<P> Work on the cathedral began during the reign of William the Conqueror after a fire in 1087 that destroyed much of the city . Work took more than 200 years, and construction was delayed by another fire in 1135 . The church was consecrated in 1240, enlarged in 1256 and enlarged again in the early 14th century . At its final state of completion in the middle of the 14th century, the cathedral was one of the longest churches in the world, had one of the tallest spires and some of the finest stained glass . </P> <P> The presence of the shrine of Saint Erkenwald made the cathedral a site of pilgrimage during the Medieval Period . In addition to serving as the seat of the Diocese of London, the building developed a reputation as a social hub of the City of London, with the nave aisle, "Paul's walk", known as a centre for doing business and a place to hear the latest gossip on the London grapevine . After the Reformation, the open - air pulpit in the churchyard, St Paul's Cross, became the stage for radical evangelical preaching and Protestant bookselling . </P> <P> The cathedral was already in severe structural decline by the beginning of the 17th century . Restoration work begun by Inigo Jones in the 1620s was halted at the time of the English Civil War (1642--1651). Sir Christopher Wren was attempting another restoration in 1666 when the cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London . At that point, the old structure was demolished, and the present, domed cathedral was erected on the site, with an English Baroque design by Wren . </P> <P> "Old" St Paul's Cathedral was perhaps the fourth church on the site at Ludgate Hill dedicated to St Paul . A devastating fire in 1087, detailed in the Anglo - Saxon Chronicle, destroyed much of the city and the cathedral . King William I (William the Conqueror) donated the stone from the destroyed Palatine Tower on the River Fleet towards the construction of a new, Romanesque Norman cathedral, an act sometimes said to be his last before death . </P>

Did the great fire of london destroy st paul's cathedral