FT271


The myth

When Sir Christopher Wren was designing the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, he envisaged an unsupported ceiling. His patrons, convinced that such a structure would collapse, insisted that he insert some columns. He reluctantly agreed – but years later, maintenance workers discovered that the columns stopped a few inches short of the ceiling. Wren had secretly ensured his posthumous vindication.


The “truth”

There are no columns of any kind in the Sheldonian – so that seems to be the end of that. However, this story is also attached to various other Wren buildings, most notably Windsor Town Hall (aka Windsor Guildhall), a project which Wren saw to completion after its original architect had died. It’s true that Windsor does have four non-supporting columns, but no one has ever managed to find any evidence at all of them causing a dispute between Wren and his employers. One theory is that they started out as supporting columns, but have settled over the centuries, leaving an unintended gap; another is that they are purely decorative.


Sources

'The facts and a good story', BBC online, 12 July 2008.
British Society for the History of Mathematics
'Windsor Guildhall', Windsor Berkshire site
'The Guildhall at Windsor', The Royal Windsor website
'Windsor, quirky facts and myths', BBC Berkshire, 19 November 2009.


Disclaimer

The same basic story is also told about Brunel and the Maidenhead Bridge, Brunelleschi and Florence Cathedral, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Are any of the versions true? If you can make any of them stand up without scaffolding, please don your hard hat and reflective jacket and report to the letters page.