St. Paul's: The Monuments

Well, a few of the ones I care or know about. Much of modern British history is represented in St. Paul's monuments...

One of the iconic photos of WWII, London burning the night of
December 29th, 1940, after a massive incendiary bombing by
the Germans, part of their "Baedeker" campaign to destroy British
historical and cultural monuments; this photo, "St. Paul's Survives,"
alone did much to steel British resolve, no matter what was ahead

Thus perhaps the cathedral's most important monument is outside,

across the street, the monument to the Fire Watchers and Fire Fighters

of those dark days

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Nelson, whose tomb is in the crypt

America's favorite British general, Cornwallis;
it wasn't his fault: read Barbara Tuchman's The
First Salute

My favorite British artist, Turner

John Donne, metaphysical poet and Dean of the
Cathedral

Wellington, general, victor, prime minister, gets
pride of place and largest monument, upstairs

In the crypt, Wren's tomb

"If you want to see my monument, look around you..."

A stone bearing Wren's mark; he lived to the ripe age of 90 to
see his son lay the Cathedral's final stone

In the crypt are seeming hundreds of memorials and monuments,
mostly military and naval; hey, you can't have an Empire without
military and naval strength!

Also in the crypt, not terribly helpful models of today's
Cathedral and 

Its predecessor

Nelson's tomb

Great movie!

Many of Churchill's important generals and admirals are here--he
and Clementine are at a simple parish church graveyard near
Blenheim--I include Monty largely to mention Hemingway's martini
recipe, which he called the "Montgomery": 15 parts gin to 1 part
vermouth, referring to the field marshal's reluctance to attack
until he had a crushing advantage in numbers and armor; see
A Sidecar Named Desire, an amusing book on writers and what
fueled them 

Wellington

And finally this, near the exit, past the gift shop: a plaque naming
all the most important memorials and monument lost in the Cathedral
in the Great Fire