The Wren London Series is part of Wren 300, a year-long celebration of Wren’s tercentenary, life and works. The series starts at St Paul’s Cathedral on 4th July, with speakers Shahed Saleem and James Campbell in conversation with St Paul Cathedral’s Head of Collections Simon Carter. 

The speakers will consider the practicalities and processes of constructing St Paul’s Cathedral and building places of worship today. There will be a focus on the remarkable craftsmen who made Wren’s designs a reality – underlining the collaborative nature of design and execution – as well as an exploration of what it means to build a dome in a place of worship. 

This is the first in a fascinating series of talks celebrating the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren from July – October 2023. 

The talks will take place across London in four of Wren’s greatest buildings. Speakers will offer an in-depth perspective of Wren and his work at St Paul’s Cathedral, the Old Royal Naval College, Royal Hospital Chelsea, St James’s Piccadilly, and on board a specially commissioned Uber Boat by Thames Clippers vessel. 

Professor James Campbell, an architect and art historian, is Seear Fellow in Architecture and History of Art at Queen’s College and of the Department of Architecture Cambridge. An expert of Wren and on the history of construction, his 2020 book 'Building St Paul's', is the story of those who built the Cathedral, and how. The book recreates life on a seventeenth-century building site and reaffirms St Paul’s not only as Christopher Wren's masterwork, but as an incredible collaborative achievement.

Shahed Saleem is an architect, author and Reader in Architecture at the University of Westminster. His research and practice explores the architecture of diaspora communities, in particular their relationship to heritage and belonging. Saleem co-curated the V&A Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2021 and his book ‘The British Mosque’ was published in 2018 by Historic England. His design work has been nominated for the V&A Jameel Prize 2013 and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2016, and his research work won a RIBA Presidents Medal for Research commendation 2020 and was nominated for the Historic England Angel Award and the SAHGB Colvin Prize 2019.

Simon Carter is Head of Collections at St Paul’s Cathedral where he is responsible for the management of the Cathedral’s historic collections, including access and engagement, conservation, documentation and development of the library, archives and object collections. His latest book, ‘Artists’ Corner of St Paul’s Cathedral’, was published in spring 2023.