Old St Paul's Cathedral

Old St Paul’s refers to the medieval cathedral that once stood on Ludgate Hill in the City of London on the site of the present St Paul’s Cathedral. It was a principal medieval church of the city until its destruction in 1666.

There is no intact medieval cathedral to visit; interest focuses on historical records, archaeological remains in and beneath the present St Paul’s site, and markers and displays about the medieval building found in the surrounding area. The present Baroque St Paul’s dominates the site and contains museum material and references to the earlier cathedral.

A succession of Christian churches occupied the Ludgate Hill site through the medieval period, with the medieval Romanesque and Gothic cathedral rising to prominence in the later Middle Ages. That medieval cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in September 1666 and the current St Paul’s Cathedral was commissioned and built on the same site in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The site lies on Ludgate Hill in the City of London, central London, within the cluster of historic streets and institutions that form the financial and civic heart of the city.

• Destruction and replacement: the medieval cathedral on the same site was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and subsequently replaced by the present St Paul's Cathedral designed by Sir Christopher Wren.