Go behind the scenes and discover more about the challenges of maintaining a diverse collection.
Go behind the scenes and discover more about the challenges of maintaining a diverse collection
A visit to St Paul’s Cathedral is more often than not a surprise and delight for the unexpected amount of art and decoration hidden behind its world famous baroque walls. This tour will show the hidden spaces and decoration that lurks within a space we feel we already know. St Paul’s is often described as one of the best and most unexpected galleries in the city with work by Rodin, Holman Hunt, Moore, Judah and Viola juxtaposed against the mighty Wren architecture. Going behind the scenes gives an up close and personal experience to explore the challenges of maintaining a diverse collection within a busy working building that is still the church of the nation 300 years after its completion.
Conservator, St Paul’s Cathedral
Jonathan Hellyer is the Conservator at St Paul’s Cathedral having joined the collections team in 2019. Jonathan initially trained as a scientist, specialising in gels and gelatin, but made conservation his second career, joining the MA conservation and restoration programme at the National School of Furniture in High Wycombe in 2008. He concurrently studied City and Guilds in hand-crafted furniture. Jonathan interned for over two years at the Royal Workshops at Windsor Castle before becoming a Historic Interiors Conservator there in 2017. The cathedral contains over 4,000 historic objects from mosaics to monuments, furniture to the Great Model, all of which have treasured decorative surfaces and patina which Jonathan works closely with the Surveyor of St Paul’s to preserve and care for in a busy working church.