1. Thomas Willson’s Primrose Hill Pyramid A verified aerial view placing the necropolis accurately on Primrose Hill, with the London skyline showing its scale. Image Courtesy of Gendo

Published on November 05, 2026

Some architectural projects only survive as drawings, competition entries, or models in archives. Others were built, but not as first imagined, and the completed building gradually replaced the original proposal in collective memory. Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral is familiar to many, but less well known is his Warrant Design, the spire-topped proposal approved in 1675 that he subsequently reworked as construction progressed. London was also once offered a very different monument: Thomas Willson's vast pyramid-shaped necropolis for Primrose Hill, designed to accommodate millions of burials and dominate the city's skyline.

Christopher Wren’s Warrant Design A side-by-side or matched-angle comparison of the approved 1675 design and the St Paul’s Cathedral ultimately built.…