Browse content similar to 25/09/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
350 years ago this month, | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
THE most devastating fire in the capital's history destroyed | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
most of the City of London and 80% of its churches at the time, | 0:00:08 | 0:00:13 | |
including St Paul's Cathedral. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
Some saw the Great Fire of London as an act of God, | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
others saw it as a deliberate act of religious terrorism - | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
most were just looking for someone to blame. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
As well as exploring the religious responses to the inferno of 1666, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:32 | |
I also discover the magnificent churches | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
designed by Sir Christopher Wren | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
that formed the heart of the new London | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
that rose from the ashes. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:41 | |
Church bells used to be the herald of both good news and bad. | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
And in Norwich, I get to grips with the ancient art | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
of bell-ringing as churches look for new recruits. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
And over in South Wales, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
I meet a choir with a difference who are part of | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
a scientific experiment to prove that singing really can do you good. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:03 | |
Well, we've no shortage of inspiring music today | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
from churches across Great Britain, | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
including one of the many hymns written by Charles Wesley, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
who said that this one should be sung in tumult, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
in times of great difficult and challenge. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
September 1666 and the Great Fire of London | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
has brought the city to its knees. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
"All the sky was a fiery aspect, | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
"like the top of a burning oven. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
"The noise and crackling and thunder of the impetuous flames, | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
"the shrieking of women and children, the hurry of people, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
"the fall of towers, houses and churches was like a hideous storm." | 0:04:05 | 0:04:10 | |
Well, that was the harrowing, very graphic account | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
by Christian John Evelyn | 0:04:14 | 0:04:15 | |
in his diaries as he watched the devastation unfolding. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
And, using biblical imagery, he described the scene | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
as a resemblance of Sodom, or the last day. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
So, plainly, he thought that it felt like the end of the world. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
It all began here, on Pudding Lane, as historian Kate Williams explains. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:37 | |
Well, it seems like the most unassuming city street, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:40 | |
but we're pretty much on the site of Thomas Farriner's bakery, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:44 | |
except, he said, "It wasn't me, it was nothing to do with me!" | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
And then the fire raged for four days | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
and then it ended in Pye Corner. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
And because of pudding and pye, those food references, | 0:04:53 | 0:04:56 | |
lots of Londoners said it was God's punishment for the sin of gluttony. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:01 | |
Well, we've already heard that people worried that it was | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
apocalyptic. Is that really what they thought? | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
People were absolutely terrified. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:08 | |
So you've got these tiny houses all made of wood up in flames. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
Within a matter of hours, this whole area | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
was one firestorm and people couldn't escape. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
They dashed down to the Thames, that was no good because it was all on fire there, | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
and the peak was when St Paul's itself goes on fire, | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
which everyone had thought was safe because it was made of stone. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
But there was wood scaffolding and a few embers | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
and the whole place was flaming. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
Imagine the seat of Christianity, heaven on earth, | 0:05:31 | 0:05:35 | |
the great St Paul's is up in flames. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:37 | |
So it really was terrifying. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:39 | |
It was like the fires of hell. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
And what made people really panic was the date - | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
it was the year 1666, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
and in the Book of Revelation, | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
666 was the number of the beast. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
After the flames were finally quenched, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
an Act of Parliament ordered that a monument was constructed to, | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
as they put it, "Preserve the memory of this dreadful visitation." | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
Thousands of Londoners walk past this every day | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
and probably never wonder why it's here. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
Well, this monument marks the position of the very first | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
of the 87 churches that were burned in the Great Fire. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
So it's a monument to the city that was burned, | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
the churches and all the sacrifice that the people made. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
So in the aftermath of the fire, what was the general mood? | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
The belief was that the Catholics had caused it. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
They were seen as these religious terrorists. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
And this is what actually was inscribed on the monument. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
So in 1681, on the side, it said that the fire was caused by | 0:06:35 | 0:06:40 | |
a popish frenzy which has not yet been quenched. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
The inscription wasn't lifted off until 1830, | 0:06:43 | 0:06:47 | |
after the Catholic Emancipation Act. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
So the Catholics were blamed for the Great Fire of London for 150 years. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
So, was it possible for anything to quell those rumours | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
and stop the bloodshed? | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
Charles II put out a statement saying it was an act of God, | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
not a papist plot. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:04 | |
And on top of this, he said, "We all must atone for our sins. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
"There must be a day of atonement, a day of fasting | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
"and we all must say sorry for all the things we have done." | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
# I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills | 0:07:15 | 0:07:22 | |
# From whence cometh my help | 0:07:22 | 0:07:30 | |
# My help cometh even from the Lord | 0:07:30 | 0:07:38 | |
# Who hath made heaven and earth | 0:07:39 | 0:07:47 | |
# He will not suffer thy foot to be moved | 0:07:47 | 0:07:55 | |
# And he that keepeth thee will not sleep | 0:07:55 | 0:08:03 | |
# Behold, he that keepeth Israel | 0:08:03 | 0:08:11 | |
# Shall neither slumber nor sleep | 0:08:11 | 0:08:18 | |
# The Lord himself is thy keeper | 0:08:18 | 0:08:25 | |
# The Lord is thy defence upon thy right hand | 0:08:25 | 0:08:34 | |
# So that the sun shall not burn thee by day | 0:08:34 | 0:08:43 | |
# Neither the moon by night | 0:08:43 | 0:08:50 | |
# The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil | 0:08:50 | 0:08:59 | |
# Yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul | 0:08:59 | 0:09:07 | |
# The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in | 0:09:07 | 0:09:19 | |
# From this time forth for evermore | 0:09:19 | 0:09:28 | |
# Glory be to the Father | 0:09:31 | 0:09:37 | |
# And to the Son | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
# And to the Holy Ghost | 0:09:41 | 0:09:46 | |
# As it was in the beginning | 0:09:46 | 0:09:52 | |
# Is now and ever shall be | 0:09:52 | 0:09:59 | |
# World without end | 0:09:59 | 0:10:05 | |
# Amen. # | 0:10:05 | 0:10:13 | |
Singing always make me feel good, or am I just imagining that? | 0:10:16 | 0:10:21 | |
Well, scientists have been visiting some of the Tenovus choirs | 0:10:21 | 0:10:26 | |
across South Wales to put that feel-good factor to the test. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:30 | |
# Lifting me higher... # | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
I think we're like a family. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
I know that I'm going to meet people who will cheer me up, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
the singing cheers me up. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
All the members of the Tenovus choir here at the Tabernacle Church | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
in Bridgend have been affected by cancer. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
Supporting each other in singing and we're supporting each other | 0:10:48 | 0:10:52 | |
very subtly when we have problems, you know. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:55 | |
# Higher and higher! # | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
Lissa and her dad are two of their members. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
When Lissa's mum died from cancer last year, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
it left a huge gap in their lives. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
Tell me about her. What was she like as a person? | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
She was my best friend. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
She would have loved the choir, I'm sure. Mm. Were you very close? | 0:11:14 | 0:11:18 | |
Very close, yeah. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:20 | |
Um...because I'm disabled, she was my carer for a long time, as well. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:24 | |
So, how did the idea of joining a choir come about? | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
Well, that was because of my daughter, that was. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:31 | |
She came up here one day and she said, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
"Hey, Dad, I've seen this advert for... | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
"They want people to join the choir of Tenovus." | 0:11:35 | 0:11:38 | |
We looked at it and it was cancer support. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
We hadn't long joined and, um...God Only Knows | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
was on the list to sing, by the Beach Boys, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
which was my mum and dad's song. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
And it was played at their wedding and played in her funeral. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:53 | |
# God only knows what I'd be without you | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
# God only knows...# | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
And it was like as if we were meant to be there, you know, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:01 | |
like something had brought us there. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
Do you feel as if God's in it? Yes. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:06 | |
I think he's always got your back and he's always got a plan. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:11 | |
# God only knows what I'd be... # | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
What does singing do for you, do you think? | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
I suffer from chronic pain and it definitely distracts me from that. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:23 | |
I don't even think about it when I'm singing. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
Er...it just makes you feel happy and joyful, I guess. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:32 | |
Certainly, by the end of practice, you're coming out of there | 0:12:32 | 0:12:36 | |
with a spring in your step and a smile on your face, you know. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
So clearly, Lissa and Pete believe singing is good for them, | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
but what's really going on? | 0:12:43 | 0:12:45 | |
Dr Ian Lewis analysed the effects | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
of one hour's singing on the choir members. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
For this experiment, I had to get on the road | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
to collect as many saliva samples as I could | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
from as many choir members as I could. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
What were you looking for in the spit? | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
We were looking for a range of things. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:00 | |
We were looking for different chemicals that could show | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
how the singing was affecting people's mood | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
and psychological state. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
Dr Lewis has tested hundreds of choir members across Wales | 0:13:08 | 0:13:13 | |
and he's come to reveal the results to the Bridgend choir. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
What's your spit doing? | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
Now, in the blue, that is a stress hormone called cortisol. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
It's widely known as a very good measure and marker for stress response. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
Now, as you can see, this stress hormone dropped. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:31 | |
And this was in five different choirs on five different nights | 0:13:31 | 0:13:35 | |
and was the case across the board. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
Amazingly, there was also a rise | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
in hormones that help the body's immune system, | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
as well as the feel-good hormones, like endorphins and oxytocin. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
Now, the fact that we can measure that in just one hour | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
was pretty mind-blowing. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:51 | |
APPLAUSE So there you are - | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
scientific proof of something Songs Of Praise has always known - | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
that singing is good for body and soul. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
Coming up later, | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
we find out what happened after the Great Fire | 0:15:51 | 0:15:53 | |
when a new London emerged from the ashes | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
with more than 50 new churches at the heart of its grand design. | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
And it's God's grand design which is being celebrated today, | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
as Christians on Harvest Sunday | 0:16:04 | 0:16:06 | |
give thanks for the fruits of God's creation. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
And this hymn is a must at every harvest festival. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:13 | |
Down the years, church bells have not only chimed | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
their way through everyday life, but have warned of danger too, | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
just as I'm sure the bells in the City of London rang during the Great Fire. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
Well, this month, as part of Heritage Open Days, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
hundreds of churches up and down the country have opened their doors | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
to visitors to try and encourage new interest | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
in the ancient art of bell-ringing. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
BELLS TOLL | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
Long before newspapers and mobile phones, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
church bells were the megaphones of the day, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
ringing out national and local news to the neighbourhood. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
But how can bell-ringing survive in today's society? | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
BELLS PEAL | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
Here at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
bell-ringing is thriving, and has been for centuries. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:59 | |
So I'm climbing all the way up this bell tower | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
to meet some of their 30 members. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
Wow! That's fantastic! | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
Simon Rudd loves ringing in a bell tower with such an impressive past. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:13 | |
Every time I come up to the stairs into the ringing chamber here, | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
I feel the weight of history on my shoulders. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
Because the first recorded full peal | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
was rung here on 2nd May in 1715 | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
and it's recorded on the fine peal board that you can see on the wall. | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
So we're very proud and privileged to have that | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
here at St Peter Mancroft. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
We are a disparate group of people, but when we come together, | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
we come together with a common purpose. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
It's a message to tell the city that there is | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
a church alive and active, at the beating heart of the city, | 0:20:43 | 0:20:47 | |
and to sound out the message that the church is here is a great one. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
Jo's going. Sue's gone. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
BELLS PEAL | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
A recent BBC local radio news report | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
has warned that there aren't enough volunteers | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
to keep the country's 5,000 bell towers ringing, | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
with just over half of those surveyed saying | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
declining church attendances made it harder to recruit. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
We're blessed here with a very strong team of ringers, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:14 | |
but the age range is probably a little on the high side. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
We're very conscious of the fact we need to be seeking out | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
the next generation of ringers who are going to come along. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
It can be a struggle to get people to take up the art and stick at it. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
The outward aspects of ringing seem a little bit dusty | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
and a bit...we're all old wrinklies and doing things in a dusty tower. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:35 | |
Here we go. I'll pull that bit. It goes up and you pull it back down... | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
So the bell-ringing team here have a device that they hope | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
will encourage new recruits to try bell-ringing for themselves. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
This is a portable mini bell ring. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
And anyone can have a go. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
There's lots of youngsters here. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
One of the great things about a mini ring like this is the bells are very tiny, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
so they're very easily used for young people. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
And...catch! Oop! And pull it down again. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:03 | |
It's different. I've never really done anything like that before. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
I don't think I was that good at it. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
I kept on missing the fluffy bit on the string. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
It was fun because I was pulling on string to make a sound. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
Well, if the kids are doing it... | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
And then just pull down and let the other hand go up. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
BELLS PEAL Oh, no, hang on a minute. I let go! | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
Oh, I've got it! You've got it. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
Yay! Keep you fit, this, wouldn't it? Yeah. Yes. That's it. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:34 | |
Do you know, this is really good fun. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
So if you love the sound of church bells, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
why don't you have a go at getting those bells ringing yourself? | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
BELLS PEAL | 0:22:44 | 0:22:45 | |
The Great Fire of London changed the medieval city forever, | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
destroying hundreds of acres, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
burning more than 13,000 houses and most of the city's churches. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
But out of the destruction came opportunity | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
as bids came pouring in to rebuild the city. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
And there is St Paul's, | 0:25:25 | 0:25:26 | |
the masterpiece of the man who landed the job, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
Sir Christopher Wren. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:31 | |
Christopher Wren was this amazing polymath. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
He was a mathematician, a physicist, an astronomer and an architect. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
He was a great friend of the king, and, of course, a devout Anglican. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
And what he really wanted to do was really put his stamp on London | 0:25:41 | 0:25:46 | |
and to leave the fire behind, to create this brand-new, forward city. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
So, in some ways, St Paul's was the symbol of the new city? | 0:25:50 | 0:25:55 | |
Well, the burning of old St Paul's was so terrible, | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
so cataclysmic, no-one had expected it, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
so the new cathedral became the symbol of this new, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
forward-facing London, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:05 | |
and what I really love is that | 0:26:05 | 0:26:07 | |
the symbols of the fire are on the outside. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
So there were gilded flames, | 0:26:10 | 0:26:11 | |
and also, there's this great phoenix, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
and underneath is the motto, "Resurgam" - I shall rise again. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
So, while these grand churches were being built, what about | 0:26:17 | 0:26:20 | |
ordinary people who'd lost not just their churches, but their homes? | 0:26:20 | 0:26:23 | |
The ordinary people has lost so much in the Great Fire, | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
and what you see after the fire is a real surge in religious worship. | 0:26:26 | 0:26:30 | |
People are desperate for something like that never to happen again, | 0:26:30 | 0:26:33 | |
and also, they've seen the fires of hell | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
and they really, really don't want to go there. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
Wren's redesign of over 50 London churches | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
transformed the skyline forever. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:45 | |
One church hidden amongst today's offices is St Stephen's Walbrook. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:50 | |
Oh, my goodness, what a surprise! | 0:26:53 | 0:26:55 | |
Isn't it incredible? It's such an amazing church. And it really... | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
I mean, it was so significant to Wren, | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
basically because it was his own, local parish church. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
He lived just around the corner at 15 Walbrook. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:07 | |
And it was also the church where the Lord Mayor worshipped. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
So this one, he really wanted to get right. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
What can you see here that tells us something about | 0:27:13 | 0:27:15 | |
the character of the man? What was important to him? | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
What's so important to him is space and light, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:21 | |
and also, geometric shapes. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
So these shapes we've got up here, these fantastic windows, | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
and, of course, what's the most striking about this church | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
is the absolutely fabulous dome - | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
the prototype for the dome of St Paul's. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
This is the first domed church in England, | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
and to Wren, this is the way of celebrating God. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
What a huge amount that man achieved. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
Did he live long enough to see the end result? | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
Wren lived till 91. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
And the whole skyline of London, it was all about churches. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
And that was what they really wanted to show after the Great Fire, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
to have churches dominating the skyline. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
Every time you looked at the skyline, | 0:27:57 | 0:27:58 | |
all you saw was the churches, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
because for Wren, the most important part of rebuilding London | 0:28:00 | 0:28:04 | |
after the Great Fire was celebrating the glory of God. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
Next week, I'll be hearing about Quakers, | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
whose resolute faith in times of war | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
compelled them to take a stance as conscientious objectors. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
But today, we finish with one of Charles Wesley's most-loved hymns, | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
said to be a favourite of his brother, John. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
Until next week, bye-bye. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:38 |