<< Our Photo Pages >> London Stone - Marker Stone in England in Greater London

Submitted by Andy B on Sunday, 23 September 2018  Page Views: 29352

Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: London Stone Alternative Name: Brutus Stone; Britto Stone
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.648 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Greater London Type: Marker Stone
Nearest Town: London
Map Ref: TQ3267680903  Landranger Map Number: 176
Latitude: 51.511484N  Longitude: 0.089482W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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RedKite1985 visited on 3rd Jun 2022 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4 Fascinating piece of history, well displayed on the street.

aolson visited on 20th Mar 2019 - their rating: Cond: 1 Amb: 2 Access: 5 New case looks better than the old one. Little offerings by some besuited neopagan were a nice touch

NorthernerInLondon visited - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 1 Access: 5

AnnabelleStar visited - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5

TheCaptain myf have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.5 Ambience: 2.75 Access: 4.75

London Stone
London Stone submitted by Thorgrim : Once considered to be the guardian of the City and the place where all distances from London were measured, the London Stone now sits almost forgotten in a little glass box set into the wall of 111, Cannon Street opposite the Underground Station at TQ326809. Very difficult to photograph because of the internal light and glass. It is very low to the pavement and I put my compact digital to the gl... (Vote or comment on this photo)
Once considered to be the guardian of the City and the place where all distances from London were measured, the London Stone used to sit almost forgotten in a little glass box set into the wall of 111 Cannon Street, opposite Cannon Street Station. It was taken to the Museum of London for two couple of years while the block was rebuilt and is now on display on a new plinth in the foyer of the new building.

Some of the photos on this page are of the stone it its old setting.

This stone is scheduled as Historic England List ID 1286846 and recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 405174. This stone is thought to be possibly a Roman milestone or the top of a Roman funerary monument. The Journal of Antiquities also includes an entry for London Stone, Camden, Greater London.
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London Stone
London Stone submitted by aolson : The London Stone displayed a bit more prominently in its new home. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

London Stone
London Stone submitted by aolson : A closer view of the stone and the shops next to Cannon Street station. (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Stone
London Stone submitted by theCaptain : After the disappointment of the Stone itself, a much better way to enjoy The London Stone is to have a pint in the cellar bar which shares its name. (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

London Stone
London Stone submitted by theCaptain : The Plaque on the top of its little box (Vote or comment on this photo)

London Stone
London Stone submitted by theCaptain : I struggled to find The London Stone at first, not helped by looking for it at No 110, instead of No 111, and asked several people of its whereabouts, but nobody knew... Then by looking where I was expecting to find it, and walking the street a couple of times, my Dad said "whats this, is this it?" Have to say its not quite what I was expecting, and is very disappointing, and not only just a...

London Stone
London Stone submitted by theCaptain

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"London Stone" | Login/Create an Account | 18 News and Comments
  
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London Stone has its own website by Runemage on Saturday, 29 August 2020
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https://www.londonstone.org.uk/
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'Karma restored': mythical London Stone returns to its City home by Andy B on Sunday, 23 September 2018
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Quoted by Shakespeare and linked to Brutus, the all-powerful rock is returning to 111 Cannon Street Half a century ago, the “London Stone” returned to its rightful place and the Cuban missile crisis was resolved soon afterwards.

In a fortnight’s time it will make a similar journey home. “We are hoping all the modern woes of life might be reversed now the karma is being restored,” said the Museum of London curator Roy Stephenson.

The London Stone is a not particularly attractive lump of sooty limestone. But it has been laden with a plethora of myths and mysteries, including the belief that if it is moved from its home in the City then London will no longer flourish.

Perhaps for that reason, it has always stayed at 111 Cannon Street, apart from in 1960 when it was moved temporarily to the Guildhall Museum while construction work took place. In 2016 it was transferred to the Museum of London for similar reasons.

More here
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/23/karma-restored-mythical-london-stone-returns-to-its-city-home
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London Stone to go on show at last by AngieLake on Saturday, 12 March 2016
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Just came across this report:

The stone is now set to go on show in the Museum of London for 20 months, starting from the end of spring, according to The Guardian.

While the London Stone has been moved several times, it always seems to have been in the same stretch of Cannon Street opposite St Swithin's church.

Originally it was in the middle of the street, but it was moved in 1742 to the north side by the church, where it has been ever since.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3488893/Mysterious-ancient-stone-lain-heart-City-London-centuries-last.html

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/12/psychogeographers-landmark-london-stone-on-show-at-last
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The other London Stones by Andy B on Friday, 13 November 2015
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There are other London Stones in Staines, on the Isle of Grain, Southend-on-Sea and Upnor, Essex

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone_%28riparian%29
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Re: London Stone by TheCaptain on Sunday, 24 November 2013
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see here on streetview

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    Re: London Stone by Runemage on Tuesday, 26 November 2013
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    A few years ago it seemed it was going to be moved. The London Stone is on Twitter (!) and appears to be saying WHSmith have taken over the shop behind it. "London Stone ‏@thelondonstone 15 Nov "I am not sure i like my rear end being obscured by a magazine rack these days..."

    https://twitter.com/thelondonstone
    Bumping Andy's comment further down this page :-
    More discussions on the London Stone in our Forum
    http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=3844&forum=1
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: London Stone by Andy B on Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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      The shop behind 'him' was empty for ages with no one to switch the light on in the box so I wouldn't complain too much Mr Stone. There should be a better view from inside the shop, presumably that's what the magazine rack comment is about...
      [ Reply to This ]
        Re: London Stone by TheCaptain on Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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        Last Friday, 22 Nov 2013, when I made my way to visit the stone (see pictures), there was no light on in the box and no view through into the shop. I guess the view into the shop was blocked by the aforesaid magazine rack. So I didn't go into the shop, as I was not expecing a better view.

        I think the stone would be better off in its pub, just next door at no 109.
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Re: London Stone by coldrum on Tuesday, 04 September 2012
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From Clas Merdin: Tales from the Enchanted Island

"London Stone has been described as an outlier to a stone circle that once stood on Ludgate Hill, a sacred place from ancient times. Tradition claims a pagan temple on the site was destroyed around 597 AD to make way for the first Christian church to be built there in 604 AD, the precursor to St Paul's Cathedral. Is it possible that a prehistoric standing stone has survived in the heart of the modern city?

Book the Third: The London Stone
London Stone, a Grade II listed ancient monument, once a much larger block of limestone but now about eighteen inches square, is today imprisoned behind a iron grating within a wall on the north side of Cannon Street opposite the railway station. The Stone has gained near mythical status over the years, it certainly seems to have had an active history and has been repeatedly moved from its original position, wherever that was. And now it seems to be on the move again.

The property company Minerva plan to demolish entire seven-storey office block where London Stone is now housed and propose to relocate it to an office block further down the road at the Walbrook Building, one of the City's newer office blocks. A move considered as preservation by some and desecration by others, the plan includes alterations to the front of the Walbrook Building where a special display case will be built to contain the legendary London Stone.

Only traces of the Stone's early legend has survived and nothing is known of its early history for certain; the Stone is first mentioned in the 10th century were it is recorded as a landmark belonging to Christ's Church in Canterbury. The composition of the stone is Oolitic limestone, a non-local stone, which must have been transported in to London for construction purposes, possibly by the Romans for use as the Milliarium Aureum (Golden Milestone), the suggestion no doubt enhanced by the Stone's close proximity to the Roman road Ermine Street running from the Roman fort at Cripplegate (Londinium) to Eburacum (York) and onto Hadrian's Wall in the north. And yet some claim its origin is even earlier and that Cannon Street is on the line of an ancient, pre-Roman trackway into London, marking an alignment to Tower Hill with London Stone as the omphalos or sacred centre where all roads met.

In the 16th century we find our first descriptions of the Stone. William Camden, author of Britannia, was probably the first to describe the Stone as a Roman ‘milliarium’, the central milestone from which all distances to Londinium were measured in the land Itineraries. Camden’s trusted reputation amongst later antiquarians has guaranteed the survival of this tradition and it certainly remains popular today. However, there is no evidence to support this view and certainly no trace of Roman numerals has ever been found on the stone.

Evidently at some time the Stone has lost much of it's bulk as it was once much larger and stood on the opposite side of the road. However, the reason for the reduction in size seems to have eluded history. A 16th century copperplate map of the City of London shows the Stone as a large rectangular block in the roadway opposite the main door of St Swithin's Church.

The previous size of the Stone is made clear by the Elizabethan historian John Stow who describes it as, ‘a great stone called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron’ (Survey of London,1598). John Dee, alchemist of Queen Elizabeth I, is said to have taken pieces of the Stone for occult experiments, perhaps this was common practice and the Stone was chipped away by relic hunters."

Rest of article here:

http://clasmerdin.blogspot.co.uk/2012_06_01_archive.html
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    Re: London Stone by Andy B on Friday, 13 November 2015
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    The London Stone by John Clark, formerly Senior Curator (Medieval), Museum of London

    Today, all that is left of the once-famous London Stone is no more than a block of stone set
    behind an iron grille in the wall of no 111 Cannon Street, a dilapidated 1960s office building
    soon to be demolished. A bronze plaque tells the passer-by little more than that ‘Its origin
    and purpose are unknown’. Its origin is indeed mysterious, and whenever development of
    the site is proposed, the media work up the mystery – not forgetting to mention the ‘belief’
    that if the stone is moved or destroyed, the future of London itself will be jeopardized.

    However, much of what we think we know about London Stone – see for example the
    farrago of myth contained in the present on-line Wikipedia article – is untrue, or at best is
    guesswork unsupported by any evidence.
    What can we be certain of? The stone itself is oolitic limestone, of a type first brought to
    London for building and sculptural purposes in the Roman period – but also used in Saxon
    and medieval times. Its original location, towards the southern edge of the medieval
    Candlewick Street (now Cannon Street) opposite St Swithin’s church (called ‘St Swithin at
    London Stone’ by at least 1557) would place it in front of the great Roman building, often
    identified as the provincial Governor’s palace, that stood on and to either side of the site now
    occupied by Cannon Street station, and it has been suggested it was originally some sort of
    monument erected in the palace forecourt.

    On the other hand, it also stands at the centre of the grid of new streets laid out after King
    Alfred re-established London in 886, after Viking attacks had destroyed the original Saxon
    town, so it may have served some significant function for late Saxon Londoners. And it must
    be at this period that it received its singular name. We first read of London Stone in a
    document dated between 1098 and 1108, a list of London properties belonging to
    Canterbury Cathedral. It is the ‘address’ of one ‘Eadwaker aet lundene stane’ who had given
    property to the cathedral. And it is usually in
    this sense, as a location or neighbourhood, that
    it is mentioned in medieval documents. The first
    mayor, Henry Fitz Ailwin – son of Ailwin or
    Aethelwine ‘of London Stone’ – lived in a house on the north side of St Swithin’s church.
    London Stone entered national history briefly in the summer of 1450, when John or Jack
    Cade, leader of the Kentish rebellion against the corrupt government of Henry VI, entered
    London and, striking London Stone with his sword, claimed in the name of Mortimer, his
    adopted nom-de-guerre, to be ‘lord of this city’. There is no recorded precedent for his
    action, and contemporary chroniclers were at a loss as to its significance. Accounts even
    differ as to when it occurred – when Cade first
    entered the city on Friday 3 July, or the
    following day.

    Unfortunately we know the story best from Shakespeare’s
    Henry VI Part 2
    – in which Cade
    seats himself on the stone as on a throne, issues proclamations, and passes swift
    judgement on the first unfortunate man to offend him. This is great theatre; it is also fiction –
    but it has led to the belief that London Stone was traditionally used for such purposes.
    Shakespeare’s inventive genius has a lot to answer for.
    2
    In the 16
    th
    and 17
    th
    centuries London Stone was one of the tourist sights of London. John
    Stow provides our first description of it, in his
    Survey of London
    (1598): ‘a great stone called
    London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron’. It seem

    Read the rest of this post...
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Re: London Stone talk at Museum of London: Making a Myth, April 13, 2010 by Andy B on Tuesday, 09 March 2010
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More discussions on the London Stone in our Forum
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=3844&forum=1
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London Stone talk at Museum of London: Making a Myth, April 13, 2010 by Andy B on Tuesday, 09 March 2010
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London Stone: making a myth

Type: Lecture
Programme: Adult Programme Feb - Apr 2010
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Location: Museum of London
Part of the "LAMAS Lectures " series of events
Description

Join the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS) for a monthly lecture detailing exciting recent research on London's archaeology and history. Todays speaker will be John Clark, former Senior Curator (Medieval)at Museum of London
Dates and times

* Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 18:30 - 20:00

London Stone: Making a Myth

John Clark, formerly Senior Curator (Medieval), Museum of London
John Clark has recently retired from a long and distinguished career as Senior Curator (Medieval) at the Museum of London. In this talk he investigates the strange history of London Stone, the mysterious block of limestone that currently sits, ignored by passers-by, in an alcove in the wall of a building opposite Cannon Street Station. Already a subject of speculation in the 16th century, subsequently identified in turn as a Roman milestone, as a Druid monument, as the 'Stone of Brutus' and as 'London's original fetish stone', it is now considered by some to play an essential role in the 'sacred geometry' of London. How have such diverse opinions as to its purpose arisen? - and can we truly identify its date and its original function?

http://www.lamas.org.uk/
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Re: London Stone by Andy B on Friday, 05 March 2010
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Vintage photo and more here
http://www.whataboutclients.com/archives/2010/03/the_london_ston_1.html
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Re: London Stone by Andy B on Friday, 05 March 2010
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As of March 2010 the London Stone is still in the location as reported on this page, perhaps they changed their mind about demolishing that building or couldn't get planning permission.

I literally bumped into it a few months ago while wandering round the City of London looking at the churches. There's a bar next door with a big sign called 'London Stone', I thought, hang on a minute that sounds familiar, had a look round close by and there it was!

I stood across the road watching it for about 10 minutes. No one gives it a first look let alone a second look.

It's actually one of the sites you can see on Google Street View, here is the link, it's in the little box with the railings attached to that building.
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Re: London Stone by TimPrevett on Monday, 22 May 2006
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The London Stone is to be moved due to demolition of the premisies see the BBC HERE
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Re: London Stone by Rombald on Monday, 13 February 2006
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I quote from Ralph Merrifield's "Roman London" (Cassell, London, 1969, pp. 95-7):

On the southern side of the ancient [Roman] road, and therefore beneath the middle of the present street, just to the east of Cannon Street Station, there stood in the Middle Ages a mysterious stone monument which, at least as early as the twelfth centruy, was known simply as London Stone [footnote to an 1189 reference]. ...
In 1742 the worn stump, which had been for some time protected by a stone cover, was removed to the north side of the street, and in 1798 it was set in a stone case in the south external wall of St. Swithin's Church. The church was destroyed by bombing in the war and the Stone was removed when the ruined wall was demolished in 1961. It was found to be merely the rounded apex of the monument, made of Clipsham Limestone and shaped rather like a tea-cosy. ... the anceint fetish stone of London ...
... Since it is not a natural monolith, but a monument shaped by masons from quarried stone, it is unlikely that it is a pagan Saxon sacred stone ... It was certainly not a wayside cross of te Christian Saxon period, since in that case some memory would have been preserved in its name. ... Its Roman origin has been doubted because it is of Clipsham Stone, an oolitic limestone which was extensively used for building in East Anglia in the Middle Ages. We do not kow that this stone was exploited to any extent during the Roman period ...
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