An archaeoacoustic analysis of Wren’s auditorium churches: A case study of St Stephen Walbrook (1672–1679), London

Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) was responsible for the rebuilding of 52 parish churches in 17th-century London after the Great Fire of 1666. In literature his parish church designs are often referred to as “auditorium churches”, as Wren himself claimed that he treated visibility and audibility as priorities in his designs. Proof of this can be found in his own manuscripts where he mentions a few practical recommendations regarding room acoustics for churches. In the 17th century, contemporary scientists, amongst whom Robert Hooke (1635–1703), took interest in studying the propagation of sound through the air and formulate theories to explain the occurrence of echoes. However, a more comprehensive theory of reverberation in rooms was only developed later in the 20th century. Hence the question whether Wren’s churches were in fact “fitted for auditories” [Wren et al., Letter to a Friend on the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches (1711). Parentalia, The Life of Sir Christopher Wren, Knt., London, WS, pt. 2, sec. 9, 318-321, Transcript in WS, 9 (1750) 15–18] and what informed Wren in the design of his “auditorium churches”. In this paper the parish church of St Stephen’s Walbrook London is evaluated acoustically using a modern approach. Measured impulse responses were used to calibrate a reconstructed CAD model of the church in its 17th-century condition. Through different acoustic model scenarios, we were able to put Wren’s own recommendations concerning the acoustics of his parish church designs to the test. The speech intelligibility in St Stephen’s Walbrook was deemed adequate in its 17th-century configuration, the application of at least one of his recommendations leading to an improvement. It could not be shown, however, that Wren had full control over the room acoustic conditions in the church.