2nd December: St Paul's Cathedral

On 2nd December 1697 St Paul's Cathedral was consecrated so here are 10 things you may not know about this historic building.

1. St Paul's as we know it today is by no means the first church to stand on this site. There have been churches there since 604 when a church was built there for Mellitus, Bishop of the East Saxons. It burned down in 674. A second was built in 684 - this one was destroyed by Vikings in 962. The next one was Old St Paul’s, completed in 1240. That burned down in the Great fire of London in 1666.
2. Some vital statistics of the cathedral are as follows: Length 518ft (158m); Width across transepts 246ft (75m); Height 365ft (111m) (St Paul’s was the tallest structure in London until 1962, when the BT Tower (or as it was known, the Post Office Tower) was built); Dome diameter (outer) 112ft (34m) (The dome of St Paul's Cathedral is the second biggest dome in the world, after St Peter's in Rome).
3. St Paul's has a number of bells which chime the hour, but its most notable bells are the two largest, which are named Great Tom and Great Paul. Great Paul was cast in 1881 by Taylor's bell foundry of Loughborough. At 16½ tons it was the largest bell in the British Isles until the casting of the Olympic Bell for the 2012 London Olympic Games. This bell traditionally sounded at 1 o'clock each day, but hasn't chimed for many years due to a faulty chiming mechanism. Great Tom was moved from St Stephen's Chapel at the Palace of Westminster and strikes the hour. Great Tom is tolled for the death of a member of the royal family, the Bishop of London, or the Lord Mayor of London. An exception was made once, for U.S. President James Garfield. The last time it rang was for the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in 2002.
4. The organ is the fourth largest in the UK. It has 7,266 pipes and 108 stops.
5. St Paul's has had a choir since 1127. Today the choir is made up of 30 choirboys, eight probationers, and the Vicars Choral, 12 men who are professional singers.
6. Notable services which were held at St Paul's include: the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Sir Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, the launch of the Festival of Britain.
7. There are many memorials to famous historical figures including the cathedral's designer, Sir Christopher Wren. The Latin epitaph on his tomb is translated as "Reader, if you seek his memorial look around you". The cathedral’s largest monument is that to the Duke of Wellington, depicting the Duke riding a horse. This monument wasn't installed until 1912, because objections were raised to having the statue of a horse inside the cathedral. Other memorials include Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Alexander Fleming, Florence Nightingale, JMW Turner, Arthur Sullivan, Samuel Johnson, Lawrence of Arabia, William Blake. Residents of the local parish have also been buried there.
8. One of the best known features is the Whispering Gallery, Whispering on one side can be heard on the other side 112 feet away. To get there you have to climb 257 steps; but that's nothing compared to the climb of 530 steps to the Golden Gallery, an observation platform atop the dome of the cathedral.
9. During World War II the cathedral was hit three times by bombs. One of the bombs was time delayed, and was defused before it went off - if it hadn't been, St Paul's would have been toast. Suffragettes planted a bomb there in 1913 to bring attention to their cause, but it was also diffused before it could explode.
10. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a sermon there in 1964 while he was in London meeting with peace movement leaders.

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A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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