St Magnus the Martyr

This virtual tour was created by Eye Revolution, specialists in virtual tours for two decades. Their focus is on creating 360° photography to showcase a space, with additional video and stills. https://www.eyerevolution.co.uk/ Rector: The Revd J Philip Warner SSC MA (Oxon) Parish Clerk: Michael V Cooper MA (Oxon) FRSA Treasurer: David Pearson BA MBA Verger:…

After the mediaeval bridge was demolished in 1831, St Magnus was granted part of the road to the west of the church to use as a courtyard in compensation for the loss of a detached churchyard removed by the construction of King William Street. The next to last arch and one starling at the northern…

Navigate around the virtual model in either Orbit Mode or First Person Mode. Orbit Mode (default): rotate around a fixed camera point. Double-clicking anywhere on the model sets the camera pivot point to that spot. First Person: walk through space and look around. Use ↑,←,↓,→ (or W,A,S,D) for zoom in, move left, zoom out, and move right.…

John Stow’s A Survey of London (first edition 1598; revised edition 1603) recorded the memorials in the church, but none of these survived the Great Fire of London. The walls and floor of the church contain many memorials dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Several vaults were built under the church, including one built in…

Robert Preston was buried at St Michael Crooked Lane on 21 March 1730. His memorial was preserved when that church was demolished in 1831. The inscription reads: Here lieth the Body of Robert PrestonLate Drawer at the Boar’s head Tavern in Great Eastcheap;Who departed this life March the 16 Anno Dom. 1730Aged 27 Years Bacchus…

The Great Fire of London in September 1666 gutted the mediaeval City of London, destroying 13,200 houses, St Paul’s Cathedral and 87 parish churches. St Magnus stood less than 300 yards from the bakehouse of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane where the fire started and was, after St Margaret New Fish Street, the second church to be…

St Magnus the Martyr stands close to the Monument to the Great Fire of London of 1666. The Old Swan by the river, mentioned by Pepys, was a little ‘above bridge’ and in 1715 became the starting point for the Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race, the oldest rowing race in the world. As the current of…

Prior to the Great Fire of London of 1666 the old tower had a ring of five bells, a small sanctus bell and a clock bell. Following the completion of the new tower, a ring of eight bells was cast by Richard Phelps of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Between 1714 and 1718 the ring was increased…

Behind the font is one of the church’s three benefaction boards, which is considered one of the finest in the City and records gifts made between 1640 and 1700. The main panel is flanked by festoons descending from cherub-heads, with a cornice and broken segmental pediment above. In the centre of the latter there is…

The statue of the church’s patron was designed by Martin Travers in 1928. It shows St Magnus in a commanding pose dressed as a Roman legionary with, incongruously, a helmet with curving horns and axe. This covers his hair but he has a neat dark beard and moustache.  Over his armour, which is black and…

The font was moved from the east to the west end of the south aisle in 1924. Previously it was between the santuary and south door (now blocked). It is of white marble with an octagonal bowl, given in 1683 by three parishioners: Captain William Richardson, Henry Freeman and Thomas Passenger. The upper part of…

Most of the old box pews were replaced with the current pews as part of the restoration of the church in 1924. However, two of the original 17th century box pews, used by the churchwardens, can be seen at the west end of the nave, either side of the door between the nave and the narthex.…

The nave has colonnades of fluted Ionic columns, standing on octagonal bases, which divide the nave and the side aisles. These support an entablature and attic, from which spring a late 18th-century barrel-vaulted ceiling with fluted and coffered plasterwork into which is cut a clerestory with oval windows. The plasterwork above the High Altar is…

The stained glass windows in the south wall, which are by Lawrence Lee (1909-2011), date from 1949 to 1955, and represent lost churches associated with the three united parishes: St Magnus and his ruined church on Egilsay, St Margaret of Antioch with her lost church in New Fish Street, St Michael with his lost church in Crooked Lane (demolished to make…

Many famous sermons have been preached from the pulpit of St Magnus. In the summer of 1527 Thomas Bilney preached a sermon against images, including the church’s newly-erected rood awaiting gilding.  Bilney was arrested after his sermon at St Magnus and was tried for heresy in December 1527.  He recanted and was released, but was…

The wrought iron mayoral sword rest is of elaborate scroll and foliate design with, at the apex, a gilded/gold-painted crown symbolising the Lord Mayor’s supreme civic authority within the City, which he puts aside in the church when he sets his sword on the sword rest, its pommel resting on the scallop shell-shaped dish at…

The original long windows in the north aisle were reduced in size in 1782 because of the noise from the neighbouring Billingsgate Fish Market. The resulting seven circular windows all contain stained glass. The window in the sacristry at the west end contains glass of 1671 from Plumbers’ Hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane, which…

The west end of the nave is dominated by the gallery, organ case and organ, with its double-storeyed array of pipes reaching up to the roof. The organ was the gift of Sir Charles Duncombe. Click on the ‘zoomable’ high resolution still to examine the carving in detail. Gallery The early 18th century gallery is…

In fitting out the church after the Great Fire, the parish decided to place the communion table on a marble ascent, with steps and a chequered marble floor for the chancel. It also commissioned new altar rails of Sussex wrought iron, with large panels of scroll work and repoussé ornament, which date either from 1683…

The Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham, where the office of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina is offered and the Angelus or Regina Caeli is sung after Sunday Mass, is the work of Martin Travers. It was adapted from the early 13th-century Langham Madonna in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1931,…

Miles Coverdale was Bishop of Exeter from 1551-53 and Rector of St Magnus the Martyr from 1564-66. He completed the first printed translation into English of the whole Bible in 1535. The 300th anniversary in 1835 generated considerable interest and a large stone tablet was affixed to the wall in St Magnus the Martyr in his…

At the east end of the south aisle is the chapel of Christ the King, which is used as the altar of repose on Maundy Thursday where the Sacrament is reserved for adoration and use at the Good Friday service. The reredos was once the doorcase to the south-east entrance to the church. The figure…

There was a Lady Chapel in the mediaeval church. The royal mason, Henry Yevele, was buried there in 1400, leaving a bequest for two chaplains to celebrate divine service at the altar of St. Mary and to maintain a lamp perpetually burning, day and night, before the Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the…

The 14 Stations of the Cross were carved by Robert Randall and Ashley Sands from honey-coloured Japanese oak. The carving is broad and unfussy, with very expressive use of drapery, the only painted detail being the simple gilding of the haloes. Though the stations are quite small, 2 ft by 1 ft, they have a…

The Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour is a copy of a 13th century Byzantine painting of the Madonna and Child.  It is mounted, glazed and set in a substantial moulded dark-stained wooden frame, gold-painted on the outer edges.  Inside the glazing, on the mount, are five small silver hearts while a further, larger…

In 1924 Martin Travers restored the 17th-century High Altar reredos, including the paintings of Moses and Aaron, and reconstructed its upper storey, which had been mutilated when the east window was inserted in 1825. Above the reredos Travers added a painted and gilded rood, together with flaming urns. In the centre of the reredos there…

The original church of St Magnus the Martyr was built in the early to mid-11th century on a strip of reclaimed land south of the Roman river wall to serve the growing population of the bridgehead area. The Saxon wooden bridge over the River Thames was built around 1000 AD. According to the Olaf sagas,…

Reading from top to bottom the five parish boundary marks are: StMO: St Martin Orgar (now combined with St Clement Eastcheap) StMCL: St Michael, Crooked Lane 1851 StMRNF: St Margaret, New Fish Street 1791 StMM: St Magnus the Martyr 1847 StMM: St Magnus the Martyr 1787 Nearby is a fire hydrant from the 1830s made…

The Vestry House, dating from the 1830s, stands at the south west corner of the church and is built of brick and stone with tripartite windows. It was perhaps designed by Robert Smirke, who built the rectory at 39 King William Street in 1833-35 (sold in 1921 and subsequently demolished) and whose pupil Henry Roberts…

The lead planter was a gift of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, having been cast by Peter and Deborah Cheesman, Phil Mead, Jane Palmer and Eddie McCourt at the Plumbers’ Company’s lead craft facility at Amberley Museum in West Sussex. The Company originally worshipped at St Michael Crooked Lane, but when that church was demolished…

St Magnus has had a tower clock since at least the mid-16th century. The clock was a well-known landmark in the City as it hung over the roadway of old London Bridge. The post-Fire tower clock was made at a cost of £485 5s 4d by Langley Bradley of Fenchurch Street, who worked for Wren…

Sir Christopher Wren modelled the steeple of St Magnus on that of St Charles Borromeo in Antwerp. A stone spire was proposed but not executed in the 1680s. The lantern and cupola, very different in design, were added in 1703-1706. The west face of the tower has pilasters, a pediment and a doorway surmounted with…

Welcome to the Parish and Pilgrimage Church of St Magnus the Martyr in the City of London.   Rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London, St Magnus is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in London.  We don’t receive any public funding towards the cost of maintaining the fabric…

How does the virtual tour work? Navigate around the tour by clicking on the arrows and roundels. Find out more information about items of special interest and listen to relevant audio clips by selecting the information pop-ups (‘i‘ icon) View high-resolution zoomable images by clicking on the magnifying glass icons. A menu icon is at…