3-077-805 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Deanery of St. Paul's, 1890. 'Passengers beneath the archway on the south side of St. Paul's Churchyard leading to Doctor's Commons - an archway having a narrow strip of a shop on either side, built in the thickness of the wall, and a balcony above in which tradition says Sir Christopher Wren used to sit and watch the progress of his masterpiece [ie the Cathedral] - are less numerous now than before the removal of the Will Office in 1874; and the curiosity excited by the large and unattractive building, half hidden by a high wall and solid entrance door on the right, is proportionately less. An inspection of the small - the very small - brass plate on the aforesaid door, gives an important clue - "The Dean of St. Paul's"; and such has been the designation of its successive occupants for over two hundred years. Sir Christopher Wren, who built the house - the cost being defrayed by the disposal of much of the garden ground attached to its predecessor before the Great Fire, for building purposes, would seem to have aimed at the greatest possible amount of ugliness - and succeeded'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.