ST. MAGNUS, LONDON BRIDGE
St. Magnus stands on the south side of Thames Street at the bottom of Fish Street Hill; it was called the “Martyr” from its dedicatory saint, who suffered martyrdom in Cæsarea in the time of Aurelian the Emperor. It was burnt down by the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, who completed it in 1676, with the exception of the steeple, which was not added till 1705. The parish of St. Margaret, New Fish Street, was annexed to this after the Fire. In 1831 that of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, was also annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1247.
Drawn by G. Shepherd.
ST. MAGNUS
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and Convent of Bermondsey before 1252, and the Abbot and Convent of Westminster alternately, since 1252; Henry VIII. seized it, and granted it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20, 1540-41; Bishop of London by grant of Edward VI. in 1550, confirmed by Queen Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 535.
The building is one of the most beautiful of all the City churches; it measures 90 feet in length, 59 feet in breadth, and 41 feet in height. It contains a nave and side-aisles separated by slender Ionic columns standing a considerable distance from each other. The steeple rising near London Bridge is seen to great advantage, and is considered one of the best of Wren’s works. It consists of a tower with a cornice, parapet, and vases, surmounted by an octagonal lantern with a cupola, which, in its turn, is surmounted by a slender lantern and spire, with a finial and vane. The total height is 185 feet.
Chantries were founded here by: Andrew Hunt, whose endowment fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Gilbert Smythe was chaplain; Thomas Makinge, whose endowment yielded £16 in 1548, when Thomas Parker was chaplain; Sir John Deepdene, Knt., for himself and Elizabeth his wife, at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, and also at the same altar by Robert Ramsey, for himself and Jane his wife, for which the King granted his licence, February 5, 1404-1405—the endowments fetched £16 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Joseph Stepneth was chaplain; Ralph de Gray, whose endowment fetched £4 in 1548; Hugh Pourt, who was sheriff of London 1303, for himself and Margaret his wife, at the Altar of Blessed Virgin Mary, to which Hugo de Waltham was admitted chaplain, October 10, 1322—this chantry was augmented by Roger Clovill, and the King granted his licence in mortmain, June 10, 1370; John Bever, for the support of two priests, whose endowment fetched £20 : 6 : 8 in 1548, but no priests have been found since Henry IV.’s time—the King granted his licence, May 26, 1448, to constitute the Guild of S. Maxentius and S. Thomas; Andrew Hunt and several others founded and endowed the Brotherhood of Salve Regina, whose gifts fetched £49 : 0 : 4 in 1548, when John Swanne and William Bunting were the chaplains.
The old church was the place of sepulture of several persons of note in their day, amongst whom may be mentioned Henry Yeuele, master-mason to Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV.; Sir W. Gerrard, mayor in 1555; and Sir John Gerrard, mayor in 1601; and Thomas Collet, for twenty years deputy of this ward, who died in 1703. On the demolition of St. Bartholomew by the Exchange, the remains of Miles Coverdale were brought here, as he had been rector of the church 1563-66. His monument is on the east wall, south of the communion table.
Sixty boys and forty girls were maintained in the Candlewick and Bridge Wards.
The parish did not possess many large charitable gifts: Samuel Petty was donor of £600, of which only £250 was received, owing to the bonds not being good; Susanna Chambers, £17; Thomas Arnold, £2 : 12s.; John Jennings, £13.
Besides Miles Coverdale, other rectors of note were: Richard de Medford or Mitford, Bishop of Chichester in 1389; Maurice Griffith (d. 1558), Bishop of Rochester.
Great Eastcheap, now destroyed, was in Stow’s time a market-place for butchers: it had also cooks mixed among the butchers and such others as sold victuals ready dressed of all sorts. “For of old time when friends did meet and were disposed to be merry, they went not to dine and sup at taverns but to the cooks, where they called for meat what they liked which they found ready dressed and at a reasonable rate.” In Great Eastcheap was the immortal tavern of the Boar’s Head, already mentioned p. [106].
There was apparently another Boar’s Head in this ward. Maitland mentions it:
“In this Ward there was a house called The Boar’s Head, inhabited by William Sanderson, which came to King Edward VI. by the Statute about Chantries; which, with the shops, cellars, solars, and other Commodities and easements, he sold in the second of his reign, together with other lands and tenements, to John Sicklemore and Walter Williams for two thousand six hundred and sixty-eight pounds, and upwards” (Maitland, vol. ii. p. 793).
Fish Street Hill, or New Fish Street, formerly Bridge Street, led to Old London Bridge past St. Magnus’s Church. It contained an ancient stone house which had once been occupied by the Black Prince, and was afterwards converted into an inn called the Black Bell. Very frequent mention is made of Bridge Street. Here lived Andrew Horne, fishmonger, City Chamberlain, author of the Liber Horne. A note which concerns him may be found in Riley’s Memorials, A.D. 1315. Among the signs of the street were the “King’s Head”; the “Harrow”; the “Swan and Bridge”; the “Star”; the “Mitre”; the “Golden Cup”; the “Salmon”; the “Black Raven”; the “Crown”; the “Maiden Head”; the “White Lion”; the “Swan,” etc. Foundations of Roman buildings have been found here. Riley has notices of the street between 1311 and 1340. Notices are found in the Calendar of Wills from 1273. In the Guildhall MSS. the earliest mention of the street is 1189. In this street stood the Church of St. Margaret, not rebuilt after the Fire. This church was on the west above Crooked Lane.
St. Margaret, New Fish Street, sometimes called St. Margaret, Bridge Street, stood on the east side of Fish Street Hill, where the Monument now stands; it was destroyed by the Great Fire, and its parish united to that of St. Magnus the Martyr. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1283.
The patronage of the church, before 1283, was in the hands of: The Abbot and Convent of Westminster, 1283-84; Henry VIII., who granted it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20, 1540-41; the Bishop of London, by grant of Edward VI. in 1550, confirmed by Queen Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when the parish was annexed to St. Magnus.
Houseling people in 1548 were 200.
Chantries were founded here by: Roger de Bury, for which the King granted his licence in 1318; John Coggeshall, at the Altar of St. Peter—his endowment fetched £13 : 10s. in 1548, when Richard Bec was chaplain; Thomas Dursley, whose endowment yielded £4 in 1548; John Rous, whose endowment fetched £5 in 1548; Robert Whaplode, whose endowment yielded 40s. in 1548.
Only one monument of note is recorded by Stow, that of John Coggeshall, 1384, and the reason of his eminence is not stated.
Some of the chantries belonging to this parish were: £2 : 10s., the gift of John Wybert; £2, the gift of Katherine Parry; £1 : 10s., the gift of Mr. Mosyer.
Candlewick and Bridge Wards maintained sixty boys and forty girls.
John Seton (d. 1568), Prebendary of York, author of Dialectica; William Cotton (d. 1621), Bishop of Exeter; Samuel Hasnet, Archbishop of York 1629, are among the notable rectors.
On the east side, higher up, stood the Church and burial-ground of St. Leonard’s Milk Church, also destroyed by the Fire and not rebuilt (see p. [266]). The most important building in Fish Street is, of course, the Monument.
For The Monument we quote the account taken by Maitland from the life of Sir Christopher Wren:
“In the year 1671, the Surveyor began the building of the great fluted column of Portland Stone, and of the Dorick Order (commonly called the Monument of London, in memory of the burning and rebuilding of the City), and finished it in 1677. The Artificers were obliged to wait sometimes for Stones of proper scantlings; which occasioned the work to be longer in execution than otherwise it would have been. The altitude from the pavement is two hundred and two feet, the diameter of the shaft or body of the column is fifteen feet, the ground bounded by the Plinth or lowest part of the pedestal is twenty-eight feet square, and the pedestal in height is forty feet. Within is a large staircase of black marble, containing three hundred and forty-five steps, ten inches and an half broad, and six inches rising. Over the Capital is an Iron Balcony, encompassing a Cippus or Meta, thirty-two feet high, supporting a blazing urn of brass gilt. Prior to this, the Surveyor (as it appears by an original drawing) had made a design of a pillar of somewhat less proportion, viz.: fourteen feet in diameter, and after a peculiar device: For, as the Romans expressed by Relievo, on the pedestals, and round the shafts of their Columns, the history of such actions and incidents as were intended to be thereby commemorated; so this Monument of the conflagration and resurrection of the City of London was represented by a pillar in flames; the flames, blazing from the loopholes of the shaft (which were to give light to the stairs within), were figured in brasswork gilt, and on the top was a Phoenix rising from her ashes, of brass gilt likewise.” The total expense was about £14,500.
THE MONUMENT IN 1752
From a drawing by Signor Canalsti.
The height (202 feet) is supposed to be equal to its distance eastward from the house in Pudding Lane in which the Fire broke out. Inside are 345 steps, by which any one after paying 3d. may ascend to the caged-in platform near the top. The pedestal has Latin inscriptions on the north, south, and east panels. In 1681 a further inscription, running round the base of the pedestal, was added as follows:
This pillar was set up in perpetual remembrance of that most dreadful burning of this Protestant City begun and carried on by ye treachery and malice of ye Popish factio, in ye beginning of Septem in ye year of our Lord 1666 in order to ye carrying on their horrid plott for extirpating the Protestant religion and old English liberty, and the introducing Popery and slavery.
This was obliterated in the reign of James II., but recut in that of his successor, causing Pope’s comment:
Where London’s column, pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully rears its head and lies.
The obnoxious inscription was not erased until 1831.
On the west panel of the pedestal is a bas-relief representing Charles II. in Roman dress attended by Liberty, Genius, and Science.
In the background the City is being rebuilt, and at the King’s feet Envy tries to rekindle the flames.