One of Britain's most famous cathedrals is to celebrate its first day without scaffolding for 15 years when a £40 million restoration project draws to a close.

The public will get the first entirely "clean" view of St Paul's tomorrow after the last scaffolding comes down marking the end of a massive renovation project, the first in the cathedral's history to restore the building both inside and out.

The Sir Christopher Wren masterpiece has served as a focus for national events in its 300-year history with Winston Churchill declaring it should be saved during the Second World War when the building became the target of bombing.

Restoration work included transforming the blackened and damaged west front of the cathedral, with more than 150,000 blocks of the cathedral's white Portland stone cleaned on the outside alone. Cathedral officials said the interior had been "transformed" by state-of-the-art conservation techniques with mosaics, carvings, and sculpture brought to life by light "flooding" the building.

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