Our website: A year on from relaunch

The 29th March saw the one year anniversary of our relaunched St Paul's website, and this week I'm pleased to share a few key metrics, which highlight the growth and positive change the new and improved site has brought about. To help with these insights, the 29th March 2022 - 29th March 2023 figures are compared against the same period in 2019-20 (essentially our most recent 'normal' operating year):

Sessions (this means all visits to the website, from both brand new users and repeat visitors) totalled 2,126,599, which was a 28% increase on the same period in 2019-20
Brand new website visitors for 2022-23 totalled 1,532,236, a 27% increase on 2019-20
The average number of pages viewed per session in 2022-23 was 3.08, a 7% increase on 2019-20. Simply put, this means that users are exploring more of our website than they were before - a very good thing!
2022-23 saw a 14% increase in organic Google search engine visits and a 12% increase from the search engine Bing. By focusing on accessible, user-friendly content we have been able to improve our 'searchability', meaning our pages appear higher in search engine rankings.

These are just a few statistics, but they clearly show what a positive impact the relaunched website has had. If you have any questions or want to chat all things website, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

Whispering Gallery project works update

Over the past few weeks and months, the Whispering Gallery project works have been progressing well.

Work to replace stone where needed has been continuing and is almost complete, as well as electrical works to lighting.

Repairs to the timber flooring will continue up until the 9th June, and there will then be a handover to contractors on the 12th June.

Stay tuned for further updates, which we will share as soon as we can.

New colleague welcome

Bertie Caria-Hall

The IT Department would like to welcome Bertie Caria-Hall, IT Support Analyst, to the team. Bertie started this week and works 3 days a week on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Bertie has a wealth of Office 365 knowledge and support experience, and if you've not already met him, we're sure you will over the coming weeks.

Here's a lovely photo of Bertie with family dog (miniature schnauzer) Reggie!

What's on next week

Sunday 14th May, 5.30pm: Ascension organ meditation with Michael Stephens-Jones
Monday 15th May, 5pm: Sung Eucharist for the Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Tuesday 16th May: Last entry for sightseeing will be at the earlier time of 2.30pm in preparation for the Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service at 5pm. This is a ticketed service and all tickets have now been allocated.

Thursday 18th May, 5pm: Sung Eucharist for Ascension Day
Saturday 20th May, 2pm, Wren Suite: Adult Learning event - The Art of Creation: Art, theology and ecology

Christopher Wren: The Quest for Knowledge launch event

On Wednesday this week we held a launch event for our new Crypt exhibition, Christopher Wren: The Quest for Knowledge. It was a wonderful way to celebrate all the hard work that went into the exhibition, both across our Cathedral teams and with our external partners and supporters.

Corporate Events Manager Nicholas Salmon and Events Coordinator Millie Walker did a brilliant job, and there were beautiful flowers provided by Mary Jane Vaughan, catering from The Food Show, and atmospheric lighting (kindly provided free of charge) by Ash Productions.

We were also lucky enough to have HRH The Duchess of Gloucester in attendance, as well as an appearance from the man of the moment, Sir Christopher Wren (another star turn from Terry!)

Job opportunities

Here's a reminder about the two open job vacancies with the Music team:

Artistic Director of Choral Partnerships

Hours: Part-time, 28 hours per week
Salary: £32,000 per annum (£40,000 FTE) plus benefits

Closing date for applications: 21st May 2023

Find out more.

Organ Education Lead

Hours: 7 hours per week

Salary: £8,000 per annum (£40,000 FTE)

Closing date for applications: 21st May 2023

Find out more.

Hub of Hope

Thank you to Felicidad Martinez for this suggested signpost to a website called Hub of Hope. Mental health charity Chasing the Stigma have created Hub of Hope - a national database, where users can enter their postcode and find mental health support and resources local to them.

Visit Hub of Hope and find out more.

And finally...

We have three lovely inclusions for this week's 'And finally' section. Firstly, from Nicholas Salmon we have details of MyLondon, a photography project from homelessness charity Café Art. Some of you may know that the charity have launched and run the photography workshops in our Wren Suite (offered free of charge) over the past 7 years, and the good news is that they will be returning this summer. Find out more about the project on Café Art's website.

Next - over the past weekend, amongst all the celebrations, the service and then street parties for the Coronation, Deputy Events Coordinator Gemma Winpenny performed at a sell-out concert on Saturday evening - ‘The Coronation Prom’ at the Royal Albert Hall with the All Souls Orchestra, playing flute and piccolo. This was the first time Gemma had performed in 4 years, since the pandemic and her son Edward arriving. Well done Gemma! Watch Gemma in action via this YouTube video.

The Coronation Prom – Live from London's Royal Albert Hall

Lastly, Tiggy Sawbridge will be singing with the City of London Choir at St Giles-without-Cripplegate (just a short 10-minute walk from the Cathedral) on Thursday 15th June at 7.30pm.The programme is Bliss: ‘Pastoral: Lie Strewn the White Flocks' and Haydn: 'Nelson Mass'. Find out more and book tickets online.

If you have anything to include in next week's news, please remember to email internalcomms@stpaulscathedral.org.uk by the end of Wednesday at the latest.

With very best wishes,
Laura