London’s The Monument to reopen in February

The Monument, one of the City of London’s most outstanding landmarks and visitor attractions, will reopen to visitors in early February 2009 after an extensive programme of exciting improvements and repairs.

Sir Christopher Wren’s and Dr Robert Hooke’s 202ft monument to the Great Fire 1666, the tallest free-standing stone column in the world, undergoes repair work only once in every hundred years. This project, funded by the City of London Corporation, has had the most dramatic impact yet.

Stonework has been cleaned and repaired and the famous golden orb which flames from the top of the column has been painstakingly re-gilded by hand.

A stunning new gallery “cage” has replaced an old cage on the viewing platform 160 ft above the ground, from where visitors can experience exhilarating 360 degree views of the City, the Pool of London and beyond.

Inside the monument, light will beam up from the Cellar Laboratory, used for experiments by Wren and co-architect Robert Hooke and now revealed to the public for the first time.

Beside the Monument, the mirrored roof of a glass pavilion will bounce the glow of the orb back up to the viewing gallery, while panoramic cameras relay live views from the top down to the plaza below.

A pleasant pedestrianised and landscaped square has been created around the Monument, marking the extent of Wren’s original Monument Yard between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane – the starting point of The Great Fire.

Admission charges for The Monument in 2009 will be £3.00 for adults and £1.00 for children.

Full details of the £4.5 million project are available on the website: themonument.info/

For visitor information, log on to Towerbridge.org.uk.