2019 St. Paul’s Cathedral Blitz Illumination
The City of London has a constant program of public art which “St. Paul’s Illuminated” was part of.
The familiar white Portland stone of the cathedral made an ideal surface for powerful projectors to bring a flourish of colour.
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World War Two Projection
Possibly one of the most famous photographs in history was taken of St. Paul’s Cathedral with fires and smoke raging around it. It was the efforts of the Fire Brigade and the volunteer St. Paul’s Fire Watchers that protected and saved the building. Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime prime minister famously issued the edict – “St Paul’s must be saved at all costs”.
To commemorate The Blitz of World War Two and the role of the St. Paul’s Fire Watchers in protecting the Cathedral from the fires, the cathedral’s exterior was used to display imagery remembering their efforts.
The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps
The colourful maps projected on to St. Paul’s date from World War Two. The colour coding represented the level of damage caused to buildings by the bombing of The Blitz and the subsequent fires. Black meant the area had been destroyed.
The maps are now available online at Layers of London.