and cornice. Above the entrance are reliefs depicting the history of St. Paul’s preaching, crafted by the renowned English sculptor Francis Bird (1667–1731). Bird created the two panels over the west portico between 1712 and 1713. This fusion of well-elaborated ideas and the literal reuse of materials embodies the Baroque architecture typical of the era and highlights the continuity and evolution of architectural design at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
