When pistols were fired in St Paul's

On a winter's night in December 1951, the halls of St Paul's Cathedral echoed with gunfire.

But this wasn't a gun fight. Rather, a team of architects and scientists had fired the Colt revolver beneath the dome in a dramatic demonstration.

The purpose? To quantify the cathedral’s acoustic fingerprint.

In fact, the pistol-fired test was the culmination of half-a-century of acoustic experiments across Britain.

(Image credit: Getty Images)