Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Saint Paul, the cathedral was perhaps the fourth church at Ludgate Hill.
Work on the cathedral began in 1087 and took over 200 years, and was delayed by another fire in 1135. The church was consecrated in 1240, enlarged in 1256 and again in the early 1300s. At its completion in the mid-1300s, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world, had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass.
The cathedral was already in severe structural decline by the early 1600s. Restoration work begun by Inigo Jones in the 1620s was temporarily halted during the English Civil War (1642–1651). In 1666 was devastated in the Great Fire of London. At that point, it was demolished, and the present cathedral was built on the site.
This model depicts the cathedral as it appeared in around 1500.
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