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St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London. Its dedication in honour of Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present structure, which was completed in 1710, is a Grade I listed building that was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. The cathedral's reconstruction was part of a major rebuilding programme initiated in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. The earlier Gothic cathedral (Old St Paul's Cathedral), largely destroyed in the Great Fire, was a central focus for medieval and early modern London, including Paul's walk and St Paul's Churchyard, being the site of St Paul's Cross.

The cathedral is one of the most famous and recognisable sights of London. Its dome, surrounded by the spires of Wren's City churches, has dominated the skyline for over 300 years. At 365 ft high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1963. The dome is still one of the highest in the world. St Paul's is the second-largest church building in area in the United Kingdom, after Liverpool Cathedral.

Services held at St Paul's have included the funerals of Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; an inauguration service for the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer; the launch of the Festival of Britain; and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden, Diamond, and Platinum Jubilees and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II. St Paul's Cathedral is the central subject of much promotional material, as well as of images of the dome surrounded by the smoke and fire of the Blitz. The cathedral is a working church with hourly prayer and daily services. The tourist entry fee at the door is £25 for adults (January 2024) but no charges are made to worshippers attending services, or for private prayer.

The nearest London Underground station is St Paul's, which is 130 yards away from St Paul's Cathedral.

Before the cathedral
The location of Londinium's original cathedral is unknown, but legend and medieval tradition claims it was St Peter upon Cornhill. St Paul is an unusual attribution for a cathedral, and suggests there was another one in the Roman period. Legends of St Lucius link St Peter upon Cornhill as the centre of the Roman Londinium Christian community. It stands upon the highest point in the area of old Londinium, and it was given pre-eminence in medieval procession on account of the legends. There is, however, no other reliable evidence and the location of the site on the Forum makes it difficult for it to fit the legendary stories. In 1995, a large fifth-century building on Tower Hill was excavated, and has been claimed as a Roman basilica, possibly a cathedral, although this is speculative.

The Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden argued that a temple to the goddess Diana had stood during Roman times on the site occupied by the medieval St Paul's Cathedral. Wren reported that he had found no trace of any such temple during the works to build the new cathedral after the Great Fire, and Camden's hypothesis is no longer accepted by modern archaeologists.

Pre-Norman cathedral
There is evidence for Christianity in London during the Roman period, but no firm evidence for the location of churches or a cathedral. Bishop Restitutus is said to have represented London at the Council of Arles in 314 AD. A list of the 16 "archbishops" of London was recorded by Jocelyn of Furness in the 12th century, claiming London's Christian community was founded in the second century under the legendary King Lucius and his missionary saints Fagan, Deruvian, Elvanus and Medwin. None of that is considered credible by modern historians but, although the surviving text is problematic, either Bishop Restitutus or Adelphius at the 314 Council of Arles seems to have come from Londinium.

Bede records that in AD604 Augustine of Canterbury consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberht's uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a church dedicated to St Paul in London, as the seat of the new bishop. It is assumed, although not proved, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the same site as the later medieval and the present cathedrals.

On the death of Sæberht in about 616, his pagan sons expelled Mellitus from London, and the East Saxons reverted to paganism. The fate of the first cathedral building is unknown. Christianity was restored among the East Saxons in the late seventh century and it is presumed that either the Anglo-Saxon cathedral was restored or a new building erected as the seat of bishops such as Cedd, Wine and Erkenwald, the last of whom was buried in the cathedral in 693.

Earconwald was consecrated bishop of London in 675, and is said to have bestowed great cost on the fabric, and in later times he almost occupied the place of traditionary, founder: the veneration paid to him is second only to that which was rendered to St. Paul. Erkenwald would become a subject of the important High Medieval poem St Erkenwald.

King Æthelred the Unready was buried in the cathedral on his death in 1016; the tomb is now lost. The cathedral was burnt, with much of the city, in a fire in 1087, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Old St Paul's
The fourth St Paul's, generally referred to as Old St Paul's, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. A further fire in 1135 disrupted the work, and the new cathedral was not consecrated until 1240. During the period of construction, the style of architecture had changed from Romanesque to Gothic and this was reflected in the pointed arches and larger windows of the upper parts and East End of the building. The Gothic ribbed vault was constructed, like that of York Minster, of wood rather than stone, which affected the ultimate fate of the building.

An enlargement programme commenced in 1256. This "New Work" was consecrated in 1300 but not complete until 1314. During the later Medieval period St Paul's was exceeded in length only by the Abbey Church of Cluny and in the height of its spire only by Lincoln Cathedral and St. Mary's Church, Stralsund. Excavations by Francis Penrose in 1878 showed that it was 585 ft long and 100 ft wide (290 ft across the transepts and crossing). The spire was about 489 ft in height. By the 16th century the building was deteriorating.

The English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI (accelerated by the Chantries Acts) led to the destruction of elements of the interior ornamentation and the chapels, shrines, and chantries.

The Reformation would come to include the removal of the cathedral's collection of relics, which by the sixteenth century was understood to include:

 * the body of St Erkenwald
 * both arms of St Mellitus
 * a knife thought to belong to Jesus
 * hair of Mary Magdalen
 * blood of St Paul
 * milk of the Virgin Mary
 * the head of St John
 * the skull of Thomas Becket
 * the head and jaw of King Ethelbert
 * part of the wood of the cross,
 * a stone of the Holy Sepulchre,
 * a stone from the spot of the Ascension, and
 * some bones of the eleven thousand virgins of Cologne.

In October 1538, an image of St Erkenwald, probably from the shrine, was delivered to the master of the king's jewels. Other images may have survived, at least for a time. More systematic iconoclasm happened in the reign of Edward VI: the Grey Friar's Chronicle reports that the rood and other images were destroyed in November 1547.

In late 1549, at the height of the iconoclasm of the reformation, Sir Rowland Hill altered the route of his Lord Mayor's day procession and said a de profundis at the tomb of Erkenwald. Later in Hill's mayoralty of (1550) the high altar of St Paul's was removed overnight to be destroyed, an occurrence that provoked a fight in which a man was killed. Hill had ordered, unusually for the time, that St Barnabas's Day would not be kept as a public holiday ahead of these events.

Three years later, by October 1553, "Alle the alteres and chappelles in alle Powlles churche" were taken down. In August 1553, the dean and chapter were cited to appear before Queen Mary's commissioners.

Some of the buildings in the St Paul's churchyard were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by a lightning strike, an event that Roman Catholic writers claimed was a sign of God's judgment on England's Protestant rulers. Bishop James Pilkington preached a sermon in response, claiming that the lightning strike was a judgement for the irreverent use of the cathedral building. Immediate steps were taken to repair the damage, with the citizens of London and the clergy offering money to support the rebuilding. However, the cost of repairing the building properly was too great for a country and city recovering from a trade depression. Instead, the roof was repaired and a timber "roo"’ put on the steeple.

In the 1630s a west front was added to the building by England's first classical architect, Inigo Jones. There was much defacing and mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, and the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed. During the Commonwealth, those churchyard buildings that were razed supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House. Crowds were drawn to the north-east corner of the churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place.

In the Great Fire of London of 1666, Old St Paul's was gutted. While it might have been possible to reconstruct it, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style. This course of action had been proposed even before the fire.

Present St Paul's

The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren on 30 July 1669. He had previously been put in charge of the rebuilding of churches to replace those lost in the Great Fire. More than 50 city churches are attributable to Wren. Concurrent with designing St Paul's, Wren was engaged in the production of his five Tracts on Architecture.

Wren had begun advising on the repair of the Old St Paul's in 1661, five years before the fire in 1666. The proposed work included renovations to interior and exterior to complement the classical facade designed by Inigo Jones in 1630. Wren planned to replace the dilapidated tower with a dome, using the existing structure as a scaffold. He produced a drawing of the proposed dome which shows his idea that it should span nave and aisles at the crossing. After the Fire, it was at first thought possible to retain a substantial part of the old cathedral, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s.

In July 1668 Dean William Sancroft wrote to Wren that he was charged by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in agreement with the Bishops of London and Oxford, to design a new cathedral that was "Handsome and noble to all the ends of it and to the reputation of the City and the nation". The design process took several years, but a design was finally settled and attached to a royal warrant, with the proviso that Wren was permitted to make any further changes that he deemed necessary. The result was the present St Paul's Cathedral, still the second largest church in Britain, with a dome proclaimed as the finest in the world. The building was financed by a tax on coal, and was completed within its architect's lifetime with many of the major contractors engaged for the duration.

The "topping out" of the cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place on 26 October 1708, performed by Wren's son Christopher Jr and the son of one of the masons. The cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament on 25 December 1711 (Christmas Day). In fact, construction continued for several years after that, with the statues on the roof added in the 1720s. In 1716 the total costs amounted to £1,095,556 (£ in ).

Consecration
On 2 December 1697, 31 years and 3 months after the Great Fire destroyed Old St Paul's, the new cathedral was consecrated for use. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preached the sermon. It was based on the text of Psalm 122, "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the Lord." The first regular service was held on the following Sunday.

Opinions of Wren's cathedral differed, with some loving it: "Without, within, below, above, the eye / Is filled with unrestrained delight", while others hated it: "There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals, the heavy arches ... They were unfamiliar, un-English ...".

Suffragette terror attacks

St. Paul's was the target of two suffragette bombing attacks in 1913 and 1914 respectively. This was as part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign between 1912 and 1914, in which suffragettes from the Women's Social and Political Union, as part of their campaign for women's suffrage, carried out a series of politically motivated bombings and arson nationwide. Churches were explicitly targeted by the suffragettes as they believed the Church of England was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage. Between 1913 and 1914, 32 churches across Britain were attacked.

The first attack on St. Paul's occurred on 8 May 1913, at the start of a sermon. A bomb was heard ticking and discovered as people were entering the cathedral. It was made out of potassium nitrate. Had it exploded, the bomb likely would have destroyed the historic bishop's throne and other parts of the cathedral. The remains of the device, which was made partly out of a mustard tin, are now on display at the City of London Police Museum.

A second bombing of the cathedral by the suffragettes was attempted on 13 June 1914, however the bomb was again discovered before it could explode. This attempted bombing occurred two days after a bomb had exploded at Westminster Abbey, which damaged the Coronation Chair and caused a mass panic for the exits. Several other churches were bombed at this time, such as St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square and the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

War damage
The cathedral survived the Blitz although struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 1941. The first strike destroyed the high altar, while the second strike on the north transept left a hole in the floor above the crypt. The latter bomb is believed to have detonated in the upper interior above the north transept and the force was sufficient to shift the entire dome laterally by a small amount.

On 12 September 1940 a time-delayed bomb that had struck the cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a bomb disposal detachment of Royal Engineers under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Robert Davies. Had this bomb detonated, it would have totally destroyed the cathedral; it left a 100 ft crater when later remotely detonated in a secure location. As a result of this action, Davies and Sapper George Cameron Wylie were each awarded the George Cross. Davies' George Cross and other medals are on display at the Imperial War Museum, London.

One of the best known images of London during the war was a photograph of St Paul's taken on 29 December 1940 during the "Second Great Fire of London" by photographer Herbert Mason, from the roof of a building in Tudor Street showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke. Lisa Jardine of Queen Mary, University of London, has written:

"Wreathed in billowing smoke, amidst the chaos and destruction of war, the pale dome stands proud and glorious—indomitable. At the height of that air-raid, Sir Winston Churchill telephoned the Guildhall to insist that all fire-fighting resources be directed at St Paul's. The cathedral must be saved, he said, damage to the fabric would sap the morale of the country."

Post-war
On 29 July 1981, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was held at the cathedral. The couple selected St Paul's over Westminster Abbey, the traditional site of royal weddings, because the cathedral offered more seating.

Extensive copper, lead and slate renovation work was carried out on the Dome in 1996 by John B. Chambers. A 15-year restoration project—one of the largest ever undertaken in the UK—was completed on 15 June 2011.

Occupy London

In October 2011 an anti-capitalism Occupy London encampment was established in front of the cathedral, after failing to gain access to the London Stock Exchange at Paternoster Square nearby. The cathedral's finances were affected by the ensuing closure. It was claimed that the cathedral was losing revenue of £20,000 per day. Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser resigned, asserting his view that "evicting the anti-capitalist activists would constitute violence in the name of the Church". The Dean of St Paul's, the Right Revd Graeme Knowles, then resigned too. The encampment was evicted at the end of February 2012, by court order and without violence, as a result of legal action by the City of London Corporation.

2019 terrorist plot
On 10 October 2019, Safiyya Amira Shaikh, a Muslim convert, was arrested following an MI5 and Metropolitan Police investigation. In September 2019, she had taken photos of the cathedral's interior. While trying to radicalise others using the Telegram messaging software, she planned to attack the cathedral and other targets such as a hotel and a train station using explosives. Shaikh pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

National events

The size and location of St Paul's has made it an ideal setting for Christian services marking great national events. The opportunity for long processions culminating in the dramatic approach up Ludgate Hill, the open area and steps at the west front, the great nave and the space under the dome are all well suited for ceremonial occasions. St Paul's can seat many more people than any other church in London, and in past centuries, the erection of temporary wooden galleries inside allowed for congregations exceeding 10,000. In 1935, the dean, Walter Matthews, wrote: "No description in words can convey an adequate idea of the majestic beauty of a solemn national religious ceremony in St Paul's. It is hard to believe that there is any other building in the world that is so well adapted to be the setting of such symbolical acts of communal worship." National events attended by the royal family, government ministers and officers of state include national services of thanksgiving, state funerals and a royal wedding. Some of the most notable examples are:
 * Thanksgiving service for the Acts of Union 1707, 1 May 1707
 * State funeral of Horatio Nelson, 9 January 1806
 * State funeral of the Duke of Wellington, 18 November 1852
 * Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, 22 June 1897
 * Thanksgiving service for the Treaty of Versailles, 6 July 1919
 * Silver Jubilee of George V, 6 May 1935
 * Thanksgiving services for VE Day and VJ Day, 13 May and 19 August 1945
 * State funeral of Winston Churchill, 30 January 1965
 * Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 7 June 1977
 * Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, 29 July 1981
 * Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 4 June 2002
 * Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, 5 June 2012
 * Ceremonial funeral of Margaret Thatcher, 17 April 2013
 * Thanksgiving service for the Queen's 90th Birthday, 10 June 2016
 * Platinum Jubilee National Service of Thanksgiving, 3 June 2022

Ministry and functions
St Paul's Cathedral is a busy church with four or five services every day, including Matins, Eucharist and Evening Prayer or Choral Evensong. In addition, the cathedral has many special services associated with the City of London, its corporation, guilds and institutions. The cathedral, as the largest church in London, also has a role in many state functions such as the service celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. The cathedral is generally open daily to tourists and has a regular programme of organ recitals and other performances. The Bishop of London is Sarah Mullally, whose appointment was announced in December 2017 and whose enthronement took place in May 2018.

Dean and chapter
The cathedral chapter is currently composed of seven individuals: the dean, three residentiary canons (one of whom is, exceptionally, lay), one "additional member of chapter and canon non-residentiary" (ordained), and two lay canons. Each has a different responsibility in the running of the cathedral. As of October 2022:
 * Dean — Andrew Tremlett (since 25 September 2022)
 * Precentor — vacant
 * Treasurer — vacant
 * Chancellor — Paula Gooder (since 9 May 2019; lay reader since 23 February 2019)
 * Steward — Neil Evans (since June 2022)
 * Additional member of chapter and canon non-residentiary — Sheila Watson (since January 2017).
 * Lay Canon — Pamela (Pim) Jane Baxter (since March 2014). Deputy Director at the National Portrait Gallery, with experience in opera, theatre and the visual arts.
 * Lay Canon — Sheila Nicoll (since October 2018). She is Head of Public Policy at Schroder Investment Management.
 * Lay Canon — Clement Hutton-Mills (since March 2021). He is also a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.
 * Lay Canon — Gillian Bowen (since June 2022). She is Chief Executive Officer of YMCA London City and North and is a magistrate.

Director of Music
The Director of Music is Andrew Carwood. Carwood was appointed to succeed Malcolm Archer as Director of Music, taking up the post in September 2007. He is the first non-organist to hold the post since the 12th century.

Organs
An organ was commissioned from Bernard Smith in 1694.

In 1862 the organ from the Panopticon of Science and Art (the Panopticon Organ) was installed in a gallery over the south transept door.

The Grand Organ was completed in 1872, and the Panopticon Organ moved to the Victoria Rooms in Clifton in 1873.

The Grand Organ is the fifth-largest in Great Britain, in terms of number of pipes (7,256), with 5 manuals, 136 ranks of pipes and 137 stops, principally enclosed in an impressive case designed in Wren's workshop and decorated by Grinling Gibbons.

Details of the organ can be found online at the National Pipe Organ Register.

Choir
St Paul's Cathedral has a full professional choir, which sings regularly at services. The earliest records of the choir date from 1127. The present choir consists of up to 30 boy choristers, eight probationers and the male vicars choral, 12 professional singers. In February 2017 the cathedral announced the appointment of the first female vicar choral, Carris Jones (a mezzo-soprano), to take up the role in September 2017. In 2022, it was announced that girls would be admitted to a cathedral choir in 2025.

During school terms the choir sings Evensong six times per week, the service on Mondays being sung by a visiting choir (or occasionally said) and that on Thursdays being sung by the vicars choral alone. On Sundays the choir also sings at Mattins and the 11:30 am Eucharist.

Many distinguished musicians have been organists, choir masters and choristers at St Paul's Cathedral, including the composers John Redford, Thomas Morley, John Blow, Jeremiah Clarke, Maurice Greene and John Stainer, while well-known performers have included Alfred Deller, John Shirley-Quirk and Anthony Way as well as the conductors Charles Groves and Paul Hillier and the poet Walter de la Mare.

Development of the design
In designing St Paul's, Christopher Wren had to meet many challenges. He had to create a fitting cathedral to replace Old St Paul's, as a place of worship and as a landmark within the City of London. He had to satisfy the requirements of the church and the tastes of a royal patron, as well as respecting the essentially medieval tradition of English church building which developed to accommodate the liturgy. Wren was familiar with contemporary Renaissance and Baroque trends in Italian architecture and had visited France, where he studied the work of François Mansart.

Wren's design developed through five general stages. The first survives only as a single drawing and part of a model. The scheme (usually called the First Model Design) appears to have consisted of a circular domed vestibule (possibly based on the Pantheon in Rome) and a rectangular church of basilica form. The plan may have been influenced by the Temple Church. It was rejected because it was not thought "stately enough". Wren's second design was a Greek cross, which was thought by the clerics not to fulfil the requirements of Anglican liturgy.

Wren's third design is embodied in the "Great Model" of 1673. The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and is over 13 ft tall and 21 ft long. This design retained the form of the Greek-Cross design but extended it with a nave. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church, and clergy decried the design as too dissimilar to other English churches to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. The Great Model was Wren's favourite design; he thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty. After the Great Model, Wren resolved not to make further models and not to expose his drawings publicly, which he found did nothing but "lose time, and subject [his] business many times, to incompetent judges". The Great Model survives and is housed within the cathedral itself.

Wren's fourth design is known as the Warrant design because it received a Royal warrant for the rebuilding. In this design Wren sought to reconcile Gothic, the predominant style of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture". It has the longitudinal Latin Cross plan of a medieval cathedral. It is of $1 1/2$ storeys and has classical porticos at the west and transept ends, influenced by Inigo Jones's addition to Old St Paul's. It is roofed at the crossing by a wide shallow dome supporting a drum with a second cupola, from which rises a spire of seven diminishing stages. Vaughan Hart has suggested that influence in the design of the spire may have been drawn from the oriental pagoda. Not used at St Paul's, the concept was applied in the spire of St Bride's, Fleet Street. This plan was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned, not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration was informed by Wren's knowledge of astronomy.

Final design
The final design as built differs substantially from the official Warrant design. Wren received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: "He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure ... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern" (Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren). The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes over the nave were inspired by François Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665.

The date of the laying of the first stone of the cathedral is disputed. One contemporary account says it was 21 June 1675, another 25 June and a third on 28 June. There is, however, general agreement that it was laid in June 1675. Edward Strong later claimed it was laid by his elder brother, Thomas Strong, one of the two master stonemasons appointed by Wren at the beginning of the work.

Structural engineering
Wren's challenge was to construct a large cathedral on the relatively weak clay soil of London. St Paul's is unusual among cathedrals in that there is a crypt, the largest in Europe, under the entire building rather than just under the eastern end. The crypt serves a structural purpose. Although it is extensive, half the space of the crypt is taken up by massive piers which spread the weight of the much slimmer piers of the church above. While the towers and domes of most cathedrals are supported on four piers, Wren designed the dome of St Paul's to be supported on eight, achieving a broader distribution of weight at the level of the foundations. The foundations settled as the building progressed, and Wren made structural changes in response.

One of the design problems that confronted Wren was to create a landmark dome, tall enough to visually replace the lost tower of St Paul's, while at the same time appearing visually satisfying when viewed from inside the building. Wren planned a double-shelled dome, as at St Peter's Basilica. His solution to the visual problem was to separate the heights of the inner and outer dome to a much greater extent than had been done by Michelangelo at St Peter's, drafting both as catenary curves, rather than as hemispheres. Between the inner and outer domes, Wren inserted a brick cone which supports both the timbers of the outer, lead-covered dome and the weight of the ornate stone lantern that rises above it. Both the cone and the inner dome are 18 inches thick and are supported by wrought iron chains at intervals in the brick cone and around the cornice of the peristyle of the inner dome to prevent spreading and cracking.

The Warrant Design showed external buttresses on the ground floor level. These were not a classical feature and were one of the first elements Wren changed. Instead he made the walls of the cathedral particularly thick to avoid the need for external buttresses altogether. The clerestory and vault are reinforced with flying buttresses, which were added at a relatively late stage in the design to give extra strength. These are concealed behind the screen wall of the upper story, which was added to keep the building's classical style intact, to add sufficient visual mass to balance the appearance of the dome and which, by its weight, counters the thrust of the buttresses on the lower walls.

Designers, builders and craftsmen
During the extensive period of design and rationalisation, Wren employed from 1684 Nicholas Hawksmoor as his principal assistant. Between 1696 and 1711 William Dickinson was measuring clerk. Joshua Marshall (until his early death in 1678) and Thomas and his brother Edward Strong were master masons, the latter two working on the construction for its entirety. John Langland was the master carpenter for over thirty years. Grinling Gibbons was the chief sculptor, working in both stone on the building itself, including the pediment of the north portal, and wood on the internal fittings. The sculptor Caius Gabriel Cibber created the pediment of the south transept while Francis Bird was responsible for the relief in the west pediment depicting the Conversion of St Paul, as well as the seven large statues on the west front. The floor was paved by William Dickinson in black and white marble in 1709–10 Jean Tijou was responsible for the decorative wrought ironwork of gates and balustrades. The ball and cross on the dome were provided by an armorer, Andrew Niblett. Following the war damage mentioned above, many craftsmen were employed to restore the wood carvings and stone work that had been destroyed by the bomb impact. One of particular note is Master Carver, Gino Masero who was commissioned to carve the replacement figure of Christ, an eight-foot sculpture in lime which currently stands on the High Altar.

Description
St Paul's Cathedral is built in a restrained Baroque style which represents Wren's rationalisation of the traditions of English medieval cathedrals with the inspiration of Palladio, the classical style of Inigo Jones, the baroque style of 17th century Rome, and the buildings by Mansart and others that he had seen in France. It is particularly in its plan that St Paul's reveals medieval influences. Like the great medieval cathedrals of York and Winchester, St Paul's is comparatively long for its width, and has strongly projecting transepts. It has much emphasis on its facade, which has been designed to define rather than conceal the form of the building behind it. In plan, the towers jut beyond the width of the aisles as they do at Wells Cathedral. Wren's uncle Matthew Wren was the Bishop of Ely, and, having worked for his uncle, Wren was familiar with the unique octagonal lantern tower over the crossing of Ely Cathedral, which spans the aisles as well as the central nave, unlike the central towers and domes of most churches. Wren adapted this characteristic in designing the dome of St Paul's. In section St Paul's also maintains a medieval form, having the aisles much lower than the nave, and a defined clerestory.

Exterior
The most renowned exterior feature is the dome, which rises 365 ft to the cross at its summit, and dominates views of the city. The height of 365 feet is explained by Wren's interest in astronomy. Until the late 20th century St Paul's was the tallest building on the City skyline, designed to be seen surrounded by the delicate spires of Wren's other city churches. The dome is described by Sir Banister Fletcher as "probably the finest in Europe", by Helen Gardner as "majestic", and by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most perfect in the world". Sir John Summerson said that Englishmen and "even some foreigners" consider it to be without equal.

Dome

Wren drew inspiration from Michelangelo's dome of St Peter's Basilica, and that of Mansart's Church of the Val-de-Grâce, which he had visited. Unlike those of St Peter's and Val-de-Grâce, the dome of St Paul's rises in two clearly defined storeys of masonry, which, together with a lower unadorned footing, equal a height of about 95 feet. From the time of the Greek Cross Design it is clear that Wren favoured a continuous colonnade (peristyle) around the drum of the dome, rather than the arrangement of alternating windows and projecting columns that Michelangelo had used and which had also been employed by Mansart. Summerson suggests that he was influenced by Bramante's "Tempietto" in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. In the finished structure, Wren creates a diversity and appearance of strength by placing niches between the columns in every fourth opening. The peristyle serves to buttress both the inner dome and the brick cone which rises internally to support the lantern.

Above the peristyle rises the second stage surrounded by a balustraded balcony called the "Stone Gallery". This attic stage is ornamented with alternating pilasters and rectangular windows which are set just below the cornice, creating a sense of lightness. Above this attic rises the dome, covered with lead, and ribbed in accordance with the spacing of the pilasters. It is pierced by eight light wells just below the lantern, but these are barely visible. They allow light to penetrate through openings in the brick cone, which illuminates the interior apex of this shell, partly visible from within the cathedral through the ocular opening of the lower dome.

The lantern, like the visible masonry of the dome, rises in stages. The most unusual characteristic of this structure is that it is of square plan, rather than circular or octagonal. The tallest stage takes the form of a tempietto with four columned porticos facing the cardinal points. Its lowest level is surrounded by the "Golden Gallery" and its upper level supports a small dome from which rises a cross on a golden ball. The total weight of the lantern is about 850 tons.

West front
For the Renaissance architect designing the west front of a large church or cathedral, the universal problem was how to use a facade to unite the high central nave with the lower aisles in a visually harmonious whole. Since Alberti's additions to Santa Maria Novella in Florence, this was usually achieved by the simple expedient of linking the sides to the centre with large brackets. This is the solution that Wren saw employed by Mansart at Val-de-Grâce. Another feature employed by Mansart was a boldly projecting Classical portico with paired columns. Wren faced the additional challenge of incorporating towers into the design, as had been planned at St Peter's Basilica. At St Peter's, Carlo Maderno had solved this problem by constructing a narthex and stretching a huge screen facade across it, differentiated at the centre by a pediment. The towers at St Peter's were not built above the parapet.

Wren's solution was to employ a Classical portico, as at Val-de-Grâce, but rising through two storeys, and supported on paired columns. The remarkable feature here is that the lower story of this portico extends to the full width of the aisles, while the upper section defines the nave that lies behind it. The gaps between the upper stage of the portico and the towers on either side are bridged by a narrow section of wall with an arch-topped window.

The towers stand outside the width of the aisles, but screen two chapels located immediately behind them. The lower parts of the towers continue the theme of the outer walls, but are differentiated from them in order to create an appearance of strength. The windows of the lower story are smaller than those of the side walls and are deeply recessed, a visual indication of the thickness of the wall. The paired pilasters at each corner project boldly.

Above the main cornice, which unites the towers with the portico and the outer walls, the details are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance. The towers rise above the cornice from a square block plinth which is plain apart from large oculi, that on the south being filled by the clock, while that on the north is void. The towers are composed of two complementary elements, a central cylinder rising through the tiers in a series of stacked drums, and paired Corinthian columns at the corners, with buttresses above them, which serve to unify the drum shape with the square plinth on which it stands. The entablature above the columns breaks forward over them to express both elements, tying them together in a single horizontal band. The cap, an ogee-shaped dome, supports a gilded finial in the form of a pineapple.

The transepts each have a semi-circular entrance portico. Wren was inspired in the design by studying engravings of Pietro da Cortona's Baroque facade of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. These projecting arcs echo the shape of the apse at the eastern end of the building.

Walls
The building is of two storeys of ashlar masonry, above a basement, and surrounded by a balustrade above the upper cornice. The balustrade was added, against Wren's wishes, in 1718. The internal bays are marked externally by paired pilasters with Corinthian capitals at the lower level and Composite at the upper level. Where the building behind is of only one story (at the aisles of both nave and choir) the upper story of the exterior wall is sham. It serves a dual purpose of supporting the buttresses of the vault, and providing a satisfying appearance when viewed rising above buildings of the height of the 17th-century city. This appearance may still be seen from across the River Thames.

Between the pilasters on both levels are windows. Those of the lower storey have semi-circular heads and are surrounded by continuous mouldings of a Roman style, rising to decorative keystones. Beneath each window is a floral swag by Grinling Gibbons, constituting the finest stone carving on the building and some of the greatest architectural sculpture in England. A frieze with similar swags runs in a band below the cornice, tying the arches of the windows and the capitals. The upper windows are of a restrained Classical form, with pediments set on columns, but are blind and contain niches. Beneath these niches, and in the basement level, are small windows with segmental tops, the glazing of which catches the light and visually links them to the large windows of the aisles. The height from ground level to the top of the parapet is approximately 110 feet.

Fencing
The original fencing, designed by Wren, was dismantled in the 1870s. The surveyor for the government of Toronto had it shipped to Toronto, where it has since adorned High Park.

Interior
Internally, St Paul's has a nave and choir in each of its three bays. The entrance from the west portico is through a square domed narthex, flanked by chapels: the Chapel of St Dunstan to the north and the Chapel of the Order of St Michael and St George to the south. The nave is 91 ft in height and is separated from the aisles by an arcade of piers with attached Corinthian pilasters rising to an entablature. The bays, and therefore the vault compartments, are rectangular, but Wren roofed these spaces with saucer-shaped domes and surrounded the clerestory windows with lunettes. The vaults of the choir are decorated with mosaics by Sir William Blake Richmond. The dome and the apse of the choir are all approached through wide arches with coffered vaults which contrast with the smooth surface of the domes and punctuate the division between the main spaces. The transepts extend to the north and south of the dome and are called (in this instance) the North Choir and the South Choir.

The choir holds the stalls for the clergy, cathedral officers and the choir, and the organ. These wooden fittings, including the pulpit and Bishop's throne, were designed in Wren's office and built by joiners. The carvings are the work of Grinling Gibbons whom Summerson describes as having "astonishing facility", suggesting that Gibbons aim was to reproduce popular Dutch flower painting in wood. Jean Tijou, a French metalworker, provided various wrought iron and gilt grilles, gates and balustrades of elaborate design, of which many pieces have now been combined into the gates near the sanctuary.

The cathedral is some 574 ft in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which 223 ft is the nave and 167 ft is the choir. The width of the nave is 121 ft and across the transepts is 246 ft. The cathedral is slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

Dome
The main internal space of the cathedral is that under the central dome which extends the full width of the nave and aisles. The dome is supported on pendentives rising between eight arches spanning the nave, choir, transepts, and aisles. The eight piers that carry them are not evenly spaced. Wren has maintained an appearance of eight equal spans by inserting segmental arches to carry galleries across the ends of the aisles, and has extended the mouldings of the upper arch to appear equal to the wider arches.

Above the keystones of the arches, at 99 ft above the floor and 112 ft wide, runs a cornice which supports the Whispering Gallery so called because of its acoustic properties: a whisper or low murmur against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level.

The dome is raised on a tall drum surrounded by pilasters and pierced with windows in groups of three, separated by eight gilded niches containing statues, and repeating the pattern of the peristyle on the exterior. The dome rises above a gilded cornice at 173 ft to a height of 214 ft. Its painted decoration by Sir James Thornhill shows eight scenes from the life of St Paul set in illusionistic architecture which continues the forms of the eight niches of the drum. At the apex of the dome is an oculus inspired by that of the Pantheon in Rome. Through this hole can be seen the decorated inner surface of the cone which supports the lantern. This upper space is lit by the light wells in the outer dome and openings in the brick cone. Engravings of Thornhill's paintings were published in 1720.

Apse
The eastern apse extends the width of the choir and is the full height of the main arches across choir and nave. It is decorated with mosaics, in keeping with the choir vaults. The original reredos and high altar were destroyed by bombing in 1940. The present high altar and baldacchino are the work of W. Godfrey Allen and Stephen Dykes Bower. The apse was dedicated in 1958 as the American Memorial Chapel. It was paid for entirely by donations from British people. The Roll of Honour contains the names of more than 28,000 Americans who gave their lives while on their way to, or stationed in, the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It is in front of the chapel's altar. The three windows of the apse date from 1960 and depict themes of service and sacrifice, while the insignia around the edges represent the American states and the US armed forces. The limewood panelling incorporates a rocket—a tribute to America's achievements in space.

Artworks, tombs and memorials
St Paul's, at the time of its completion, was adorned by sculpture in stone and wood: most notably that of Grinling Gibbons, by the paintings in the dome by Thornhill, and by Jean Tijou's elaborate metalwork. It has been further enhanced by Sir William Richmond's mosaics and the fittings by Dykes Bower and Godfrey Allen. Other artworks in the cathedral include, in the south aisle, William Holman Hunt's copy of his painting The Light of the World, the original of which hangs in Keble College, Oxford. The St. Paul's version was completed with a significant input from Edward Robert Hughes as Hunt was now suffering from glaucoma. In the north choir aisle is a limestone sculpture of the Madonna and Child by Henry Moore, carved in 1943. The crypt contains over 200 memorials and numerous burials. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723. On the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written in Latin: Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you").

The largest monument in the cathedral is that to the Duke of Wellington by Alfred Stevens. It stands on the north side of the nave and has on top a statue of Wellington astride his horse "Copenhagen". Although the equestrian figure was planned at the outset, objections to the notion of having a horse in the church prevented its installation until 1912. The horse and rider are by John Tweed. The Duke is buried in the crypt. The tomb of Horatio, Lord Nelson is located in the crypt, next to that of Wellington. The marble sarcophagus which holds Nelson's remains was made for Cardinal Wolsey but not used as the cardinal had fallen from favour. At the eastern end of the crypt is the Chapel of the Order of the British Empire, instigated in 1917, and designed by John Seely, Lord Mottistone. There are many other memorials commemorating the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the most recent being the Gulf War.

Also remembered are Florence Nightingale, J. M. W. Turner, Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Samuel Johnson, Lawrence of Arabia, William Blake, William Jones and Sir Alexander Fleming as well as clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years. One of the most remarkable sculptures is that of the Dean and poet, John Donne. Before his death, Donne posed for his own memorial statue and was depicted by Nicholas Stone as wrapped in a burial shroud, and standing on a funeral urn. The sculpture, carved around 1630, is the only one to have survived the conflagration of 1666 intact. The treasury is also in the crypt but the cathedral has very few treasures as many have been lost, and on 22 December 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts.

The funerals of many notable figures have been held in the cathedral, including those of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, George Mallory and Margaret Thatcher.

The East India Company Trail at St. Paul's Cathedral

In 2023, following nationwide discussions over the status and value of memorial statues celebrating the lives of individuals involved with the British Empire, including slavery, the St. Paul's Cathedral initiated a partnership with Stepney Community Trust, a community-led charity based out of the East End of London. A group of volunteers were recruited to help historically situated the many memorial statues inside St. Paul's Cathedral, whose careers, actions and views were associated with historic harm done to communities in South Asia. The project entailed writing explanatory texts that situated the highly eulogistic statues in their wider historical context. These texts are now available on the website of St. Paul's Cathedral, on dedicated webpages titled The East India Company at St. Paul's.

Memorials thus contextualised include the statue of Charles George Gordon, the statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the statue of Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, the statue of Bishop Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, the statue of Granville Gower Loch, the statue of William Jones, the statue of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, the statue of Henry Montgomery Lawrence, the statue of Henry Bartle Frere, the statue of Robert Cornelius Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, the statue of Charles James Napier, the statue of Charles Metcalfe Macgregor, the statue of Samuel James Browne, the statue of Harry Smith Parkes and the memorial to Indian Army Volunteers. The trail has a printed guide that visitors may use, and the statues on the trail are identifiable by a graphic and a QR code which leads to the relevant webpage upon scanning. The graphic is original artwork produced by graphic design artist Sonal Agarwal, and represents a cluster of statues of South Asian persons, men and women, who currently serve as decorative or supportive features of the main statues.

Clock
A clock was installed in the south-west tower by Langley Bradley in 1709 but was worn out by the end of the 19th century. The present mechanism was built in 1893 by Smith of Derby incorporating a design of escapement by Edmund Denison Beckett similar to that used by Edward Dent on Big Ben's mechanism in 1895. The clock mechanism is 19 ft long and is the most recent of the clocks introduced to St Paul's Cathedral over the centuries. Since 1969 the clock has been electrically wound with equipment designed and installed by Smith of Derby, relieving the clock custodian from the work of cranking up the heavy drive weights.

Great Paul
The south-west tower also contains four bells, of which Great Paul, cast in 1881 by J. W. Taylor of Taylor's bell foundry of Loughborough, at 16+1/2 LT was the largest bell in the British Isles until the casting of the Olympic Bell for the 2012 London Olympics. Although the bell is traditionally sounded at 1 pm each day, Great Paul had not been rung for several years because of a broken chiming mechanism. In the 1970s the fastening mechanism that secured the clapper had fractured, sending both through the clock mechanism below and causing damage which cost £30,000 to repair. In about 1989 the clapper fractured completely, although less damage was sustained. On 31 July 2021, during the London Festival of the Bells, Great Paul rang for the first time in two decades, being hand swung by the bell ringers.

Great Tom
The clock bells include Great Tom, which was moved from St Stephen's Chapel at the Palace of Westminster and has been recast several times, the last time by Richard Phelps. It chimes the hour and is traditionally tolled on occasions of a death in the royal family, the Bishop of London, or the Lord Mayor of London, although an exception was made at the death of the US president James Garfield. It was last tolled for the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, ringing once every minute along with other bells across the country in honour of the 96 years of her life.

Quarter-jacks
In 1717, Richard Phelps cast two more bells that were added as "quarter jacks" that ring on the quarter hour. Still in use today, the first weighs 13 long cwt, is 41 in in diameter and is tuned to A♭; the second weighs 35 long cwt, is 58 in in diameter and is tuned to E♭. They are sometimes known as Ding and Dong due to the way they sound.

Bells
The north-west tower contains 13 bells. A ring of 12 bells by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough hung for change ringing, and the single communion bell. In January 2018 the bells were removed for refurbishment and were rehung in September that year, being rung again for the first time on All Saints' Day. The original service or "Communion" bell dating from 1700 and known as "the Banger" is rung before 8 am services.

Interpretation Project
The Interpretation Project was a long-term project concerned with bringing St Paul's to life for all its visitors. In 2010, the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's opened St Paul's Oculus, a 270° film experience that brings 1400 years of history to life. It was located in the former Treasury in the crypt, the film took visitors on a journey through the history and daily life of St Paul's Cathedral. Oculus was funded by American Express Company in partnership with the World Monuments Fund, J. P. Morgan, the Garfield Weston Trust for St Paul's Cathedral, the City of London Endowment Trust and AIG. It was closed by 2020. The Treasury space is now used for changing exhibitions.

In 2010, touchscreen multimedia guides were launched. These guides are included in the price of admission. Visitors can discover the cathedral's history, architecture and daily life of a busy working church with these new multimedia guides. They are available in 12 different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and British Sign Language (BSL). The guides have fly-through videos of the dome galleries and zoomable close-ups of the ceiling mosaics, painting and photography. Interviews and commentary from experts include the Dean of St Paul's, conservation team and the Director of Music. Archive film footage includes major services and events from the cathedral's history.

Charges for sightseers
St Paul's charges an entrance fee for sightseers, admission to worship services is free. The entrance ticket is £25 for adults (June 2024). Outside service times, people seeking a quiet place to pray or worship are admitted to St Dunstan's Chapel free of charge. On Sundays people are admitted only for services and concerts and there is no sightseeing. The charge to sightseers is made because St Paul's receives little regular or significant funding from the Crown, the Church of England or the state and relies on the income generated by tourism to allow the building to continue to function as a centre for Christian worship, as well as to cover general maintenance and repair work.

St Paul's Cathedral Arts Project
The St Paul's Cathedral Arts Project explores art and faith. Projects have included installations by Gerry Judah, Antony Gormley, Rebecca Horn, Yoko Ono and Martin Firrell.

In 2014, St Paul's commissioned Gerry Judah to create an artwork in the nave to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Two spectacular sculptures consisting of three-dimensional white cruciforms reflect the meticulously maintained war graves of northern France and further afield. Each sculpture is also embellished with miniaturised destroyed residential blocks depicting contemporary war zones in the Middle East—Syria, Baghdad, Afghanistan—thus connecting 100 years of warfare.

Bill Viola has created two altarpieces for permanent display in St Paul's Cathedral. The project commenced production in mid-2009. Following the extensive programme of cleaning and repair of the interior of St Paul's, completed in 2005, Viola was commissioned to create two altarpieces on the themes of Mary and Martyrs. These two multi-screen video installations are permanently located at the end of the Quire aisles, flanking the High Altar of the cathedral and the American Memorial Chapel. Each work employs an arrangement of multiple plasma screen panels configured in a manner similar to historic altarpieces.

In summer 2010, St Paul's chose two new works by the British artist Mark Alexander to be hung either side of the nave. Both entitled Red Mannheim, Alexander's large red silkscreens are inspired by the Mannheim Cathedral altarpiece (1739–41), which was damaged by bombing in the Second World War. The original sculpture depicts Christ on the cross, surrounded by a familiar retinue of mourners. Rendered in splendid giltwood, with Christ's wracked body sculpted in relief, and the flourishes of flora and incandescent rays from heaven, this masterpiece of the German Rococo is an object of ravishing beauty and intense piety.

In March 2010, Flare II, a sculpture by Antony Gormley, was installed in the Geometric Staircase.

In 2007, the Dean and Chapter commissioned Martin Firrell to create a major public artwork to mark the 300th anniversary of the topping-out of Wren's building. The Question Mark Inside consisted of digital text projections to the cathedral dome, West Front and inside onto the Whispering Gallery. The text was based on blog contributions by the general public as well as interviews conducted by the artist and on the artist's own views. The project presented a stream of possible answers to the question: "What makes life meaningful and purposeful, and what does St Paul's mean in that contemporary context?" The Question Mark Inside opened on 8 November 2008 and ran for eight nights.

Depictions of St Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral has been depicted many times in paintings, prints and drawings. Among the well-known artists to have painted it are Canaletto, Turner, Daubigny, Pissarro, Signac, Derain, and Lloyd Rees.

Photography and film
St Paul's Cathedral has been the subject of many photographs, most notably the iconic image of the dome surrounded by smoke during the Blitz. (see above) It has also been used in films and TV programmes (including Thames Television's most recognised ident), either as the focus of the film, as in the episode of Climbing Great Buildings; as a feature of the film, as in Mary Poppins; or as an incidental location such as Wren's Geometric Staircase in the south-west tower which has appeared in several films including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Films in which St Paul's has been depicted include:
 * St. Paul's Cathedral (1942), a wartime documentary film for the British Council, the final part of which shows bomb damage in and around St Paul's.
 * Lawrence of Arabia (1962) shows the exterior of the building and the bust of T.E. Lawrence.
 * Mary Poppins (1964) shows the steps and west front of the cathedral, the main setting for the song '"Feed the Birds'".
 * St Paul's Cathedral has appeared as a filming location twice in Doctor Who, in the 1968 serial The Invasion, and in the 2014 two-part story "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven". In both, the Cybermen are shown descending steps outside the cathedral.
 * St Paul's is seen briefly in the Goodies episode "Kitten Kong" (1971). During his rampage through London, Twinkle damages London landmarks, including St Paul's Cathedral, the dome of which is knocked off.
 * In the BBC educational programme "A Guide to Armageddon" (1982), a 1-megaton nuclear weapon is detonated over London, with St Paul's used as ground zero.
 * Lifeforce (1985) – the cathedral's interior is the setting for the climax of the film.
 * The Madness of King George (1994) shows the Geometric Staircase in the South West Bell Tower.
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) shows the Geometric Staircase in the south west bell tower, representing the staircase towards the Divination classroom.
 * Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) depicts St Paul's in 23rd century London along with other notable modern-day London buildings.
 * St Paul's is the only building of ancient London that survived the "Sixty Minute War" in the movie Mortal Engines (2018) and the books it is based on.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: St Paul's Cathedral


text:
Wilton

Wilton may refer to:

Australia

 * Wilton, New South Wales, a small town near Sydney
 * Wilton Parish, New South Wales

England

 * Wilton, Cumbria
 * Wilton, Herefordshire
 * Wilton, Ryedale, North Yorkshire, a village and civil parish
 * Wilton, Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire
 * Wilton, Somerset, a suburb of Taunton
 * Wilton, Wiltshire, a town near Salisbury
 * Wilton (UK Parliament constituency), until 1885
 * Wilton, Marlborough, Wiltshire, a hamlet

Ireland

 * Wilton, Cork, a suburb of Cork City
 * Wilton, County Offaly, a townland in Kilmanaghan civil parish

United States

 * Wilton, Alabama, a town
 * Wilton, Arkansas, a city
 * Wilton, California, a census-designated place
 * Wilton, Connecticut, a town
 * Wilton, Illinois, an unincorporated community
 * Wilton, Iowa, a city
 * Wilton, Maine, a town
 * Wilton (CDP), Maine, a census-designated place in the town
 * Wilton, Minnesota, a city
 * Wilton, Missouri, an unincorporated community
 * Wilton, New Hampshire, a town
 * Wilton (CDP), New Hampshire, a census-designated place in the town
 * Wilton, New York, a town
 * Wilton, North Dakota, a city
 * Wilton, Wisconsin, a village
 * Wilton (town), Wisconsin, a town adjacent to the village of Wilton
 * Wilton Township, Waseca County, Minnesota, a township

Elsewhere

 * Rural Municipality of Wilton No. 472, Saskatchewan, Canada
 * Wilton, New Zealand, a suburb of Wellington
 * Wilton, Scottish Borders, Scotland, a parish
 * Wilton, Zimbabwe, a village in the Mashonaland East province

England

 * Wilton Castle, Herefordshire
 * Wilton Castle (Redcar and Cleveland), North Yorkshire
 * Wilton Abbey, Wiltshire, a former Benedictine convent
 * Wilton House, a country house in Wilton, Wiltshire
 * Wilton Windmill, near Wilton, Marlborough, Wiltshire

United States

 * Wilton (Wye Mills, Maryland), a home on the National Register of Historic Places
 * Wilton (Wilton, Virginia), a plantation house on the National Register of Historic Places
 * Wilton station (Metro-North), a commuter rail station Wilton, Connecticut, United States
 * Wilton station (North Dakota), a former railway station in Wilton, North Dakota, United States

People

 * Wilton (given name)
 * Wilton (surname)
 * Wilton (footballer), Brazilian football midfielder and manager Wilton Cezar Xavier (1947–2009)
 * Marie Wilton, stage name of Effie Bancroft (1839–1921), English actress and theatre manager

Fictional characters

 * Derek and Mavis Wilton (née Riley), from the British soap opera Coronation Street
 * Harrison and Meadow Wilton, from the American TV series American Horror Story: Cult
 * Jack Wilton, protagonist of The Unfortunate Traveller, a 1594 picaresque novel by Thomas Nashe

Other uses

 * HMS Wilton (L128), a Second World War Royal Navy destroyer
 * HMS Wilton (M1116), a former Royal Navy minesweeper
 * Wilton Scenic Railroad, a heritage railroad which operated seasonally in southern New Hampshire from 2003 to 2006
 * Wilton carpet, a specific type of pile carpet
 * Wilton Brands, a baking, cake decorating and candy making company owned by Dr. Oetker

title: Wilton


text:
Bo Jangeborg

Bo Jangeborg is a Swedish computer programmer. He made several programs for the ZX Spectrum, the best known being the game Fairlight (1985), its sequel Fairlight II (1986), and the graphic tool The Artist. He also wrote Flash!, the art package provided with every SAM Coupé.

Today he runs the small software company Softwave.

title: Bo Jangeborg


text:
Great Falls

Great Falls may refer to:

Communities
All located in the United States; listed alphabetically by state
 * Great Falls, Montana, a city in Cascade County
 * Great Falls, New Hampshire, and early name of the current city of Somersworth, New Hampshire
 * Great Falls, South Carolina, a town in Chester County
 * Great Falls, Virginia, a census-designated place in Fairfax County
 * Great Falls Crossing, Virginia, a census designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia

Historic locations
All located in the United States
 * Great Falls Depot, in Great Falls, South Carolina
 * Great Falls Downtown Historic District, in Great Falls, South Carolina
 * Great Falls Historic District, in Windham, Maine
 * Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad, in Northern Virginia
 * Great Falls Portage, a route taken by the Lewis and Clark Expedition around the Great Falls of the Missouri River
 * Great Falls station, in Great Falls, Montana
 * Great Falls Tavern, in Montgomery County, Maryland
 * Old Great Falls Historic District, in Paterson, New Jersey

Sports teams
All based in the U.S. state of Montana
 * Great Falls Americans, a junior ice hockey team
 * Great Falls Americans (AWHL), a defunct junior ice hockey team active 1995–2003
 * Great Falls Americans (WHL), a defunct junior ice hockey team active 1979–1980
 * Great Falls Electric, a professional basketball team
 * Great Falls Electrics, a defunct minor-league baseball team
 * Great Falls Explorers, a defunct team in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA)
 * Great Falls Voyagers, a professional baseball team

United States
Listed alphabetically by the associated river
 * Great Falls (Catawba River), South Carolina
 * Great Falls (Columbia River) or Celilo Falls, Oregon and Washington
 * Great Falls (Connecticut River), New Hampshire and Vermont
 * Great Falls (Housatonic River), Connecticut
 * Great Falls (Missouri River), Montana
 * Great Falls (Passaic River), New Jersey
 * Great Falls (Potomac River), Maryland and Virginia

Elsewhere

 * Akiu Great Falls, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
 * Great Falls (Hamilton, Ontario), Canada
 * Hayato Great Falls, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
 * Namekawa Great Falls, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Other uses
All based in the U.S. state of Montana unless noted otherwise
 * Great Falls Air Force Base, an early name for the current Malmstrom Air Force Base
 * Great Falls Air Defense Sector, deactivated since 1966
 * Great Falls College Montana State University, a public community college
 * Great Falls Dam (Manitoba), a hydroelectric dam on the Winnipeg River, Canada
 * Great Falls Dam (Tennessee), a hydroelectric dam on the Caney Fork
 * Great Falls International Airport, an airport in Cascade County
 * Great Falls Leader, a defunct newspaper published in Great Falls
 * Great Falls Park, a National Park Service (NPS) site in Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.
 * Great Falls Public Schools, a public school district
 * Great Falls Central Catholic High School
 * Great Falls High School
 * Great Falls Tectonic Zone, a major intracontinental shear zone
 * Great Falls Transit, a public bus service
 * Great Falls Tribune, a daily morning newspaper printed in Helena
 * Lake Great Falls, a prehistoric lake

title: Great Falls


text:
Conway

Conway may refer to:

United States

 * Conway, Arkansas
 * Conway County, Arkansas
 * Lake Conway, Arkansas
 * Conway, Florida
 * Conway, Iowa
 * Conway, Kansas
 * Conway, Louisiana
 * Conway, Massachusetts
 * Conway, Michigan
 * Conway Township, Michigan
 * Conway, Missouri
 * Conway, New Hampshire, a New England town
 * Conway (CDP), New Hampshire, village in the town
 * Conway, North Dakota
 * Conway, North Carolina
 * Conway, Pennsylvania
 * Conway, South Carolina
 * Conway River (Virginia)
 * Conway, Washington

Elsewhere

 * Conway, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia
 * Conway River (New Zealand)
 * Conway, Wales, now spelt Conwy, a town with a castle in North Wales
 * River Conway, Wales, similarly respelt River Conwy

Ships

 * HMS Conway (school ship)
 * HMS Conway (1832), a 26-gun sixth rate launched in 1832
 * USS Conway (DD-70) or USS Craven (DD-70), a Caldwell class destroyer launched in 1918
 * USS Conway (DD-507), a Fletcher-class destroyer launched in 1942

Other uses

 * Conway (given name)
 * Conway (surname)
 * Conway Cabal, a 1777–78 conspiracy
 * Conway Publishing
 * Conway Recording Studios, California
 * Rolls-Royce Conway, the first turbofan aircraft engine to enter service
 * Conway, a retail chain operated by National Stores
 * FV 4004 Conway, a variant of the Centurion tank
 * Conway's Game of Life, a two-dimensional cellular automaton
 * John Horton Conway, creator of Conway's Game of Life
 * Conway the Machine, American rapper

title: Conway


text:
Arthur (TV series)

Arthur is an animated television series for children ages 4 to 8, developed by Kathy Waugh for PBS and produced by WGBH. The show is set in the fictional U.S. city of Elwood City and revolves around the lives of Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other.

The television series is based on the Arthur book series written and illustrated by Marc Brown. WGBH Boston along with Montreal-based CINAR (now WildBrain) began production of the animated series in 1994 and aired its first episode on October 7, 1996. During its 25-season run, the show broadcast 253 half-hour episodes.

A pilot for the spin-off series Postcards from Buster aired in December 2003 as a season 8 episode of Arthur. Postcards from Buster aired from October 11, 2004, to November 21, 2008; the series faced several years of hiatus, until a brief revival in February 2012, only to be cancelled after airing two unseen episodes that had been held over from the show's third season.

In June 2018, it was announced that Arthur was renewed for four additional seasons, through its 25th season. It was subsequently announced on July 27, 2021, that the 25th season would be the final season. Arthur concluded its original run on PBS Kids on February 21, 2022. Despite concluding after 25 years, the show will continue to have new content on PBS Kids and on the video app.

Arthur has received praise for dealing with important issues that families face, such as asthma, dyslexia, cancer, diabetes, and autism spectrum disorder. It also encourages reading and relationships with family and friends by explaining that people have different personalities, beliefs and interests. It was the longest-running children's animated series in the U.S. and is the third longest-running animated series in the U.S., behind South Park and The Simpsons.

Setting
Arthur Read, the series' titular character, is an anthropomorphic brown aardvark who lives in the fictional town of Elwood City. He is a third-grade student at Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur's family includes two home-working parents, his father David (a chef) and his mother Jane (an accountant), his two younger sisters, Dora Winifred (D.W.), who is in preschool, and Kate, who is still an infant, and his dog Pal. Arthur also has several friends who come from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and he also occasionally meets with members of his extended family.

Elwood City is portrayed as a largely suburban area which bears a strong resemblance to the Boston area; the TV series is partially produced by WGBH. There are also firm references to Brown's hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Most notably, the local shopping mall in the TV show is called "Mill Creek Mall", a reference to Millcreek Mall. Brown himself stated that the series is influenced by his upbringing as a child in Erie, and specifically noted that Mr. Ratburn is based on a middle-school algebra teacher he had at Westlake Middle School.

Development
In 1994, Marc Brown was approached by WGBH (a PBS affiliate) about the possibility of adapting his Arthur books into a television series. Brown was reluctant at first for he didn’t want to give up creative control of his characters. However, future executive producer of Arthur, Carol Greenwald from WGBH, assured Brown that their agenda was to encourage children to read and visit the library. Brown agreed, he himself signed on as an executive producer and was involved creatively. Initially, screenplays were based on Brown’s Arthur book catalog of around 20 stories. Following going through those, they branched off to write episodes they felt children would find interesting and relate to.

Although the program was primarily written and produced by WGBH of Boston, the production of the animation and voice acting were done in Montreal, Toronto, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The animation of the show was done at AKOM Production Company from season 1 to 11, then at Animation Services (HK) Ltd from season 12 to 15. The entire cast of Arthur lives in Montreal or Toronto, where Cookie Jar Entertainment's studios are located. The only segments of the show that were filmed outside Canada were the "A Word from Us Kids" interstitials, filmed at elementary schools or other educational sites in the Boston area. Beginning in season 11, the "A Word From Us Kids" segment was replaced by a segment called "Postcards from You", where live action videos sent in by young viewers were spotlighted per episode, and then replaced with "A Word from Us Kids" in season 12. The segments are omitted from all airings outside the US.

Marc Brown's children, Tolon, Eliza, and Tucker, are referenced in the show several times, just as they are in the Arthur book series. For example, the town's moving company is called "Tolon Moving", and everyday items such as cups or pencil sharpeners have the word "Eliza" printed on them. References to Cookie Jar Entertainment and WGBH also appear often on the show. In one episode, Francine and Buster are shown playing a table hockey game in which one team's players wear shirts in the Montreal Canadiens' signature colors with Montreal-based CINAR's logo on them (CINAR was the predecessor to Cookie Jar Entertainment) and the other team's players wear shirts in the Boston Bruins' colors with Boston-based WGBH's sting logo on them. Subsequent episodes that involve hockey also depict players wearing these sweater designs. Also, in the episode "The Big Blow-Up" in Season 2, a racecar driver wears a jersey with "CINAR" written on it and a car with "WGBH" written on it. In the episode "Prove It" in Season 4, Brain introduces D.W. to science while watching a live-action episode of Nova, a science series also produced by WGBH. Brown's son Tolon, for whom Brown first invented the character of Arthur the Aardvark in a bedtime story, was the executive director of the show.

In October 1999, CINAR was investigated for tax fraud. It was revealed that both the chairman Micheline Charest and president Ronald Weinberg invested $122 million (US) into Bahamian bank accounts without the board members' approval. CINAR had also paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept Canadian federal grants for content. However, Arthur itself was not involved in the scandal as it was publicly known to be co-produced with an American company. Head writers Joe Fallon and Ken Scarborough left around that time, but not because of the scandal; Fallon left about a year before the investigation began. Following the departures of Charest and Weinberg, former CBC and YTV executive Peter Moss took over CINAR, assuming Charest's former position on the show as an executive producer alongside WGBH's Carol Greenwald. By season 7, Moss had left CINAR to join Nelvana as a development executive, and financial director Andrew Porporino took his place as executive producer. He was replaced by longtime producer Lesley Taylor in season 8.

In Season 14, the series began producing and airing episodes in 1080i HD. However, until October 15, 2012, in the U.S., the episodes still aired in 4:3 aspect ratio, with the left and right sides cropped out. They have since begun airing in 16:9 on October 15, 2012. Season 12 also marked the switching of animation studios from AKOM to ASHK. Starting with season 16, the series was produced by 9 Story Entertainment (now 9 Story Media Group) and aired in 16:9 aspect ratio. Alongside this change, 9 Story produced a re-mastered opening theme for the series in 16:9, and animation was moved in-house using Adobe Flash. Season 19 was the last season to be produced by 9 Story, with Montreal-based-Oasis Animation taking over starting in season 20.

In November 2018, Bruce Dinsmore (voice of Binky, Mr. Read, and Bailey) revealed that he has finished recording the final episodes in advance. Production of the final season was completed by the end of 2019. The series finale, "All Grown Up" featured Arthur's original voice actor, Michael Yarmush, voicing his adult self.

Music
The TV show's reggae-style theme song, "Believe in Yourself", was written by Judy Henderson and Jerry de Villiers Jr. and was performed by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. A remixed techno version of the song has been officially released on the third album and a shortened version has been played during the closing credits for the sixth season. The Backstreet Boys covered the song with the original instrumentals for the ending credits of television special Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll.

The original music score was produced by Ray Fabi.

In season 2, the song "Crazy Bus", written and performed by then-head writer Joe Fallon, was introduced. It served as the alternate anthem of the television series. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and jazz composer Joshua Redman covered the song on the ending credits of the season 4 finale episode, "My Music Rules". When Joe Fallon left Arthur after season 4, the song was officially retired from the show. The show mentions to this on the TV special Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll when D.W. says, "Crazy Bus is for babies; I know a million better songs."

Guest stars
Many celebrity guest stars have appeared on the show, each providing the voice for their anthropomorphic animal counterpart. Lance Armstrong and Joan Rivers are the only guest stars to make more than one appearance on the series.

Characters

Arthur's immediate family is the focus of the series, with most episodes involving Arthur, his younger sister D.W., their parents David and Jane, Baby Kate, and their dog, Pal. Arthur's closest friends include Buster, Francine, Muffy, Binky, Brain, and Sue Ellen, along with others such as Fern, Prunella, Jenna, and George as frequent supporting characters.

The adults in Arthur play important roles: Mr. and Mrs. Read display a significant amount of stress from parenting, Arthur's friends' parents are shown struggling in middle-class jobs, and Mr. Ratburn endures the demands and expectations of teaching elementary school. Even in difficult, adult situations, these grown ups maintain a cheerful attitude. Arthur, D.W., and Kate also visit their paternal grandmother, Thora Read, and maternal grandfather, Grandpa Dave.

Voice cast
Unlike most animated television series, Arthur showcases a wide range of voice actors. While the majority of the main supporting characters such as Jane, David, Buster, Francine and Binky have been voiced by the same set of actors since the beginning of the series, many of the young characters including Arthur, D.W., Brain, the Tibble Twins, and James have each been voiced by several actors throughout the seasons to avoid noticeable voice changes caused by male puberty.

 * Arthur Read
 * Michael Yarmush (Seasons 1–5, "All Grown Up")
 * Justin Bradley (Season 6)
 * Mark Rendall (Seasons 7–8, season 6 redub (U.S. only)
 * Cameron Ansell (Seasons 9–11)
 * Dallas Jokic (Seasons 12–15)
 * Drew Adkins (Seasons 16–17)
 * William Healy (Seasons 18–19)
 * Jacob Ursomarzo (Seasons 20–21)
 * Roman Lutterotti (Season 22–25)
 * Dora Winifred "D.W." Read
 * Michael Caloz (Seasons 1–3)
 * Oliver Grainger (Seasons 4–6)
 * Jason Szwimer (Seasons 7–10)
 * Robert Naylor (Seasons 11–15)
 * Jake Beale (Seasons 16–17)
 * Andrew Dayton (Seasons 18–19)
 * Christian Distefano (Seasons 20–21)
 * Ethan Pugiotto (Season 22–25)
 * Nissae Isen ("All Grown Up")
 * Buster Baxter
 * Daniel Brochu (as "Danny Brochu" from seasons 1–4)
 * Francine Frensky
 * Jodie Resther (as "Jodie Lynn Resther" from season 20–25)
 * Mary "Muffy" Crosswire
 * Melissa Altro
 * Alan "Brain" Powers
 * Luke Reid (Seasons 1–4)
 * Steven Crowder (Seasons 5–6)
 * Alex Hood (Seasons 7–9)
 * Paul-Stuart Brown (Seasons 9–11)
 * Lyle O'Donohoe (Seasons 12–15)
 * Siam Yu (Seasons 16–19)
 * Max Friedman-Cole (Season 20–21)
 * Evan Blaylock (Season 22–25)
 *  Shelly "Binky" Barnes/Mr. Read/Bailey
 * Bruce Dinsmore
 * Jane Read
 * Sonja Ball
 * Nigel Ratburn/Bionic Bunny
 * Arthur Holden
 * Grandma Thora
 * Joanna Noyes
 * Grandpa Dave/Mr. Crosswire
 * A. J. Henderson
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Tamar Koslov
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Patricia Rodriguez (Seasons 1–8)
 * Jessie Kardos (Seasons 9–25)
 * Tommy Tibble
 * Jonathan Koensgen (Seasons 1–6)
 * Aaron Grunfeld (Seasons 7–8)
 * Tyler Brody-Stein (Season 9)
 * Ryan Tilson (Seasons 10–11)
 * Jake Roseman (Seasons 12–13)
 * Jake Sim (Seasons 14–25)
 * Timmy Tibble
 * Ricky Mabe (Seasons 1–5)
 * Samuel Holden (Seasons 6–9)
 * Tyler Brody-Stein (Seasons 10–11)
 * Chris Lortie (Seasons 12–13)
 * Dakota Goyo (Seasons 14–15)
 * Jacob Ewaniuk (Seasons 16–25)
 * Emily Leduc
 * Vanessa Lengies (Seasons 1–8)
 * Sally Taylor-Isherwood (Season 9–25)
 * Nadine
 * Hayley Reynolds
 * Fern Walters
 * Holly Gauthier-Frankel
 * George Lundgren
 * Mitchell David Rothpan (Seasons 1–7)
 * Evan Smirnow (Season 8)
 * Eleanor Noble (Seasons 9–25)
 * Ladonna Compson
 * Krystal Meadows
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Maggie Castle
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Brigid Tierney
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Patricia Rodriguez (Seasons 1–7)
 * Alexina Cowan (Seasons 8–15)
 * Robyn Thaler (Season 16–25)
 * James MacDonald
 * Nicholas Wheeler-Hughes (Seasons 1–13)
 * London Angelis (Seasons 14–15)
 * John Flemming (Seasons 16–17)
 * Christian Distefano (Seasons 18–25)
 * Bud Compson/Cisely Compson/Kara
 * Julie Lemieux
 * Leah MacGrady
 * Bronwen Mantel
 * Rubella Deegan
 * Eramelinda Boquer
 * Francis Haney/Mr. Marco
 * Walter Massey
 * Oliver Frensky
 * Mark Camacho
 * Mr. Morris
 * Al Gravelle
 * Mrs. Barnes
 * Jane Wheeler
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Ellen David
 * Paige Turner
 * Katie Hutchison
 * Miss Woods
 * Susan Glover
 * Baby Kate
 * Tracy Braunstein
 * Pal
 * Simon Peacock
 * Nemo
 * Greg Kramer
 * Patrick
 * Marcel Jeanin
 * Slink/Rafi
 * Michael Yarmush

Celebrity guests

 * Jack Prelutsky – as himself on the episode "I'm a Poet".
 * Fred Rogers – as himself in a surprise visit to Elwood City in the episode "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers".
 * Art Garfunkel – as "the singing moose" in the episode "The Ballad of Buster Baxter".
 * Yo-Yo Ma – as himself as Redman's rival in "My Music Rules".
 * Joshua Redman – as himself as Francine's uncle in "My Music Rules"
 * Alex Trebek – as "Alex Lebek", a game show host, in "Arthur and the Big Riddle".
 * Michelle Kwan – as herself, teaching Francine how to skate in "The Good Sport".
 * Backstreet Boys – as themselves in the hour-long special, "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll".
 * Larry King – interviews the Arthur characters during the interstitial on PBS's telecasts.
 * Tom and Ray Magliozzi – in the episode "Pick a Car, Any Car" as Click and Clack from the "Car Talk" radio show.
 * Arthur Ganson – as himself in the episode "Muffy's Art Attack".
 * Koko Taylor – as herself in "Big Horns George".
 * Taj Mahal – as himself who helps George write music in "Big Horns George".
 * Frank Gehry – as an architect who helps the gang build the new treehouse in "Castles in the Sky".
 * Rodney Gilfry – as a player in the episode "Lights, Camera... Opera!"
 * Johnny Damon – as a player for the Elwood City Grebes.
 * Édgar Rentería – as a player in "The Curse of the Grebes".
 * Mike Timlin – as a player in "The Curse of the Grebes".
 * Ming Tsai – as a judge for a cooking contest at the Lakewood Elementary school in "What's Cooking?".
 * Matt Damon – as himself in "The Making of Arthur".
 * Lance Armstrong – as himself to help Francine deal with cancer in "The Great MacGrady". Also appears in "Binky vs. Binky" and "Room to Ride". All episodes featuring him were pulled from the air because of Armstrong's doping case, and "The Great MacGrady" was later remade with character Uncle Slam replacing him.
 * Joan Rivers – as Francine's grandmother, in both season 12's "Is That Kosher?" and season 15's "Grandpa Dave's Memory Album".
 * Philip Seymour Hoffman – as Will Toffman in "No Acting Please".
 * Neil Gaiman – as himself in "Falafelosophy".
 * Michael Fincke – as himself in "Buster Spaces Out;" credited as Mike Fincke.
 * Alan Cumming – as Sebastian Winkleplotz in "Show Off".
 * Idina Menzel – as Dr. Paula in "Shelter from the Storm".
 * B. J. Novak – as Mike "MC" Cramp in "The Last Day".
 * John Lewis – as himself in "Arthur Takes a Stand".
 * Jane Lynch – as Mr. Ratburn's older sister Patty in "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone".
 * R. L. Stine – as Bob Baxter in "Fright Night".
 * Kevin Sampson – as himself in "George Scraps His Sculpture".
 * Marc Brown – as himself in "All Grown Up".

Episodes
Each episode of Arthur ran for half an hour. Episodes consisted of two completely self-contained 11-minute stories. The episodes usually start off with one of the characters (usually Arthur) speaking towards the audience about a situation within the story followed by the title card. The episodes were separated by a one-to-two-minute live action interstitial called "And Now a Word from Us Kids" (or, in some cases, a variation of that title more specific to its contents). The live action segments almost always featured children from elementary schools (generally in the Boston area) presenting subjects they are currently learning about or projects they have been working on in their classes (the subjects covered here relate to the first cartoon segment in the half-hour). This segment was seen exclusively on PBS telecasts of the show, filling space otherwise used for commercials, which are generally forbidden on PBS. There was also a segment that sometimes appears at the end of the second 11-minute episode called "And Now a Word from Marc Brown" where he shows the viewers how to draw various main characters from the show. In 2007, the show began encouraging viewers to send in "video postcards" (similar to those used in the spin-off show Postcards from Buster), which were shown in the interstitials of episodes until the middle of Season 12. Beginning with Episode 151, the show reverted to "And Now a Word from Us Kids".

Set in a realistic environment (as opposed to the more fantastical settings prominently featured in children's programming), certain stories (often in the second half of the episode) may not necessarily focus on the titular protagonist's point of view and may instead detail the experiences and viewpoints of surrounding characters, usually Arthur's classmates. Often such episodes covered those characters handling situations often faced by children in actuality as a means of guiding audiences through those situations, including bed-wetting, asthma, or dyslexia, and Arthur's character sometimes may see a reduced role (in some episodes, Arthur himself does not appear in the story at all). Stories in later seasons dealt with more serious issues or subjects, such as cancer, autism spectrum disorder, or even same-sex marriage, although numerous episodes simply addressed topics including childhood fears, trends, or fantasies. Occasionally, some episodes may not offer educational value. In spite of the realistically designed environment, the series showcased the fantasies or daydreams of a few characters on a number of occasions, and a few episodes feature supernatural elements such as ghosts or secret situations unknown to other characters such as Kate and Pal's friendship.

In May 2019, Alabama Public Television withheld the airing of "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone", where Arthur's teacher, Mr. Ratburn, married another man named Patrick. The station had also declined to broadcast a 2005 episode of the spin-off show, Postcards from Buster, where a friend had two mothers.

Television
In addition to the television series, the Arthur franchise has spawned seven hour-long films, some of which used to be often run on PBS during pledge drives. An additional movie, Arthur's Missing Pal, was produced by Mainframe Entertainment and was the first animated Arthur project to make use of 3-D computer-generated imagery. Arthur's success has also led to the spin-off series Postcards from Buster. Postcards from Buster premiered on October 11, 2004, with several returning characters, and aired its final two episodes in 2012.

Website
The program's official website has been given a rating of 5/5 stars at website Common Sense Media, and has been advised for viewers 5 and up. The site described the show as being "one of the Internet's best offerings for kids". It also advised that "there are links to PBS sponsors but other than that, there is no commercial marketing to kids." The review added, "The games are actually teaching your kids something for example The Music Box combines music and learning, so much so that kids won't even realize that they're figuring out space relations, hand–eye coordination, and mousing skills as they jam along to upbeat tunes."

Music albums
Arthur has released three music albums. The first album, Arthur and Friends: The First Almost Real Not Live CD, contained songs that were played throughout the TV show and original songs for the album. The second album, Arthur's Perfect Christmas, contained songs that were played during the television film of the same title. The third album, Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix, contained only original songs, including a remix of the theme song which was played on the credits of season 6 as a promotion for the album.

ActiMates
In 1998, both Arthur and D.W. were made into Microsoft ActiMates, refined toy dolls who could interact with children, with each other, with certain computer software and the Arthur website, and also with the Arthur television show and videos.

Microsoft discontinued the ActiMates line shortly before season 5 aired, most possibly due to a lawsuit pertaining to patent infringement and the fact that sales were dropping. It has been noted that post-season 4 episodes of Arthur have not included any ActiMates code. Newer videos and DVD releases of the show does not carry ActiMates code either. The enhancements on the website were removed when the site was redesigned in 2002 and thus the ActiMates would not interact with the website. Likewise, re-releases of the ActiMates software by Creative Wonders do not interact with the ActiMates because the library that controls the PC Pack has been replaced with a dummy library file.

Home media releases
Selected episodes were distributed on VHS and DVD by Random House. Each tape had two or three episodes dealing with similar subjects. WGBH Home Video also released two Region 1 Arthur season sets; they released Season 10 on March 25, 2008, and Season 11 was released on September 2, 2008. Seasons 10–19 are available to download on the iTunes Store and Amazon.com. The first three seasons were released over four collections (the second season was split into two volumes) on DVD in Europe only.

Broadcast
Arthur became one of the highest-rated shows on PBS Kids for several years since its debut, averaging almost 10 million viewers weekly in the U.S. It is aired in a total of 83 countries, including on: PBS in the United States; Radio-Canada, Knowledge Network, TVOntario, TFO, and CBC in Canada; several ABC channels in Australia; and BBC One/CBBC/CBeebies in the UK and PBS Kids in South Africa. It also aired in Ireland on TnaG (now TG4) in an Irish dubbed version.

Awards
The series has been acknowledged with the George Foster Peabody Award and four Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Animated Program. In 2002, TV Guide ranked Arthur Read No. 26 on its list of the "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time". The show has also won a BAFTA and was nominated for 17 Daytime Emmys.

Critical response
Ostrov, Gentile, and Crick (2006) write that "our viewing of many educational programs such as Arthur suggests that relational aggression is modeled at a fairly high rate. For example, children may be shown excluding and ostracizing friends or peers on the playground as part of the TV show." (p. 622). They go on to theorize that preschoolers, due to their developmental stage, may have a hard time fully understanding conflict resolution, which typically occurs at the very end of a show. Shows like Arthur typically spend most of their time building up conflicts and this may impact the type of learning that is occurring while watching shows. Moreover, they cite research suggesting that the impacts of modeling relational aggression may be especially strong for girls. This research was elaborated on in the New York Times best-selling book on parenting NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Bronson and Merryman (2009). Their punch line is: "Essentially, Ostrov had just found that Arthur is more dangerous for children than Power Rangers" (p. 181).

About.com gave the show a rating of 4.5 stars. The series described Arthur assets: "The Arthur series has won several awards including the George Foster Peabody, and for good reason. Arthur presents issues and situations kids can relate to, and teaches positive behaviors and responses to these issues in a genuine and comical way. The series is fun and engaging to the target age group. Kids will relate to the storylines and characters, and will therefore give thought to the responses the characters demonstrate and outcome of those responses. Because 'Arthur' presents real childhood issues, the show contains some imitative behavior such as name calling or bickering, much like children experience in their own lives. Kids might hear words like 'sissy' or 'stupid' and see Arthur and D.W. argue. Should children mimic some of these phrases or tactics, the show provides a good springboard for parents to talk about the issues with their children and point out the importance of considering others' feelings." The review continued by citing many ways in which children could extract more from the series, for example by encouraging kids to write stories based on their own families (in much the same way Arthur was first realised) or by Kim Brown, Marc Brown's sister, teaching kids to draw Arthur while on tour.

Jillian Fabiano of E! News wrote that the show's ending "has taught kindness, empathy and inclusion for 25 years."

In popular culture
Arthur regularly incorporates parodies of and references to pop culture including (but not limited to) South Park, Jeopardy!, The Waltons, Dexter's Laboratory, The Sopranos, Beavis and Butt-Head, the Indiana Jones films, the James Bond films, The Adventures of Tintin, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, The Jerry Springer Show, Oprah, Law & Order, Charlie Rose, Antiques Roadshow, Mystery!, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, Macbeth, Planet of the Apes, The Matrix, Star Wars, Titanic, The Wizard of Oz, Jaws, That '70s Show, Harry Potter, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, This Old House, The Happy Hollisters, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, High School Musical, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Chronicles of Narnia.

In July 2014, Chance the Rapper released his interpretation of the theme song of the series called "Wonderful Everyday: Arthur" with Wyclef Jean and Jessie Ware.

In and leading up to July 2016, Arthur regained attention from users of Black Twitter, where stills from the series have become explicit and comedic internet memes, often using an image of Arthur's clenched fist from the episode "Arthur's Big Hit". WGBH said, "We appreciate the memes that have been created and shared in good fun, we are, however, disappointed by the few that are outside of good taste." In a February 2022 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Marc Brown expressed his appreciation that the show has become a pop culture meme mainstay, and found it funny when celebrities like LeBron James and John Legend used memes from the show.

In July 2020, YouTuber Lilly Singh created a parody of the Arthur Theme Song called "Arthur Theme Song (2020 Version)", in which the lyrics satirize the COVID-19 pandemic.

Albums

 * "The First Almost Real Not Live CD (or Tape)" (1998)
 * "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" (2000)
 * "Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix" (2001)

Singles

 * "Boogie Woogie Christmas" (2000)

title: Arthur (TV series)