St Paul’s Cathedral
Oculus, the new visitor centre St Paul’s Cathedral, created with substantial support from WMF/American Express, recently won an Exhibition Design award at the 2011 Design Week Awards.
After two years of investigation, consultation and design work the scheme to improve the visitor centre in the crypt opened in September 2010.
The former treasury in the crypt has been developed into a visual arena where visitors can discover the 1400 year history of St Paul’s as The Nation's Church. Images are projected directly onto the walls; at times a single picture and at others a hugely effective 270° projection filling the field of view. Ambient sound as required is directional so as not to leak into the crypt, where Nelson's tomb is located; whilst narratives, in a variety of languages, are available through the multi-media guides given to every visitor as part of the entrance price.
A timeline has been installed in the north aisle to introduce the projections. It puts the long span of the site's history into national and international context.
Located above the nave's aisles, the triforia of St. Paul's possess some remarkable spaces which have in the past had limited public access and they retain an atmosphere which contrasts significantly with the busy areas of the more visited parts of the Cathedral.
Stored in the triforium level is an extraordinary range of artefacts related to the Cathedral and its development: models, cut stones from the medieval building burned in 1666, cartoons for decorative schemes and much else. The grandest exhibit is Wren's Great Model‚ his 1673 design for a new Cathedral, based on a Greek cross with an elongated nave, which was never constructed. In this area, which will also be made accessible to visitors and scholars, it is proposed that the story of the building and its conservation be told to up to two million visitors a year.
