St Paul's Cathedral Admission Ticket

An iconic building and perhaps one of the most famous landmarks in the capital, this had been on my list to do for ages, but as the Whispering Gallery had been closed for some years I kept putting it off. Fortunately that has now reopened. We booked online and there was no queue at all on entry, although that would I suppose depend on when you visit. This was a mid-week in February. The security heck was quick and the staff friendly. We found that there were two complimentary tours available, one of the ground floor and another of the basement or crypt. We did both and these were well worthwhile with knowledgeable and friendly guides. There were a lot of things that we discovered that we would not otherwise have done. We also went up to the three galleries, the Whispering gallery on the inside and two external ones. You do need to be reasonably fit, it’s over 500 steps to the top although you could just do the Whispering gallery which is about half that. It’s sop called because the unusual acoustics apparently mean that you can hear someone whispering on the opposite side, although we didn’t really notice this. Perhaps we were stood in the wrong place. Nonetheless, it’s very impressive and there are good views if you persevere to the external balconies. Overall, very interesting and well worth doing.

What a stunning and enormous building, filled with glorious paintings, statues, tombs and more. It’s one of the finest Cathedrals I’ve been in, and its size and beauty fills you with awe. (Which of course is what it’s supposed to do.) The walk up to the whispering gallery was worth the many many steps though I was unable to do the final stretch from the outside to the top of the dome as I don’t like the combination of heights and stairs with holes. In the beautiful crypt you will find the tombs of Horatio Nelson and Christopher Wren (who designed the Cathedral and many of the surrounding churches.) There was a nice café on site and good toilet facilities.

I enjoyed my visit to St Paul's Cathedral. I visited on a Monday morning and it was pretty quiet, particularly when compared to the madness of Westminster Abbey. There was a very good free tour with an extremely knowledgeable guide, who explained Wren's ideas and the later Victorian embellishment. The highlight for me though was the climb to the top of the dome. There are three levels, the first internal at the base of the dome overlooking the interior of the Cathedral, next up an external view from the base of the dome and finally the steep climb to the top of the dome for a fabulous view over London. There's a lot of steps, and quite steep, but I'm 61 and managed it without too much difficulty and it was well worth it for the views. It's not cheep to enter (£26) but it's worth seeing once, particularly if you're a Londoner who's always looked at it from the outside.