Misplaced Pages

St Magnus the Martyr
Parish and Pilgrimage Church of St Magnus the Martyr
St Magnus the Martyr
Location	London, EC3
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Previous denomination	Catholic Church
Churchmanship	Traditional Catholic
Website	stmagnusmartyr.org.uk
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I listed building
Architect(s)	Christopher Wren
Style	Baroque
Administration
Diocese	London
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Rt Revd Jonathan Baker (PEV)
Rector	Philip Warner

St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge, is a Church of England church and parish within the City of London. The church, which is located in Lower Thames Street near The Monument to the Great Fire of London, is part of the Diocese of London and under the pastoral care of the Bishop of Fulham. It is a Grade I listed building. The rector uses the title "Cardinal Rector" and, since the abolition of the College of Minor Canons of St Paul's Cathedral in 2016, is the only cleric in the Church of England to use the title cardinal.

St Magnus lies on the original alignment of London Bridge between the City and Southwark. The ancient parish was united with that of St Margaret, New Fish Street, in 1670 and with that of St Michael, Crooked Lane, in 1831. The three united parishes retained separate vestries and churchwardens. Parish clerks continue to be appointed for each of the three parishes.

St Magnus is the guild church of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers and the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, and the ward church of the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without. It is also twinned with the Church of the Resurrection in New York City.

Its prominent location and beauty have prompted many mentions in literature. In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens notes how, as Nancy heads for her secret meeting with Mr Brownlow and Rose Maylie on London Bridge, "the tower of old Saint Saviour's Church, and the spire of Saint Magnus, so long the giant-warders of the ancient bridge, were visible in the gloom". The church's spiritual and architectural importance is celebrated in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, who wrote, "the walls of Magnus Martyr hold/Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold". He added in a footnote that "the interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest among Wren's interiors". One biographer of Eliot notes that at first he enjoyed St Magnus aesthetically for its "splendour"; later he appreciated its "utility" when he came there as a sinner.

Dedication

The identity of the St Magnus to whom the church is dedicated is disputed. It is now dedicated to St Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney, who died in 1116 or 1117. However, scholarly opinion is increasingly coming to the conclusion that the original dedication was to St Magnus of Anagni, a 2nd-century Italian saint whose cult was widespread.

St Magnus of Orkney was executed on the island of Egilsay on 16 April in 1116 or 1117 (the year is uncertain), having been captured during a power struggle with his cousin, a political rival. Magnus had a reputation for piety and gentleness and was sanctified (a form of unofficial canonisation) in 1136. St Ronald, the son of Magnus's sister Gunhild Erlendsdotter, became Earl of Orkney in 1136 and in 1137 initiated the construction of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.

The London church was not linked to St Magnus of Orkney before the 18th century, when it was suggested that it was either "dedicated to the memory of St Magnus or Magnes, who suffer'd under the Emperor Aurelian in 276 , or else to a person of that name, who was the famous Apostle or Bishop of the Orcades."

For the next century most historians followed the suggestion that the church was dedicated to the Roman saint of Cæsarea. However, in the mid-19th century the prominent Danish archaeologist Professor Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821–85) instead promoted the association with Magnus of Orkney, during his visit to the British Isles in 1846–47, when he was formulating the concept of the "Viking Age", and then in his Account of the Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland, and Ireland of 1852. This theory immediately found its way into both guides and academic works. The discovery of Magnus of Orkney's relics in 1919 increased interest in a Scandinavian patron and this connection was encouraged by the rector who arrived in 1921. The dedication to St Magnus of Orkney was confirmed by the Bishop of London in 1926. Following this decision a patronal festival service was held on 16 April 1926. The 900th anniversary of the death of St Magnus was marked with a Pontifical High Mass and Solemn Pontifical Vespers at the London church on 16 April 2016 (although it was to be celebrated in 2017 at St Magnus Cathedral in Orkney).

The principal argument against an association with Magnus of Orkney is that the original church pre-dated his sanctification by around a century, and was also probably constructed before the cult of St Olaf, which did not become established in London until the 1050s. The dedication of the church to St Magnus (as for the four City churches dedicated to St Botolph) at least partly reflected interest in particular saints' relics during the 11th century. There was a cult of this earlier (unidentified) St Magnus before the Norman Conquest: several English monastic houses claimed to have relics of the saint; King Edgar gave one to Westminster Abbey; and the relic collection of Peterborough Abbey included the hand of St Magnus the Martyr. The feast of St Magnus the Martyr, celebrated on 19 August, appears in most liturgical calendars from the Gelasian Sacramentary in the eighth century and the missal of Robert of Jumièges in the 11th century to the 16th century.

It is therefore likely that the original dedication of the church was to St Magnus of Anagni, a putative second-century bishop, martyred in the reign of the Emperor Decius, whose feast was celebrated on 19 August. This identification was proposed by Richard Thomson in his Chronicles of London Bridge of 1827, and has more recently been argued at greater length by Matthew Payne and Michael Cooper. It is possible that the dedication was influenced by Cnut's journey to Rome in 1027 or by the translation to Canterbury in 1023 of the remains of Alphage, Bishop and Martyr, from St Paul's Cathedral, where a cult had rapidly developed at his tomb.

The feast on 19 August was still celebrated in the 16th century. It was included in an "Almanack" attached to Miles Coverdale's translation of the Bible and in the Preces Privitae of 1564 (authorised by Elizabeth I for private devotion), but was excluded from the Book of Common Prayer. It was also omitted from the Tridentine calendar, falling as it did within the Octave of the Assumption, but has remained in local calendars. St Magnus of Anagni also remains in the Martyrologium Romanum.

History

11th and 12th centuries: foundation

A metropolitan bishop of London attended the Council of Arles in 314, which indicates that there must have been a Christian community in Londinium by this date, and it has been suggested that a large aisled building excavated in 1993 near Tower Hill can be compared with the 4th-century Cathedral of St Tecla in Milan. However, there is no evidence to suggest that any of the mediaeval churches in the City of London had a Roman foundation.

The archaeological record suggests that the area of the bridgehead was not occupied from the early 5th century until the early 10th century. Environmental evidence indicates that the area was waste ground during this period, colonised by elder and nettles. Following Alfred the Great's decision to reoccupy the walled area of London in 886, new harbours were established at Queenhithe and Billingsgate. A wooden bridge was in place by the early 11th century, a factor which would have encouraged the occupation of the bridgehead by craftsmen and traders. During the 10th and 11th centuries, as overseas trade revived, the landing places immediately downstream of the bridge became ever more significant. Streets were laid out in the vicinity of the bridge leading from the river into the eastern part of the City. Fish Street Hill, leading from the bridge itself to Bishopsgate, originated earlier.

The narrow strip of land south of the Roman river wall widened enough to accommodate a significant number of buildings and a collapse of part of the wall, probably at some point between 1016 and 1066, helped to facilitate access. The waterfront at this time was a hive of activity, with the construction of embankments sloping down from the riverside wall to the river. A lane connecting Botolph's Wharf and Billingsgate to the rebuilt bridge had developed by the mid-11th century. Thames Street appeared in the second half of the 11th century immediately behind (north of) the old Roman riverside wall and in 1931 a piling from this was discovered during the excavation of the foundations of a nearby building. It now stands at the base of the church tower. St Magnus was built to the south of Thames Street to serve the growing population of the bridgehead area in the 11th century.

The small ancient parish extended about 110 yards along the waterfront either side of the old bridge, from 'Stepheneslane' (later Churchehawlane or Church Yard Alley) and 'Oystergate' (later called Water Lane or Gully Hole) on the West side to 'Retheresgate' (a southern extension of Pudding Lane) on the East side, and was centred on the crossroads formed by Fish Street Hill (originally Bridge Street, then New Fish Street) and Thames Street. The mediaeval parish also included Drinkwater's Wharf (named after the owner, Thomas Drinkwater), which was located immediately West of the bridge, and Fish Wharf, which was to the south of the church. The latter was of considerable importance as the fishmongers had their shops on the wharf. The tenement was devised by Andrew Hunte to the Rector and Churchwardens in 1446. The ancient parish was situated in the South East part of Bridge Ward, which had evolved in the first half of the 11th century between the embankments to either side of the bridge.

St Magnus was purportedly granted by William I in 1067 to Westminster Abbey. Although this charter is generally accepted to be a later forgery by Osbert of Clare, Prior of Westminster Abbey, as is a charter of confirmation in 1108–16, it may preserve genuine evidence of a foundation of the church in the 11th century. There is a further document referring to the church in 1128–33. In the second half of the 12th century control of the advowson of St Magnus was disputed between the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of Bermondsey. The case was resolved in the Curia Regis on 23 April 1182, with the advowson being divided equally between them. Later in the 1180s, on their joint presentation, the Archdeacon of London inducted his nephew as parson. On 14 April 1208, again on the joint presentation of the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of Bermondsey, the Bishop of London instituted Simon de Valenciis to St Magnus.

13th and 14th centuries: stone bridge and chapel of St Thomas Becket

Between the late Saxon period and 1209 there was a series of wooden bridges across the Thames, but in that year a stone bridge was completed. The work was overseen by Peter of Colechurch, a priest and head of the Fraternity of the Brethren of London Bridge. The Church had from early times encouraged the building of bridges and this activity was so important it was perceived to be an act of piety – a commitment to God which should be supported by the giving of alms. London's citizens made gifts of land and money "to God and the Bridge". The Bridge House Estates became part of the City's jurisdiction in 1282.

Until 1831 the bridge was aligned with Fish Street Hill, so the main entrance into the City from the south passed the West door of St Magnus on the north bank of the river. The bridge included a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket for the use of pilgrims journeying to Canterbury Cathedral to visit his tomb. The chapel and about two thirds of the bridge were in the parish of St Magnus. After some years of rivalry a dispute arose between the church and the chapel over the offerings given to the chapel by the pilgrims. The matter was resolved by the brethren of the chapel making an annual contribution to St Magnus. At the Reformation the chapel was turned into a house and later a warehouse, the latter being demolished in 1757–58.

The church grew in importance. On 21 November 1234 a grant of land was made to the parson of St Magnus for the enlargement of the church. The London Eyre of 1244 recorded that in 1238 "A thief named William of Ewelme of the county of Buckingham fled to the church of St. Magnus the Martyr, London, and there acknowledged the theft and abjured the realm. He had no chattels." Another entry recorded that "The City answers saying that the church of ... St. Magnus the Martyr ... which situated on the king's highway ... ought to belong to the king and be in his gift". The church presumably jutted into the road running to the bridge, as it did in later times. In 1276 it was recorded that "the church of St. Magnus the Martyr is worth £15 yearly and Master Geoffrey de la Wade now holds it by the grant of the prior of Bermundeseie and the abbot of Westminster to whom King Henry conferred the advowson by his charter."

In 1274 "came King Edward and his wife from the Holy Land and were crowned at Westminster on the Sunday next after the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady , being the Feast of Saint Magnus ; and the Conduit in Chepe ran all the day with red wine and white wine to drink, for all such as wished." Edward I's eldest son, Alphonso, Earl of Chester, died at Windsor on the feast of St Magnus, 19 August 1284. Stow records that "in the year 1293, for victory obtained by Edward I against the Scots, every citizen, according to their several trade, made their several show, but especially the fishmongers" whose solemn procession including a knight "representing St Magnus, because it was upon St Magnus' day".

Alderman Hugh Pourt, fishmonger and Sheriff of London, and his wife Margaret founded a perpetual chantry at the start of the 14th century. An important religious guild, the Confraternity de Salve Regina, was in existence by 1343, having been founded by the "better sort of the Parish of St Magnus" to sing the anthem 'Salve Regina' every evening. The Guild certificates of 1388/89 (12 Richard II) record that the Confraternity of Salve Regina and the guild of St Thomas the Martyr in the chapel on the bridge, whose members belonged to St Magnus parish, had determined to become one, to have the anthem of St Thomas after the Salve Regina and to devote their united resources to restoring and enlarging the church of St Magnus. An act of Parliament of 1437, the Guilds and Fraternities Act 1436 (15 Hen. 6. c. 6), provided that all incorporated fraternities and companies should register their charters and have their ordinances approved by the civic authorities. Fear of enquiry into their privileges may have led established fraternities to seek a firm foundation for their rights. The letters patent of the fraternity of St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr of Salve Regina in St Magnus dated 26 May 1448 mention that the fraternity had petitioned for a charter on the grounds that the society was not duly founded.

In the mid-14th century the Pope was the Patron of the living and appointed five rectors to the benefice.

Henry Yevele, the master mason whose work included the rebuilding of Westminster Hall, the naves of Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral and the tomb of John of Gaunt and his first wife Blanche of Lancaster in old St Paul's, was a parishioner and rebuilt the chapel on London Bridge between 1384 and 1397. He served as a warden of London Bridge and was buried at St Magnus on his death in 1400. His monument was extant in John Stow's time, but was probably destroyed by the fire of 1666.

Yevele, as the King's Mason, was overseen by Geoffrey Chaucer in his capacity as the Clerk of the King's Works. In The General Prologue of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales the five guildsmen "were clothed alle in o lyveree of a solempne and a greet fraternitee" and may be thought of as belonging to the guild in the parish of St Magnus, or one like it. Chaucer's family home was near to the bridge in Thames Street. St Magnus appears several times in Anya Seton's historical novel Katherine, which is set in the 14th century.

15th and 16th centuries: before and after the Reformation

In 1417 a dispute arose concerning who should take the place of honour amongst the rectors in the City churches at the Whit Monday procession, a place that had been claimed from time to time by the rectors of St Peter Cornhill, St Magnus the Martyr and St Nicholas Cole Abbey. The Mayor and Aldermen decided that the Rector of St Peter Cornhill should take precedence.

In 1413 John Hert, grocer, bequeathed £40 to the parish to build a new south aisle. Two adjoining plots of land laying to the south of the nave were donated to the church, one by Henry Yevele in 1400, and the other by John Hale, Goldsmith, in 1426. This site was quickly developed into a cloister, used primarily as a graveyard, but undoubtedly with additional symbolic and processional purposes. For example, Henry Crane, citizen and fletcher, requested burial in the cloister of St Magnus Martyr and left 3s 4d to the parish clerks' brotherhood to pray for his soul in his will of 18 July, proved 4 August 1486.

St Magnus Corner at the north end of London Bridge was an important meeting place in mediaeval London, where notices were exhibited, proclamations read out and wrongdoers punished. As it was conveniently close to the River Thames, the church was chosen by the Bishop between the 15th and 17th centuries as a convenient venue for general meetings of the clergy in his diocese.

St Magnus maintained a group of singing children from the 1470s until the 1550s. In pictures from the mid-16th century the old church looks very similar to the present-day St Giles without Cripplegate in the Barbican. The London and Middlesex Chantry Certificate of 1548 listed the value of chantries attached to the church and the Fraternity of Salve Regina, the annual income of the latter being £49 16s 8d. The wardens said that church lands had been used for the past 200 years to maintain the church. A sum of £9 p.a. was paid to Robert Saye, priest. By the 1550s Saye was a Vicar Choral at St Paul's Cathedral and he probably moved from St Magnus when the chantry there was closed.

Dr John Young, Bishop of Callipolis (rector of St Magnus 1514–15) pronounced judgement on 16 December 1514 (with the Bishop of London and in the presence of Thomas More, then under-sheriff of London) in the heresy case concerning Richard Hunne. In the summer of 1527, Thomas Bilney preached a sermon at St Magnus criticising its newly-erected rood, awaiting gilding, as idolatrous. He was tried for heresy in December 1527 but recanted and was released. However, there was a co-ordinated campaign to discredit him, and he was tried again in 1531 after a relapse into heresy and was burned at the stake in Norwich on 19 August (St Magnus Day) 1531. A plaque erected in 1931 to mark the 400th anniversary of his death calls him the "spiritual father of the Reformation in England".

Maurice Griffith was rector here from 1537 until his death in 1558, holding the Bishopric of Rochester as well from 1554. His funeral, held at St Magnus, was a splendid affair, with chief mourners Sir William Petre, Sir William Garrard and Simon Lowe. These last two were parishioners. Sir William Garrard, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman, Sheriff of London in 1553/53, Lord Mayor in 1555/56 and a Member of Parliament was born in the parish and buried at St Magnus in 1571.Simon Lowe was a Member of Parliament and Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company during the reign of Queen Mary and one of the jurors who acquitted Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in 1554.

The patronage of St Magnus, having previously been in the Abbots and Convents of Westminster and Bermondsey (who presented alternately), fell to the Crown on the suppression of the monasteries. In 1553, Queen Mary, by letters patent, granted it to the Bishop of London and his successors. According to the martyrologist John Foxe, a woman was imprisoned in the 'cage' on London Bridge in April 1555 and told to "cool herself there" for refusing to pray at St Magnus for the recently deceased Pope Julius III.

John Rylie, citizen and haberdasher, bequeathed his dwelling house at the north end of London Bridge to charity in 1577. Sir William Romney, merchant, philanthropist, Master of the Haberdashers' Company, Alderman for Bridge Within and Sheriff of London in 1603/04 was married at St Magnus in 1582. Ben Jonson is believed to have been married at St Magnus in 1594.

The church had a series of distinguished rectors in the second half of the 16th and first half of the 17th century, including Myles Coverdale (Rector 1564–66), John Young (Rector 1566–92), Theophilus Aylmer (Rector 1592–1625), (Archdeacon of London and son of John Aylmer), and Cornelius Burges (Rector 1626–41). Coverdale was buried in the chancel of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange, but when that church was pulled down in 1840 his remains were removed to St Magnus.

St Magnus's rood, along with "several other things of superstition belonging to that church", were destroyed on 16 September 1559 in "an ebullition of Protestant zeal" On 5 November 1562 the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken, in two parts all the altar stones in the church. Coverdale, an anti-vestiarian, was Rector at the peak of the vestments controversy. In March 1566 Archbishop Parker caused great consternation among many clergy by his edicts prescribing what was to be worn and by his summoning the London clergy to Lambeth to require their compliance. Coverdale excused himself from attending. Stow records that a non-conforming Scot who normally preached at St Magnus twice a day precipitated a fight on Palm Sunday 1566 at Little All Hallows in Thames Street with his preaching against vestments. Coverdale's resignation from St Magnus in summer 1566 may have been associated with these events. Separatist congregations started to emerge after 1566 and the first such, who called themselves 'Puritans' or 'Unspottyd Lambs of the Lord', was discovered close to St Magnus at Plumbers' Hall in Thames Street on 19 June 1567.

17th century: Civil War, Commonwealth and Restoration

St Magnus narrowly escaped destruction in 1633. A later edition of Stow's Survey records that "On the 13th day of February, between eleven and twelve at night, there happened in the house of one Briggs, a Needle-maker near St Magnus Church, at the North end of the Bridge, by the carelessness of a Maid-Servant setting a tub of hot sea-coal ashes under a pair of stairs, a sad and lamentable fire, which consumed all the buildings before eight of the clock the next morning, from the North end of the Bridge to the first vacancy on both sides, containing forty-two houses; water then being very scarce, the Thames being almost frozen over." Susannah Chambers "by her last will & testament bearing date 28th December 1640 gave the sum of Twenty-two shillings and Sixpence Yearly for a Sermon to be preached on the 12th day of February in every Year within the Church of Saint Magnus in commemoration of God's merciful preservation of the said Church of Saint Magnus from Ruin, by the late and terrible Fire on London Bridge. Likewise Annually to the Poor the sum of 17/6." The tradition of a "Fire Sermon" was revived on 12 February 2004, when the first preacher was the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.

Parliamentarian rule and the more Protestant ethos of the 1640s led to the removal or destruction of "superstitious" and "idolatrous" images and fittings. Glass painters such as Baptista Sutton, who had previously installed "Laudian innovations", found new employment by repairing and replacing these to meet increasingly strict Protestant standards. In January 1642 Sutton replaced 93 feet of glass at St Magnus and in June 1644 he was called back to take down the "painted imagery glass" and replace it. In June 1641 "rail riots" broke out at a number of churches. This was a time of high tension following the trial and execution of the Earl of Strafford and rumours of army and popish plots were rife. The Protestation Oath, with its pledge to defend the true religion "against all Popery and popish innovation", triggered demands from parishioners for the removal of the rails as popish innovations which the Protestation had bound them to reform. The minister arranged a meeting between those for and against the pulling down of the rails, but was unsuccessful in reaching a compromise and it was feared that they would be demolished by force. However, in 1663 the parish resumed Laudian practice and re-erected rails around its communion table.

Joseph Caryl was incumbent from 1645 until his ejection in 1662. In 1663 he was reportedly living near London Bridge and preaching to an Independent congregation that met at various places in the City.

During the Great Plague of 1665, the City authorities ordered fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed. Daniel Defoe's semi-fictional, but highly realistic, work A Journal of the Plague Year records that one of these was "just by St Magnus Church".

Great Fire of London and rebuilding of the church

Despite its escape in 1633, the church was one of the first buildings to be destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. St Magnus stood less than 300 yards from the bakehouse of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane where the fire started. Farriner, a former churchwarden of St Magnus, was buried in the middle aisle of the church on 11 December 1670, perhaps within a temporary structure erected for holding services.

The parish engaged the master mason George Dowdeswell to start the work of rebuilding in 1668. The work was carried forward between 1671 and 1687 under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, the body of the church being substantially complete by 1676. At a cost of £9,579 19s 10d St Magnus was one of Wren's most expensive churches. The church of St Margaret New Fish Street was not rebuilt after the fire and its parish was united to that of St Magnus.

The chancels of many of Wren's city churches had chequered marble floors and the chancel of St Magnus is an example, the parish agreeing after some debate to place the communion table on a marble ascent with steps and to commission altar rails of Sussex wrought iron. The nave and aisles are paved with freestone flags. A lantern and cupola, closely modelled on the steeple built between 1614 and 1624 by François d'Aguilon and Pieter Huyssens for the church of St Carolus Borromeus in Antwerp, was added between 1703 and 1706. London's skyline was transformed by Wren's tall steeples and that of St Magnus is considered to be one of his finest.

The large clock projecting from the tower was a well-known landmark in the city as it hung over the roadway of Old London Bridge. It was presented to the church in 1709 by Sir Charles Duncombe (Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within and, in 1708/09, Lord Mayor of London). Tradition says "that it was erected in consequence of a vow made by the donor, who, in the earlier part of his life, had once to wait a considerable time in a cart upon London Bridge, without being able to learn the hour, when he made a promise, that if he ever became successful in the world, he would give to that Church a public clock ... that all passengers might see the time of day." The maker was Langley Bradley, a clockmaker in Fenchurch Street, who had worked for Wren on many other projects, including the clock for the new St Paul's Cathedral. The sword rest in the church, designed to hold the Lord Mayor's sword and mace when he attended divine service "in state", dates from 1708.

Duncombe and his benefactions to St Magnus feature prominently in Daniel Defoe's The True-Born Englishman, a biting satire on critics of William III that went through several editions from 1700 (the year in which Duncombe was elected Sheriff).

Shortly before his death in 1711, Duncombe commissioned an organ for the church, the first to have a swell-box, by Abraham Jordan (father and son). The Spectator announced that "Whereas Mr Abraham Jordan, senior and junior, have, with their own hands, joinery excepted, made and erected a very large organ in St Magnus' Church, at the foot of London Bridge, consisting of four sets of keys, one of which is adapted to the art of emitting sounds by swelling notes, which never was in any organ before; this instrument will be publicly opened on Sunday next , the performance by Mr John Robinson. The above-said Abraham Jordan gives notice to all masters and performers, that he will attend every day next week at the said Church, to accommodate all those gentlemen who shall have a curiosity to hear it".

The organ case, which remains in its original state, is looked upon as one of the finest existing examples of the Grinling Gibbons's school of wood carving. The first organist of St Magnus was John Robinson (1682–1762), who served in that role for fifty years (1712–62) and in addition as organist of Westminster Abbey from 1727. Other organists have included Henry Heron (1738–95, organist 1762-95), the blind organist George Warne (1792–1868, organist 1820–26 until his appointment to the Temple Church), James Coward (1824–80, organist 1868–80 who was also organist to the Crystal Palace and renowned for his powers of improvisation) and George Frederick Smith FRCO (1856–1918, organist 1880–1918 and Professor of Music at the Guildhall School of Music). The organ has been restored several times since it was first built: in 1760 by John Sedgewick, 1782 by Thomas Parker and John Frost, 1804 by George Parsons, 1855 by Gray & Davison, 1861 by T Hill & Son, 1879 by Messrs Brindley & Foster, 1891 by Hill & Son, 1924 and, after wartime damage, 1949 by R. Spurden Rutt & Co, and 1997 by Hill, Norman & Beard Sir Peter Maxwell Davies was one of several patrons of the organ appeal in the mid-1990s and John Scott gave an inaugural recital on 20 May 1998 following the completion of that restoration. The instrument has an Historic Organ Certificate and full details are recorded in the National Pipe Organ Register.

The hymn tune "St Magnus", usually sung at Ascensiontide to the text "The head that once was crowned with thorns", was written by Jeremiah Clarke in 1701 and named for the church.

Last years of old London Bridge

Canaletto drew St Magnus and old London Bridge as they appeared in the late 1740s. Between 1756 and 1762, under the London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756 (c. 40), the Corporation of London demolished the buildings on London Bridge to widen the roadway, ease traffic congestion and improve safety for pedestrians. The churchwardens' accounts of St Magnus list many payments to those injured on the Bridge and record that in 1752 a man was crushed to death between two carts. In the summer of 1724 the churchwardens had been obliged to spend 1/6 on "Expenses with the churchwardens of Woodford about taking away their pentioner Jane Taverner killed on the Bridge"

After the House of Commons had resolved upon the alteration of London Bridge, the Rev Robert Gibson (Rector 1747-91) applied to the House for relief; stating that 48l. 6s. 2d. per annum, part of his salary of 170l. per annum, was assessed upon houses on London Bridge; which he should utterly lose by their removal unless a clause in the bill about to be passed should provide a remedy. Accordingly, Sections 18 and 19 of 1756 Act provided that the relevant amounts of tithe and poor rate should be a charge on the Bridge House Estates.

A serious fire broke out on 18 April 1760 in an oil shop at the south-east corner of the church, which consumed most of the church roof and did considerable damage to the fabric. The fire burnt warehouses to the south of the church and a number of houses on the northern end of London Bridge.

As part of the bridge improvements, overseen by the architect Sir Robert Taylor, a new pedestrian walkway was built along the eastern side of the bridge. With the other buildings gone St Magnus blocked the new walkway. As a consequence it was necessary in 1762 to 1763 to remove the vestry rooms at the West end of the church and open up the side arches of the tower so that people could pass underneath the tower. The tower's lower storey thus became an external porch and two windows were lost from the north facade. Internally a lobby was created at the West end under the organ gallery and a screen with fine octagonal glazing inserted. A new Vestry was built to the south of the church. The Act also provided that the land taken from the church for the widening was "to be considered ... as part of the cemetery of the said church ... but if the pavement thereof be broken up on account of the burying of any persons, the same shall be ... made good ... by the churchwardens".

Soldiers were stationed in the Vestry House of St Magnus during the Gordon Riots in June 1780.

By 1782 the noise level from the activities of Billingsgate Fish Market had become unbearable and the large windows on the north side of the church were blocked up leaving only circular windows high up in the wall. The parapet and pediment above the north aisle door were probably removed at the same time. At some point between the 1760s and 1814 the present clerestory was constructed with its oval windows and fluted and coffered plasterwork. J. M. W. Turner painted the church in the mid-1790s.

The rector of St Magnus between 1792 and 1808, following the death of Robert Gibson on 28 July 1791, was Thomas Rennell FRS. Rennell was President of Sion College in 1806/07. There is a monument to Thomas Leigh (Rector 1808–48 and President of Sion College 1829/30), at St Peter's Church, Goldhanger in Essex. Richard Hazard (1761–1837) was connected with the church as sexton, parish clerk and ward beadle for nearly 50 years and served as Master of the Parish Clerks' Company in 1831/32.

In 1825 the church was "repaired and beautified at a very considerable expense. During the reparation the east window, which had been closed, was restored, and the interior of the fabric conformed to the state in which it was left by its great architect, Sir Christopher Wren. The magnificent organ ... was taken down and rebuilt by Mr Parsons, and re-opened, with the church, on the 12th February, 1826". Unfortunately, as a contemporary writer records, "On the night of the 31st of July, 1827, safety was threatened by the great fire which consumed the adjacent warehouses, and it is perhaps owing to the strenuous and praiseworthy exertions of the firemen, that the structure exists at present. ... divine service was suspended and not resumed until the 20th January 1828. In the interval the church received such tasteful and elegant decorations, that it may now compete with any church in the metropolis."

New London Bridge: a changing environment

In 1823 royal assent was given to 'An Act for the Rebuilding of London Bridge' and in 1825 John Garratt, Lord Mayor and Alderman of the Ward of Bridge Within, laid the first stone of the new London Bridge. In 1831 Sir John Rennie's new bridge was opened further upstream and the old bridge demolished. St Magnus ceased to be the gateway to London as it had been for over 600 years. Peter de Colechurch had been buried in the crypt of the chapel on the bridge and his bones were unceremoniously dumped in the River Thames. In 1921 two stones from Old London Bridge were discovered across the road from the church. They now stand in the churchyard.

Wren's church of St Michael Crooked Lane was demolished, the final service on Sunday 20 March 1831 having to be abandoned due to the effects of the building work. The Rector of St Michael preached a sermon the following Sunday at St Magnus lamenting the demolition of his church with its monuments and "the disturbance of the worship of his parishioners on the preceding Sabbath". The parish of St Michael Crooked Lane was united to that of St Magnus, which itself lost a burial ground in Church Yard Alley to the approach road for the new bridge. However, in substitution it had restored to it the land taken for the widening of the old bridge in 1762 and was also given part of the approach lands to the east of the old bridge. In 1838 the Committee for the London Bridge Approaches reported to Common Council that new burial grounds had been provided for the parishes of St Michael, Crooked Lane and St Magnus, London Bridge.

Depictions of St Magnus after the building of the new bridge, seen behind Fresh Wharf and the new London Bridge Wharf, include paintings by W. Fenoulhet in 1841 and by Charles Ginner in 1913. This prospect was affected in 1924 by the building of Adelaide House to a design by John James Burnet, The Times commenting that "the new 'architectural Matterhorn' ... conceals all but the tip of the church spire". There was, however, an excellent view of the church for a few years between the demolition of Adelaide Buildings and the erection of its replacement. Adelaide House is now listed. Regis House, on the site of the abandoned King William Street terminus of the City & South London Railway (subsequently the Northern Line), and the Steam Packet Inn, on the corner of Lower Thames Street and Fish Street Hill, were developed in 1931.

By the early 1960s traffic congestion had become a problem and Lower Thames Street was widened over the next decade to form part of a significant new east–west transport artery (the A3211). The setting of the church was further affected by the construction of a new London Bridge between 1967 and 1973. The New Fresh Wharf warehouse to the east of the church, built in 1939, was demolished in 1973-4 following the collapse of commercial traffic in the Pool of London and, after an archaeological excavation, St Magnus House was constructed on the site in 1978 to a design by R. Seifert & Partners. This development now allows a clear view of the church from the east side. The site to the south-east of The Monument (between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane), formerly predominantly occupied by fish merchants, was redeveloped as Centurion House and Gartmore (now Providian) House at the time of the closure of old Billingsgate Market in January 1982. A comprehensive redevelopment of Centurion House (renamed Monument Place) began in October 2011 and the building was let in 2014. Regis House, to the south-west of The Monument, was redeveloped by Land Securities PLC in 1998.

The vista from The Monument south to the River Thames, over the roof of St Magnus, is protected under the City of London Unitary Development Plan, although the South bank of the river is now dominated by The Shard. Since 2004 the City of London Corporation has been exploring ways of enhancing the Riverside Walk to the south of St Magnus. Work on a new staircase to connect London Bridge to the Riverside Walk is due to commence in March 2013. The story of St Magnus's relationship with London Bridge and an interview with the rector featured in the television programme The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank, first broadcast on BBC Four on 14 June 2012. The City Corporation's 'Fenchurch and Monument Area Enhancement Strategy' of August 2012 recommended ways of reconnecting St Magnus and the riverside to the area north of Lower Thames Street.

Late 19th century and early 20th century

A lectureship at St Michael, Crooked Lane, which was transferred to St Magnus in 1831, was endowed by the wills of Thomas and Susannah Townsend in 1789 and 1812 respectively. The Revd Henry Robert Huckin, Headmaster of Repton School from 1874 to 1882, was appointed Townsend Lecturer at St Magnus in 1871.

St Magnus narrowly escaped damage from a major fire in Lower Thames Street in October 1849.

During the second half of the 19th century the rectors were Alexander McCaul (1799–1863, Rector 1850–63), who coined the term "Judaeo Christian" in a letter dated 17 October 1821, and his son Alexander Israel McCaul (1835–1899, curate 1859–63, rector 1863–99). Another son, Joseph Benjamin McCaul (1827–92) served as curate from 1851 to 1854. The Revd Alexander McCaul Sr was a Christian missionary to the Polish Jews, who (having declined an offer to become the first Anglican bishop in Jerusalem) was appointed professor of Hebrew and rabbinical literature at King's College London in 1841. His daughter, Elizabeth Finn (1825–1921), a noted linguist, was the wife of James Finn, the British Consul in Jerusalem from 1846 to 1863. She founded a number of organizations including the Jerusalem Literary Society, which was the forerunner to the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Society for the Relief of Persecuted Jews (Syrian Colonization Fund) and the Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association (now known as Elizabeth Finn Care). Both McCaul and his daughter worked closely with Lord Shaftesbury.

In 1890 it was reported that the Bishop of London was to hold an inquiry as to the desirability of uniting the benefices of St George Botolph Lane and St Magnus. The expectation was a fusion of the two livings, the demolition of St George's and the pensioning of "William Gladstone's favourite Canon", Malcolm MacColl. Although services ceased there, St George's was not demolished until 1904. The parish was then merged with St Mary at Hill rather than St Magnus.

The patronage of the living was acquired in the late 19th century by Sir Henry Peek, Senior Partner of Peek Brothers & Co of 20 Eastcheap, the country's largest firm of wholesale tea brokers and dealers, and Chairman of the Commercial Union Assurance Co. Peek was a generous philanthropist who was instrumental in saving both Wimbledon Common and Burnham Beeches from development. His grandson, Sir Wilfred Peek, presented a cousin, Richard Peek, as rector in 1904. Peek, an ardent Freemason, held the office of Grand Chaplain of England. The Times recorded that his memorial service in July 1920 "was of a semi-Masonic character, Mr Peek having been a prominent Freemason". In June 1895 Peek had saved the life of a young French girl who jumped overboard from a ferry midway between Dinard and St Malo in Brittany and was awarded the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society and the Gold Medal 1st Class of the Sociâetâe Nationale de Sauvetage de France.

In November 1898 a memorial service was held at St Magnus for Sir Stuart Knill (1824–1898), head of the firm of John Knill and Co, wharfingers, and formerly Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company. This was the first such service for a Roman Catholic taken in an Anglican church. Sir Stuart's son, Sir John Knill (1856–1934), also served as Alderman for the Ward of Bridge Within, Lord Mayor and Master of the Plumbers' Company.

Until 1922 the annual Fish Harvest Festival was celebrated at St Magnus. The service moved in 1923 to St Dunstan in the East and then to St Mary at Hill, but St Magnus retained close links with the local fish merchants until the closure of old Billingsgate Market. St Magnus, in the 1950s, was "buried in the stink of Billingsgate fish-market, against which incense was a welcome antidote".

A report in 1920 from a committee chaired by Lord Phillimore proposed the demolition of nineteen City churches, including St Magnus. A general outcry from members of the public and parishioners alike prevented the execution of this plan. The members of the City Livery Club passed a resolution that they regarded "with horror and indignation the proposed demolition of 19 City churches" and pledged the club to do everything in its power to prevent such a catastrophe. T. S. Eliot wrote that the threatened churches gave "to the business quarter of London a beauty which its hideous banks and commercial houses have not quite defaced. ... the least precious redeems some vulgar street ... The loss of these towers, to meet the eye down a grimy lane, and of these empty naves, to receive the solitary visitor at noon from the dust and tumult of Lombard Street, will be irreparable and unforgotten." The London County Council published a report concluding that St Magnus was "one of the most beautiful of all Wren's works" and "certainly one of the churches which should not be demolished without specially good reasons and after very full consideration." Due to the uncertainty about the church's future, the patron decided to defer action to fill the vacancy in the benefice and a curate-in-charge temporarily took responsibility for the parish. However, on 23 April 1921 it was announced that the Revd Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton would be the new rector. The Times concluded that the appointment, with the bishop's approval, meant that the proposed demolition would not be carried out. Fr Fynes-Clinton was inducted on 31 May 1921. A further attempt to implement the recommendations of the Phillimore Report in 1926 was resisted by the Earl of Crawford in a debate in the House of Lords on 15 July 1926 who quoted "to your Lordships the list of these condemned churches. It will not take a moment. Even their fine resounding names are worthy of quotation.... St. Magnus the Martyr – many of your Lordships must know that wonderful church by the water's edge down below London Bridge".

The rectory, built by Robert Smirke in 1833-5, was at 39 King William Street. A decision was taken in 1909 to sell the property, the intention being to purchase a new rectory in the suburbs, but the sale fell through and at the time of the 1910 Land Tax Valuations the building was being let out to a number of tenants. The rectory was sold by the diocese on 30 May 1921 for £8,000 to Ridgways Limited, which owned the adjoining premises. The Vestry House adjoining the south-west of the church, replacing the one built in the 1760s, may also have been by Smirke. Part of the burial ground of St Michael, Crooked Lane, located between Fish Street Hill and King William Street, survived as an open space until 1987 when it was compulsorily purchased to facilitate the extension of the Docklands Light Railway into the City. The bodies were reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.

Between the wars: Fr Fynes and the Anglo-Catholic tradition

The interior of the church was restored by Martin Travers in 1924, in a neo-baroque style, reflecting the Anglo-Catholic character of the congregation following the appointment of Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton as rector. Fynes-Clinton served as rector of St Magnus from 31 May 1921 until his death on 4 December 1959 and substantially beautified the interior of the church.

Fynes-Clinton held very strong Anglo-Catholic views, and proceeded to make St Magnus as much like a baroque Roman Catholic church as possible. However, "he was such a loveable character with an old-world courtesy which was irresistible, that it was difficult for anyone to be unpleasant to him, however much they might disapprove of his views". He generally said the Roman Mass in Latin; and in personality was "grave, grand, well-connected and holy, with a laconic sense of humour". To a Protestant who had come to see Coverdale's monument he is reported to have said "We have just had a service in the language out of which he translated the Bible." The use of Latin in services was not, however, without grammatical danger. A response from his parishioners of "Ora pro nobis" after "Omnes sancti Angeli et Archangeli" in the Litany of the Saints would elicit a pause and the correction "No, Orate pro nobis."

In 1922 Fynes-Clinton refounded the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina. The fraternity's badge is shown in the stained glass window at the east end of the north wall of the church above the reredos of the Lady Chapel altar. He also erected a statue of Our Lady of Walsingham and arranged pilgrimages to the Norfolk shrine, where he was one of the founding guardians. In 1928 the journal of the Catholic League reported that St Magnus had presented a votive candle to the shrine at Walsingham "in token of our common Devotion and the mutual sympathy and prayers that are we hope a growing bond between the peaceful country shrine and the church in the heart of the hurrying City, from the Altar of which the Pilgrimages regularly start".

Fynes-Clinton was General Secretary of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches Union and its successor, the Anglican and Eastern Churches Association, from 1906 to 1920 and served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Eastern Churches Committee from 1920 to around 1924. A Solemn Requiem was celebrated at St Magnus in September 1921 for the late King Peter of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

At the midday service on 1 March 1922, Ash Wednesday, J. A. Kensit, leader of the Protestant Truth Society, got up and protested against the form of worship. The proposed changes to the church in 1924 led to a hearing in the Consistory Court of the Chancellor of the Diocese of London and an appeal to the Court of Arches. Judgement was given by the latter Court in October 1924. The advowson was purchased in 1931, without the knowledge of the Rector and Parochial Church Council, by the evangelical Sir Charles King-Harman. A number of such cases, including the purchase of the advowsons of Clapham and Hampstead Parish Churches by Sir Charles, led to the passage of the Benefices (Purchase of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1933. This allowed the parishioners of St Magnus to purchase the advowson from Sir Charles King-Harman for £1,300 in 1934 and transfer it to the Patronage Board.

St Magnus was one of the churches that held special services before the opening of the second Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923. Fynes-Clinton was the first incumbent to hold lunchtime services for City workers. Pathé News filmed the Palm Sunday procession at St Magnus in 1935. In The Towers of Trebizond, the novel by Rose Macaulay published in 1956, Fr Chantry-Pigg's church is described as being several feet higher than St Mary's, Bourne Street and some inches above even St Magnus the Martyr.

In July 1937 Fr Fynes-Clinton, with two members of his congregation, travelled to Kirkwall to be present at the 800th anniversary celebrations of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall. During their stay they visited Egilsay and were shown the spot where St Magnus had been slain. Later Fynes-Clinton was present at a service held at the roofless church of St Magnus on Egilsay, where he suggested to his host Mr Fryer, the minister of the Cathedral, that the congregations of Kirkwall and London should unite to erect a permanent stone memorial on the traditional site where Earl Magnus had been murdered. In 1938 a cairn was built of local stone on Egilsay. It stands 12 feet high and is 6 feet broad at its base. The memorial was dedicated on 7 September 1938 and a bronze inscription on the monument reads "erected by the Rector and Congregation of St Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge and the Minister and Congregation of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall to commemorate the traditional spot where Earl Magnus was slain, AD circa 1116 and to commemorate the Octocentenary of St Magnus Cathedral 1937".

World War II to 21st century

A bomb which fell on London Bridge in 1940 during the Blitz of World War II blew out all the windows and damaged the plasterwork and the roof of the north aisle. However, the church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950 and repaired in 1951, being re-opened for worship in June of that year by the Bishop of London, William Wand. The architect was Laurence King. "At St Magnus the Martyr almost the whole of the plaster work had to be reproduced. Fortunately, as in some other cases, the furniture had been safely stored, but against £16,000 only £9,000 was recoverable." Restoration and redecoration work has subsequently been carried out several times, including after a fire in the early hours of 4 November 1995. Cleaning of the exterior stonework was completed in 2010.

Some minor changes were made to the parish boundary in 1954, including the transfer to St Magnus of an area between Fish Street Hill and Pudding Lane. The site of St Leonard Eastcheap, a church that was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, is therefore now in the parish of St Magnus despite being united to St Edmund the King.

Fr Fynes-Clinton marked the 50th anniversary of his priesthood in May 1952 with High Mass at St Magnus and lunch at Fishmongers' Hall. On 20 September 1956 a solemn Mass was sung in St Magnus to commence the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the restoration of the Holy House at Walsingham in 1931. In the evening of that day a reception was held in the large chamber of Caxton Hall, when between three and four hundred guests assembled.

Fr Fynes-Clinton was succeeded as rector in 1960 by Fr Colin Gill, formerly Vicar of St Martin's Brighton, who remained as incumbent until his death in 1983. Fr Gill was also closely connected with Walsingham and served as a Guardian between 1953 and 1983, including nine years as Master of the College of Guardians. He celebrated the Mass at the first National Pilgrimage in 1959 and presided over the Jubilee celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shrine in 1981, having been present at the Holy House's opening. A number of the congregation of St Stephen's Lewisham moved to St Magnus around 1960, following temporary changes in the form of worship there.

In 1971 a Commission chaired by Lord Justice Buckley proposed changes to the City churches, including the creation of seven team ministries. St Magnus would have been part of a Fenchurch team along with All Hallows by the Tower, St Olave's Hart Street and St Margaret Pattens. In 1994 the Templeman Commission proposed a radical restructuring of the churches in the City Deanery. St Magnus was identified as one of the 12 churches that would remain as either a parish or an 'active' church. However, the proposals were dropped following a public outcry and the consecration of a new Bishop of London. Following the departure of Fr Michael Woodgate (Rector 1984 to 1995) the presentation to the living was suspended until 2010. The Ven Ken Gibbons was Priest-in-Charge from 1997 to 2003.

The parish priest since 2003 has been Fr Philip Warner, who was previously priest-in-charge of St Mary's Church, Belgrade (Diocese in Europe) and Apokrisiarios for the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Since January 2004 there has been an annual Blessing of the Thames, with the congregations of St Magnus and Southwark Cathedral meeting in the middle of London Bridge. On Sunday 3 July 2011, in anticipation of the feast of the translation of St Thomas Becket (7 July), a procession from St Magnus brought a relic of the saint to the middle of the bridge. On 25 May 2016, as part of a joint initiative between the Church of England and the Catholic Church of England and Wales, a relic of St Thomas Becket from Esztergom in Hungary was brought to St Magnus for veneration followed by Solemn Pontifical Vespers celebrated by the Revd Jonathan Baker, Bishop of Fulham. The Bishop of the Diocese of Szeged–Csanád, The Rt Revd László Kiss-Rigó, gave a short homily on the history of the relic.

William Petter was Director of Music from 2011 until his death in 2016, having been a founder member of the Choir of St Magnus the Martyr in 2005. His predecessor was Thomas Kennedy, and successor was Lottie Bagnall. William Johnston Davies took over in 2020, before the current Director, Edward Walters, commenced in September 2023. The choir issued CDs in 2013 (Regina Coeli) and 2014 (Inexplicable Splendour). St Magnus's organist, John Eady, has won composition competitions for new choral works at St Paul's Cathedral (a setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus first performed on 27 May 2012) and at Lincoln Cathedral (a setting of the Matin responsory for Advent first performed on 30 November 2013). Joseph Atkins composed three pieces for the church: Missa Sancti Magni, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and The Blessing of the Bells, a litany and antiphon for the consecration of the new bells in 2009. David Pearson composed two pieces, the Communion anthem A Mhànais mo rùin (O Magnus of my love) and a hymn to St Magnus, Nobilis, humilis, for performance at the church on the feast of St Magnus the Martyr on 16 April 2012.

In addition to liturgical music of a high standard, St Magnus has been the venue for a range of musical events. The Clemens non Papa Consort, founded in 2005, has performed in collaboration with the production team Concert Bites as a resident ensemble. The band Mishaped Pearls performed at the church on 17 December 2011. St Magnus featured in the television programme Jools Holland: London Calling, first broadcast on BBC2 on 9 June 2012. The Platinum Consort made a promotional film at St Magnus for the release of their debut album In the Dark on 2 July 2012.

The Friends of the City Churches had their office in the Vestry House of St Magnus until 2013.

Interior

Martin Travers restored the 17th century high altar reredos, including the paintings of Moses and Aaron and the Ten Commandments, and reconstructed the upper storey. Above the reredos Travers added a painted and gilded rood. In the centre of the reredos there is a carved gilded pelican (an early Christian symbol of self-sacrifice) and a Baroque-style roundel with a nimbus and dove descending, attended by cherubim. The glazed east window, which can be seen in early photographs of the church, appears to have been filled in at this time. A new altar with console tables was installed and the communion rails moved outwards to extend the size of the sanctuary. Two old door frames were used to construct side chapels and placed at an angle across the north-east and south-east corners of the church. One, the Lady Chapel, was dedicated to the Rector's parents in 1925 and the other was dedicated to Christ the King. Originally, a baroque aumbry was used for reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, but later a tabernacle was installed on the Lady Chapel altar and the aumbry was used to house a relic of the True Cross.

The interior was made to look more European by the removal of the old box pews and the installation of new pews with cut-down ends. Two new columns were inserted in the nave to make the lines regular. The Wren-period pulpit by the joiner William Grey was opened up and provided with a soundboard and crucifix. Travers also designed the statue of St Magnus of Orkney, which stands in the south aisle, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.

On the north wall there is a Russian Orthodox icon, painted in 1908. The modern stations of the cross in honey-coloured Japanese oak are the work of Robert Randall and Ashley Sands. One of the windows in the north wall dates from 1671 and came from Plumbers' Hall in Chequer Yard, Bush Lane, which was demolished in 1863 to make way for Cannon Street railway station. A fireplace from the Hall was re-erected in the Vestry House. The other windows on the north side are by Alfred L. Wilkinson (1899–1983) and date from 1952 to 1960. These show the arms of the Plumbers', Fishmongers' and Coopers' Companies together with those of William Wand when Bishop of London and Geoffrey Fisher when Archbishop of Canterbury and (as noted above) the badge of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina.

The stained glass windows in the south wall, which are by Lawrence Lee and date from 1949 to 1955, represent lost churches associated with the parish: St Magnus and his ruined church of Egilsay, St Margaret of Antioch with her lost church in New Fish Street (where the Monument to the Great Fire now stands), St Michael with his lost church of Crooked Lane (demolished to make way for the present King William Street) and St Thomas Becket with his chapel on Old London Bridge.

The church possesses a fine model of Old London Bridge. One of the tiny figures on the bridge appears out of place in the mediaeval setting, wearing a policeman's uniform. This is a representation of the model-maker, David T. Aggett, who is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and was formerly in the police service.

The Mischiefs by Fire Act 1708 and the Fires Prevention (Metropolis) Act 1774 placed a requirement on every parish to keep equipment to fight fires. The church owns two historic fire engines that belonged to the parish of St Michael, Crooked Lane. One of these is on display in the narthex of the church. The whereabouts of the other, which was misappropriated and sold at auction in 2003, is currently unknown.

In 1894 many bodies were disinterred from the crypt and reburied at the St Magnus's plot at Brookwood Cemetery, which remains the church's burial ground.

Bells

Prior to the Great Fire of 1666 the old tower had a ring of five bells, a small saints bell and a clock bell. 47 cwt of bell metal was recovered which suggests that the tenor was 13 or 14 cwt. The metal was used to cast three new bells, by William Eldridge of Chertsey in 1672, with a further saints bell cast that year by Hodson. In the absence of a tower, the tenor and saints bell were hung in a free standing timber structure, whilst the others remained unhung.

A new tower was completed in 1704 and it is likely that these bells were transferred to it. However, the tenor became cracked in 1713 and it was decided to replace the bells with a new ring of eight. The new bells, with a tenor of 21 cwt, were cast by Richard Phelps of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Between 1714 and 1718 (the exact date of which is unknown), the ring was increased to ten with the addition of two trebles given by two former ringing Societies, the Eastern Youths and the British Scholars. The first peal was rung on 15 February 1724 of Grandsire Caters by the Society of College Youths. The second bell had to be recast in 1748 by Robert Catlin, and the tenor was recast in 1831 by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel, just in time to ring for the opening of the new London Bridge. In 1843, the treble was said to be "worn out" and so was scrapped, together with the saints bell, while a new treble was cast by Thomas Mears. A new clock bell was erected in the spire in 1846, provided by B R & J Moore, who had earlier purchased it from Thomas Mears. This bell can still be seen in the tower from the street.

The 10 bells were removed for safe keeping in 1940 and stored in the churchyard. They were taken to Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1951 whereupon it was discovered that four of them were cracked. After a long period of indecision, fuelled by lack of funds and interest, the bells were finally sold for scrap in 1976. The metal was used to cast many of the Bells of Congress that were then hung in the Old Post Office Tower in Washington, D.C.

A fund was set up on 19 September 2005, led by Dickon Love, a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths, with a view to installing a new ring of 12 bells in the tower in a new frame. This was the first of three new rings of bells he has installed in the City of London (the others being at St Dunstan-in-the-West and St James Garlickhythe). The money was raised and the bells were cast during 2008/9 by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The tenor weighed 26cwt 3qtr 9 lbs (1360 kg) and the new bells were designed to be in the same key as the former ring of ten. They were consecrated by the Bishop of London on 3 March 2009 in the presence of the Lord Mayor and the ringing dedicated on 26 October 2009 by the Archdeacon of London. The bells are named (in order smallest to largest) Michael, Margaret, Thomas of Canterbury, Mary, Cedd, Edward the Confessor, Dunstan, John the Baptist, Erkenwald, Paul, Mellitus and Magnus. The bells project is recorded by an inscription in the vestibule of the church.

The first peal on the twelve was rung on 29 November 2009 of Cambridge Surprise Maximus. Notable other recent peals include a peal of Stedman Cinques on 16 April 2011 to mark the 400th anniversary of the granting of a Royal Charter to the Plumbers' Company, a peal of Cambridge Surprise Royal on 28 June 2011 when the Fishmongers' Company gave a dinner for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at their hall on the occasion of his 90th birthday and a peal of Avon Delight Maximus on 24 July 2011 in solidarity with the people of Norway following the tragic massacre on Utoeya Island and in Oslo. On the latter occasion the flag of the Orkney Islands was flown at half mast. In 2012 peals were rung during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June and during each of the three Olympic/Paralympic marathons, on 5 and 12 August and 9 September. Following the announcement on 9 April 2021 of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh the tenor bell was tolled 99 times and the flag of St George was lowered to half mast.

The BBC television programme, Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells, broadcast on 14 December 2011, included an interview at St Magnus with the Tower Keeper, Dickon Love, who was captain of the band that rang the "Royal Jubilee Bells" during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Prior to this, he taught John Barrowman to handle a bell at St Magnus for the BBC coverage.

The bells are often rung on Sundays around 12:15 (following the service) by the Guild of St Magnus.

Livery companies and Bridge Ward

St Magnus has connections with three livery companies, whose respective coats of arms are displayed in stained glass windows in the north aisle. Every other June, newly-elected wardens of the Fishmongers' Company, accompanied by the Court, proceed on foot from Fishmongers' Hall to St Magnus for an election service. St Magnus is also the Guild Church of The Plumbers' Company. Two former rectors have served as Master of the company, which holds all its services at the church. On 12 April 2011 a service was held to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of the company's Royal Charter at which the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Richard Chartres KCVO, gave the sermon and blessed the original Royal Charter. The Coopers' Company hold an annual service at which the will of Henry Cloker dated 10 March 1573 is read. Cloker left property in the parish of St Michael Crooked Lane to the Company in trust for the benefit of what is now the Coopers' Company and Coborn School.

St Magnus is also the ward church for the Ward of Bridge and Bridge Without, which elects one of the city's aldermen. Between 1550 and 1978 there were separate aldermen for Bridge Within and Bridge Without, the former ward being north of the river and the latter representing the City's area of control in Southwark. The Bridge Ward Club was founded in 1930 to "promote social activities and discussion of topics of local and general interest and also to exchange ward and parochial information" and holds its annual carol service at St Magnus.

See also

• List of churches and cathedrals of London
• List of Christopher Wren churches in London

Notes

1. See The Monument Archived 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
2. Bishop of Fulham
3. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1064601)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
4. See http://www.stmagnusmartyr.org.uk/
5. Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England I: Southern England, Youngs, F.A.: London, 1979 ISBN 0-901050-67-9
6. For example, in 1824 St Magnus the Martyr had a Select Vestry of 32 persons, whilst St Margaret New Fish Street had a General Vestry. London Parishes: Containing the Situation, Antiquity, and Re-building of the Churches Within the Bills of Mortality, Printed by Weed, B. for Jeffery, W.: London, 1824
7. The ancient office of Parish Clerk and the Parish Clerks Company of London, Clark, O.: London, Journal of the Ecclesiastical Law Society Vol. 8, January 2006 ISSN 0956-618X
8. See Church of the Resurrection Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
9. "Before the erection of Adelaide House, to approach the City from Southwark was to enjoy as fine a sight as any in London. In the foreground were the ships in the Pool ... while the morning light glinted upon the glorious tower of Wren's church of St Magnus the Martyr, the Customs House and the golden flames of the Monument." 'The Times', 8 November 1927
10. Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls
    Of Magnus Martyr hold
    Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.
    The Waste Land and other poems, lines 263 to 265, Eliot, T.S.: Faber & Faber, London, 1940. For commentaries, see chapter 2 of Anglo-Catholic in Religion – T.S. Eliot and Christianity by Barry Spurr, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7188-3073-1 and Liturgical Influences of Anglo-Catholicism on The Waste Land and Other Works by T. S. Eliot by A. Lee Fjordbotten, 1999 at Liturgical Influences. Spurr notes that St Magnus "was one of the leading shrines of the Anglo-Catholic movement and it is very notable that Eliot should not only refer to it, but, in the midst of a poem of almost unrelieved negativity, present it so positively (if somewhat uncomprehendingly) in terms of the exquisite beauty of its interior: its 'Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold' (the liturgical colours, we should note, of Eastertide and resurrection, a concept otherwise denied repeatedly throughout The Waste Land)".
11. Eliot's Early Years, Gordon, L.: Oxford, 1978 ISBN 978-0-19-281252-0
12. ^ Payne, Matthew; Cooper, Michael (2022). "On the origin and dedication of the Church of St Magnus the Martyr, London". Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society. 73: 147–156.
13. The Relics of St Magnus at Orkneyjar. His feast day on 16 April was included in the Missale and Breviarium Nidrosiense, i.e. of Nidaros, and the Aberdeen Breviary Aberdeen Breviary
14. Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney: Penguin Classics, new ed. 2004 ISBN 978-0-14-044383-7. The Saga relates how Magnus Erlendsson, son of Erlend Thorfinnsson, accompanied King Magnus Barelegs of Norway (grandson of Harald Hardrada) during his Irish Sea Campaign of 1098, but refused to take part in the Battle of Anglesey Sound (or Menai Strait) against the Norman Earl of Chester and Earl of Shrewsbury and sang from a psalter in the midst of the fighting. As a consequence he was obliged to go into exile until after the death of King Magnus Barelegs in 1103, but was made joint Earl of Orkney with his cousin Hakon Paulsson by King Eystein Magnusson. The Irish Sea Campaign of 1098, which established the King's direct overlordship of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles including fortifications on St Patrick's Isle near Peel, Isle of Man (see The Peel Castle Dig, Freke, D.: Douglas, 1995 ISBN 0-9525134-0-4), is also described in The Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys (available at Chronicle) and in Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum (available at Ágrip Archived 29 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine).
15. A Latin hymn celebrating the saint ('Nobilis, humilis, Magne martyr') survives from soon after the construction of the cathedral; see St Magnus Hymn. A lost Latin life of the saint, Vita Sancti Magni by Master Robert, thought to be Robert of Cricklade, provided material for two sagas in Old Norse. For a detailed study of the cult see St Magnus of Orkney: A Scandinavian Martyr-Cult in Context, Antonsson, Haki.: Brill, Leiden, 2007 ISBN 978-90-04-15580-0
16. The confusion appears to have arisen because the Dominican Petrus Calo (died 1348) recounts the story of St Mammes under the heading of St Magnus the Martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia under Aurelian with a feast day of 19 August Collectore Petro Calo Dominicano. See Bibliotheca hagiographica latina : antiquae et mediae aetatis II, p. 765, n. 5154 BHL and Bibliotheca historica medii aevi. Richard Newcourt's Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (1708) and later works then referred to a St Magnus of Caesarea.
17. "Remarks on London, being an Exact Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, Borough of Southwark, and the Suburbs and Liberties", Stow, W.: London, 1722
18. "At the north east corner of London bridge, stands the parish church of St. Magnus, so named from its dedication to St. Magnus, who suffered martyrdom under the emperor Aurelian, in the city of Cæsarea, for the christian religion" – A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark, Noorthouck, J.: London, 1773. "There appears to have been several martyrs bearing the name of Magnus. The one to whom this edifice was probably dedicated, suffered at Caesarea in Cappadocea, A.D. 276." – The churches of London, Vol, II, Godwin, G, and Britton, J.: London, 1838.
19. An Encyclopedia of London, Kent, W. (ed.): London, 1937
20. See Danes and Norwegians
21. See, for example, London and Its Environs: A Practical Guide to the Metropolis and Its Vicinity, Illustrated by Maps, Plans and Views, Adam and Charles Black (1862), The hallowed spots of ancient London, Eliza Meteyard (1862), London and Westminster: City and Suburb – Strange Events, Characteristics, and Changes, of Metropolitan Life (Vol 1), John Timbs (1868), Mediaeval London Benham, W. and Welch, C.: London, 1901, and Dedications And Patron Saints of English Churches Ecclesiastical Symbolism Saints And Their Emblems, Francis Bond, 1914 Dedications. However, a guide to the City Churches published in 1917 reverted to the view that St Magnus was dedicated to a martyr of the third century: The City Churches, Taeor, M.E.: London, 1917
22. The Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia was founded in 1912 by Canon William Perry French Morris – see Australian Dictionary of Biography – and dedicated to St Magnus of Orkney, but this appears to have been due to Canon Morris's support for the notion of 'muscular Christianity' rather than to any links with churches dedicated to St Magnus.
23. Letter dated 11 March 1926, original filed in the Registry of the Diocese of London
24. The circumstances of the dedication are described in The Times, 15 April 1926, p. 11. An exhibition relating to the history of the church was held in the following month: The Times, 31 May 1926, p. 21
25. 900th Anniversary of Martyrdom, parish news sheet, April 2016
26. The Cult of S. Olave in the British Isles, B. Dickens in Saga-Book XII of the Viking Society, 12 (1945) pp 53–80.
27. These included Westminster, Peterborough and Salisbury and a relic list of Exeter Cathedral notes: "Hec sunt nomina sanctarum reliquaram que habentur in ecclesia sacte Marie et sancti Petri Exonie ecclesie, quarum maximam partem gloriossimus rex Aedelstanus eiusdem ecclesie primus fundator ibidem contulit.... De reliquiis sancti Magni episcopis et martiris."Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-century Cultural History, Patrick W. Conner (1993).
28. John Flete's manuscript history of the Abbey, written in the 1440s, records: "rex Edgarus dedit lapides quibus sanctus Stephanus lapidatus fuit, et quaedam ossa cum sanguine ejusdem; tibiam unam cum costis et aliis minutis ossibus sanctorum Innocentium ; item duas costas et terram infectam sanguine sancti Laurentii, tres costas sancti Hippolyti, dentes sanctorum Magni et Symphoriani, cum cruce sancti Felicis item reliquias sancti Georgii et Sebastiani cum aliis" The history of Westminster Abbey
29. The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, a Monk of Peterborough, ed. W.T. Mellows (1949).
30. See propers for "XIV Kal. Septembres in natali sancti Magni" Gelasian Sacramentary. The Old English Martyrology, compiled in the second half of the 9th century, records that "on the nineteenth day of the month is the feast of the martyr St Magnus, whose mass can be found in the older massbooks" The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary, ed. Christine Rauer, 2013. It has been suggested – see Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, ed. Bernhard Bischoff and Michael Lapidge (1994) – that the "older mass books" may refer more to those of Campanian origin, perhaps brought to England by Adrian of Canterbury that to the Gelasian Sacramentary.
31. "The 'Missal' of Robert of Jumièges and manuscript illumination at Peterborough c. 1015–1035", T. A. Heslop in Peterborough and the Soke (2019). See Missal
32. See the Westminster Psalter (c.1200), the Sarum Missal, Westminster Use, Hereford breviary, The missal of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, University of Oxford, Database for the Study of Latin Liturgical History and Corpus Kalendarium
33. See: Acta Sanctorum. The feasts of St Magnus of Cuneo, a soldier of the Theban Legion, and the seventh century bishop St Magnus of Avignon also fall on 19 August, but the latter was a confessor rather than a martyr and the former does not generally appear in martyrologies. Bede's Martyrology notes for 19 August "XIV. Kal. Natale S. Magni, seu S. Andreæ, cum sociis suis duobus millibus quingentis nonaginta septem. Præfigunt A. T. L. In Alexandria: ast A. et T. sic distinguunt. In Alexandria natale S. Magni et S. Andreæ martyrum. Eodem die natale S. Mariani cum duobus millibus quingentis nonaginta septem. Deinde addunt: Romæ natale S. Magni martyris." Bede. Sabine Baring-Gould's 'Lives of the Saints' concluded that: "It can hardly be doubted that S. Magnus, Bishop and Martyr, has been manufactured by the blunders of martyrologists. S. Andrew the Tribune is commemorated in ... Latin "Magnus Martyr". In the early Latin lists, on 19 August, was accordingly inscribed "Andreas Tribunus, Magnus Martyr". This was read as if there were two Saints, Andrew the Tribune, and Magnus the Martyr". Lives of the Saints. See also The martiloge in Englysshe after the vse of the chirche of Salisbury and as it is redde in Syon with addicyons, ed. F. Proctor and E.S. Dewick, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1526.
34. "I do not find the Patron Saint of this edifice is at all mentioned by Alban Butler; nor are all writers perfectly agreed as to who he actually was; seeing that there were two saints named Magnus, whose festival day was kept on the 19th of August. One of these was Bishop of Anagnia in Italy, and was martyred in the persecution raised by the Emperors Decius and Valerian, about the middle of the third century after the Birth of Christ. The other St Magnus was the person to whom Newcourt supposed this Church was dedicated, though he erroneously calls his feast August the 18th. He is named, by way of distinction, St Magnus the Martyr of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, because he suffered at that City, under Alexander the Governor, in the time of the Emperor Aurelian, AD 276.... An extended history of these famous men you will find in that wonderful work the Acta Sanctorum, which I have before quoted ... though there is a much longer account of the Swedish St Magnus, the Abbot, whose festival is September the 6th, and whom I pray you never to mistake for the Martyr of London Bridge."
35. The cult of St Thomas in the liturgy and iconography of Christ Church, Canterbury, M-P Gelin in The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, c.1170–c.1220 (2016)
36. The newe testament both Latine and Englyshe ech correspondent to the other after the vulgare texte, communely called S. Ieroms. Faythfully translated by Myles Couerdale. Anno. M.CCCCC.XXXVIII Coverdale Archived 18 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine
37. ' "The Book of Common Prayer adopted the Sarum temporal calendar almost in full (keeping all of the feasts of Christ and that of the Purification of the Virgin), but only the barest bones of its sanctoral calendar, namely the Biblical saints. Only a few services for the Biblical saints remained in the Book of Common Prayer". Nothing for the godly to fear': Use of Sarum Influence on the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, K.A. Krick-Pridgeon, Durham PhD thesis (2018)
38. Such as that of the Diocese of Anagni–Alatri
39. Latest edition 2001: "Anagniae sancti Magni Episcopi et Martyris qui in perecutione Decii necatus est".
40. See Museum of London
41. Charters of St Paul's, London (Anglo-Saxon Charters), Kelly, S.E. (ed.), Pp 3–4: Oxford, 2004 ISBN 978-0-19-726299-3. An item relating to the worship of Cybele, the 'Magna Mater', has been found in the River Thames near London Bridge (see Cybele), but there is no evidence that St Magnus Martyr derived from a 'sedes Magna Mater'.
42. It has been argued recently that a wooden London Bridge might have been constructed at the same time: The development of London by King Alfred: a reassessment, J Haslam, TLAMAS 60 (2010)
43. "According to the Olaf sagas, the bridge was successfully attacked in 1014 by King Aethelred's Viking allies…. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that in 1016 the Southwark bridge head and the London bridge was defended against the forces of King Cnut, who apparently bypassed it by digging a new channel along which they hauled their ships westwards. According to Osbern's late 11th-century account of the transfer of the relics of Alphege from St Paul's Cathedral to Christ Church Canterbury in 1023, some of Cnut's housecarls occupied the bridge while the relics were in transit in case of public hostility. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that on 14 September 1052 Earl Godwin's forces sailed unopposed through the bridge, having first waited for high tide, and keeping close to the south bank." London bridge: 2000 years of a river crossing, B. Watson, MOLAS monograph (2001)
44. See Current archaeological work at Regis House in the City of London (part 2) by Trevor Brigham and Bruce Watson at Regis House and Figure 182 Location map of London sites at Archaeological Sites
45. London Bridge and the identity of the medieval City, D. Keene, TLAMAS (2000)
46. Citadel of the Saxons, Rory Naismith (2018)
47. The plaque attached to the timber reads "From Roman wharf, AD 75: found Fish Street Hill, 1931"
48. Aspects of Saxo-Norman London III: The Bridgehead and Billingsgate to 1200, Steedman, K., Dyson T., Schofield, J., p. 77 and p. 136: London, 1992, ISBN 0-903290-40-5. The other churches built on reclaimed land on the south side of Thames Street were All Hallows the Great, All Hallows the Less and St Botolph Billingsgate.
49. William FitzStephen's Description of London, written around 1183, mentions that there were 126 parish churches in London, which suggests that the citizens of London generally preferred to worship in small churches with their close neighbours.
50. As pointed out by Tony Dyson in a review of London 800–1216 by C. Brooke and G Keir: "Although related to existing property boundaries, there is no evidence that ... parish boundaries followed existing tenurial units, and it is notable that a crossroads stands at the centre of most parishes." He also notes that "From the late 11th century legislation on the payment of tithe, which provided the churches' main income ... made it increasingly important to define the exact area over which a church had rights." See Map of London parishes.
51. A Dictionary of London, Harben, H.A.: London, 1918
52. Aspects of Saxo-Norman London III: The Bridgehead and Billingsgate to 1200, Steedman, K., Dyson T., Schofield, J., pp. 95, 104 and 122: London, 1992, ISBN 0-903290-40-5
53. "Similiter ecclesiam Sancti Laurentii cum cimiterio et dominicam curiam suam et terras quas in patrimonio jure possederat quidam clericus Livingus nomine in eadem urbe pro salute anime sue et parentum suorum libere et absolute Sancto Petro donavit et ego melius et liberius confirmari precepi; item plenarie et firmiter concessi unam capellam ligneam et unius lapidee ecclesie Sancti Magni medietatem prope pontem et terras suas omnes in eadem urbe quas quidam urbanus vir prefate civitatis nomine Livincgus pater cum filio jam ibi monachus factus, uxor quoque sua ibidem deo sacrata sancta illi monasterio subdiderant". "Also the church of St Lawrence with its churchyard and the demesne court and lands held in inheritance by a certain clerk named Livingus, and given to him to St Peter's. Also a wooden chapel, and the moiety of the stone church of St Magnus near the bridge, and all the lands in the same city which a certain man named Livingus together with his son when he became a monk, and his wife when she devoted herself to a holy life, gave to the monastery." See Charter.
54. BL Cotton Charter VI 3; see Westminster Abbey Charters, 1066 – c.1214, London Record Society 25, Mason, E. (ed.), pp. 25–40: 1988; Text of Charter and London: the City Churches Pevsner, N and Bradley, S: New Haven, Yale, 1998 ISBN 0-300-09655-0
55. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066–1154, Vol. 2, No. 1177: Oxford, 1913. See Charter. The text is as follows: " London Precept by Henry I to G. Bp. of London and the Archdeacon and the whole chapter of St Paul's: That the Abbot and church of St Peter's, Westminster, have and hold the land which William I gave them; namely, the wooden chapel of St Margaret in Eastcheap, with the parish (parochia) and land and houses thereto pertaining; and half the stone chapel of St Magnus the Martyr with the whole parish; and the church of St Lawrence with appurtenances; and the church of St James on the river bank; as they held in the time of William I and of the King himself, and of Bps. Hugh and Maurice. Witnesses: Queen Matilda; R. Basset." As explained in Fake? The art of deception by Mark Jones (ed.), British Museum, 1990, "possession of royal writs constituting written evidence of the conferment of favourable rights and immunities was of such importance to great early monastic foundations like Westminster ... Abbey that they sometimes produced spurious ones where the genuine article was lacking".
56. Proposed demolition of nineteen city churches. Report by the clerk of the council and the architect of the council, London County Council, p. 14 and p. 18: London, 1920 LCC Report. As the original dedication was not to St Magnus of Orkney, the date of that saint's death cannot be used as a terminus post quem for the foundation of the church as suggested in, for example, The Medieval Church dedications of the City of London, Oxley, J., LAMAS 29: 1978. The reference in the charter to "the stone church of St Magnus near the bridge and all the lands in the same city which a certain man named Livingus together with his son when he became a monk, and his wife when she devoted herself to a holy life, gave to the monastery" is similar to a reference of 1076 in the Trial of Penenden Heath to the "lands and houses which Livingus, priest, and his wife, had in London". Archbishop Lanfranc served a writ for the restitution of lands of which the churches had been unlawfully disseised in 1067 when Odo became Earl of Kent. See Penenden Heath trial. See also The earliest mention of Bow Church, BW Kissan, TLAMAS (1933)
57. Gazetteer, Carlin, M. and Belcher, V. in British atlas of historic towns: Vol. 3, The City of London, Lobel, M.D. (ed.): Oxford, 1989, quoting Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066–1154, Vol. 2, No. 1883: Oxford, 1913. See Charter. The text is as follows: " Woodstock: Precept by Henry I to G Bp. of London and the Archdeacon and the whole Chapter of St. Paul's: That the Abbot and church of St. Peter of Westminster and their priest shall hold the church of St Magnus the Martyr in London, and the whole parish pertaining thereto as well and honourably as in the time of William I and William II and of Bps. Hugh, Maurice, and Richard. They are not to be impleaded therefor. Witness: Richard Basset."
58. Westminster Abbey and its People, c. 1050-c.1216, Mason, E., p.244, Woodbridge, 1996 ISBN 978-0-85115-396-4 See Westminster Abbey Charters
59. Westminster Abbey Charters, 1066 c. 1214, Mason, E. (ed.), pp. 144–159 and pp. 197–228: London Record Society 25 (1988)
60. Westminster Abbey and its People, c. 1050-c.1216, Mason, E., p.138, Woodbridge, 1996 ISBN 978-0-85115-396-4. The full text is as follows: "14 April 1208 Notification by William , bishop of London, that at the presentation of the abbot & convent of Westminster, patrons of half the church of St Magnus the Martyr next to London Bridge, and at the presentation of the prior & convent of Bermondsey, patrons of the other half, he has instituted to the church Mr Simon de Valenciis, clerk, reserving to the abbots of Westminster and the prior of Bermondsey and convents the pensionis which they formerly received from that church. Simon will answer for all obligations due to the bishop or archdeacon" (Westminster Abbey Charters 1066–c.1214, 220).
61. Old London Bridge, Pierce, P., p. 41: London, 2001, ISBN 0-7472-3493-0
62. See City Bridge Trust Archived 29 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine
63. This view was the subject of a great number of paintings and prints; see, for example, Turner and Science & Society
64. "Capella beati Thomae Martyris super Pontem" in a list of London benefices in Lib. Cust. I. 228, 31 Ed. I. It had an entrance from the river as well as from the street and was reached by a winding staircase. It had a groined roof springing from clustered pillars (Gent. Mag. Lib. XV. p.303). It was 60 ft. long, 20 ft. wide and 110 ft. high, with an undercroft or vaulted crypt.
65. Chronicles of London Bridge by an Antiquary, Richard Thomson, p. 83 et seq.: Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1827
66. Colleges: St Thomas on London Bridge, A History of the County of London: Volume 1: London within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark, ed. Page, W., pp. 572–574: Victoria County History, 1909
67. Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Henry III, Vol. 3 (1232–47), p. 82: London 1906. The text of the entry is as follows: "Grant to the prior of Bermundese that the king, on account of certain land which he has granted to the parson and parishioners of the church of St. Magnus in the city of London, for the enlargement (ad ampliationem) of the said church, the king does not and will not claim any right for him and his heirs in the advowson of the said church. The like to the abbot of Westminster."
68. The London eyre of 1244, Chew, H.M. and Weinbaum, M. (ed.), number 125: 1970
69. The London eyre of 1244, Chew, H.M. and Weinbaum, M. (ed.), number 276: 1970
70. London 800–1216: The shaping of a City, Brooke, C. and Keir, G.: University of California Press, 1975 ISBN 0-520-02686-1
71. The London eyre of 1276, ed. Weinbaum, M.: London, 1976
72. The French Chronicle of London: Edward I, Chronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London: 1188–1274, Riley, H. T. (ed.), pp. 237–248|page=1863
73. The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester ... comprising Annals of English History, from the Departure of the Romans to the Reign of Edward I, p. 370, translated by T. Forester (1854)
74. Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, Richard Newcourt (1708), p. 396, quoting from the Bishop's Register of Ralph de Baldock/Baudake. See also Pourt's will of 1307/08 in Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London: Part 1, 1258–1358, ed. R R Sharpe (London, 1889), pp. 189-199: "Pourte (Hugh) – To John le Blound a house. To Margaret his wife the custody of William his son until he come of age, and to the said William forty pounds. Certain rents in the parish of S. Magnus to be devoted to the maintenance of a chantry in the said parish church. To the fabric of London Bridge twenty shillings."
75. Chronicles of London Bridge by an Antiquary, p. 298-9 quoting Stow's 'Survey': Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1827
76. The gilds and companies of London, Unwin, G. (with a new introduction by Kahl, W.F), p. 115: London, 1963. See also Fraternity of the Salutation of Our Lady and of St Thomas in the church of St Magnus near London Bridge.
77. Worlds within Worlds: Structures of Life in Sixteenth-Century London (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time), Rappaport, S., p. 184: Cambridge, 1989 (paperback edition 2002), ISBN 978-0521892216. See also Historical Studies of the English Parliament: Volume 2: 1399–1603, Fryde, E.B. and Miller, E. (eds), pp. 129–131: Cambridge, 1970
78. See Parish Fraternity Register, Calendar of the Patent Rolls 26 May 1448 #1 and Calendar of the Patent Rolls 26 May 1448 #2
79. Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense or London Diocesan clergy succession from the earliest time to the year 1898, Hennessy, G.L.: London, 1898
80. Oxford DNB entry, Wilson, C.
81. General Prologue Lines 363–366
82. The world of Chaucer, Brewer D., p. 143: 2000 (first published 1978) ISBN 978-0-85991-607-3. For a more detailed discussion of the guildsmen see Portrait of the Guildsmen in the critical commentary of The General Prologue by Malcolm Andrew, pp. 326–337 (University of Oklahoma, 1993) and The Five Craftsmen by Ann B. Fullerton in Modern Language Notes 61 (1946), pp. 515–523. Fullerton suggested that the Guildsmen would probably have been members of a fraternity dedicated to St Thomas and pointed out that the united Guild in the parish of St Magnus was of considerable wealth and prestige.
83. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography, Pearsall, D., 1994 (first published 1992): Oxford, ISBN 978-1-55786-665-3
84. Katherine, Seton A, 1954
85. Calendar of letter-books of the city of London I: 1400–1422, Sharpe, Reginald R. (ed), pp. 186–195|page=1909
86. Local Communities in Fifteenth Century London: Craft, Parish and Neighbourhood (PhD thesis, University of London), Colson, Justin Robert, p. 208:2011
87. The Bede Roll of the Fraternity of St. Nicholas; James, NW and VA (eds), London Record Society (2004)
88. The London Encyclopaedia Weinreb, B. and Hibbert, C. (ed.): London, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008), latest paperback edition 2010, ISBN 978-1-4050-4925-2. In Shakespeare's King Henry VI Part 2, Act IV, Scene VIII Cade urges his followers to action with the words "Up Fish Street! Down St. Magnus' corner! Kill and knock down! Throw them into Thames!"
89. ^ St Magnus the Martyr, Wittich, J.: London, 1994
90. ^ The World of William Byrd: Musicians, Merchants and Magnates Harley, J., Routledge, 2016
91. St Magnus London Bridge, leaflet produced by The Friends of the City Churches: London, no date (c. 2004)
92. Chantry Certificate, 1548: City of London, British History Online
93. Foxe's Acts and Monuments vol iv, p 183-205
94. Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation, Peter Marshall (2017): "Even at a time of high 'heresy alert', pulpits remained open to radical itinerant preachers, either because of sympathy for their views or because locals had no reason to suspect them of being heretics. In this way, in the summer of 1527, Thomas Bilney and Thomas Arthur espoused an excoriating critique of images and pilgrimage in a succession of London and East Anglian parishes St Magnus".
95. In 1528 the poet John Skelton published Replycacion Agaynst Certayne Yong Scolers Abjured of Late, whilst in 1529 Sir Thomas More issued a prose work, Dialogue concerning Heresies.
96. The Diary of Henry Machyn, Nicholas J.G. ed., Camden Society Original series 42: London, 1848, p. 180.
97. ^ The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509–1558, Bindoff, S.T. (ed), 1982
98. Pat. 1, Mary, p. 4, m. 16. See also A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark, Noorthouck, J., pp. 560–566: London, 1773 and The history and survey of London and its environs from the earliest period to the present time, Lambert, B., p.467: London, 1806
99. The book of martyrs: containing an account of the suffering and death of Protestants in the reign of Queen Mary the First, Foxe, J. revised by Madan, M., p. 162: London, 1760
100. The John Rylie Bequest
101. Oxford DNB entry, McDermott, J.
102. Oxford DNB entry, Donaldson, I.
103. A correct account of the exhumation of the remains of Myles Coverdale, some time Bishop of Exeter, and Rector of St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge, Whittock, N.: London, 1840. There is now a large stone tablet affixed to the wall as a memorial. At the top is a depiction of an open Bible with the words "Romans Chap. XVI. Verse XVII. The Holy Bible" followed by the following text: "To the memory of Miles Coverdale who convinced that the pure Word of God ought to be the sole rule of our faith and guide of our practice laboured earnestly for its diffusion and with a view of affording the meaning of reading and hearing in their own tongue the wonderful works of God not only to his own countrymen but to the nations that sit in darkness and to every church wheresoever the English language might be spoken he spent many years of his life preparing a translation of the Scriptures. On the IV of October MDXXXV the first complete English printed version of the Bible was published under his direction. The parishioners of St Magnus Martyr, desirous of acknowledging the mercy of God and calling to mind that Miles Coverdale was once Rector of their parish, erected this monument to his memory A.D. MDCCCXXXVII. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Isaiah LII chap. VII" On a separate smaller tablet mounted on the wall are the following words: "Near this tablet in a vault made for that purpose are deposited the bones of Miles Coverdale, formerly Bishop of Exeter and Rector of the parish of St Magnus the Martyr in the year of our Lord 1564. His remains were interred in the first instance in the chancel of the Church of St Bartholomew, Exchange: but on the occasion of that church being taken down they were brought here on the fourth of October 1840 in compliance with the wishes and at the request of the Rector the Rev. Tho. Leigh A.M. and parishioners of St Magnus the Martyr."
104. Annals. See also London Churches Before the Great Fire, W. Jenkinson, SPCK (1917).
105. Vic.-Gen. Book, Huish, f. 169, S.H. quoted in Novum repertorium ecclesiasticum parochiale Londinense, p. 273
106. Oxford DNB entry, Daniell, D.
107. Historical Memoranda, Stow, J.: Camden Society, 1880. The text reads: "Ye same Palme Sonday in anno 1566, ye 7 of Aprill, a Scott (who prechid ij tymes every day at Sent Magnus, and mynysteryd every day to all comars of ye paryshe or eny othar in his gowne or cloke) prechid in ye afternone at Lytle Allhalows in Thams Stret. Ye moaste part of his sermon was (as the othar of his sermons were and are) agaynst ye order takyn by ye quene and councell for ye aparayll of mynystars before namyd, with very byter and vehement words agaynst ye quene not here to be namyd, and allso agaynst mynystars as receyvyd ye same ordre. The mynyster of ye churche for savgarde of his lyvynge had receyvyd ye cappe and syrplyce, where fore some tyme in ye sermon he smylyd at vehemente talke by ye prechar usyd to the contrary. Wher upon aftar ye sermon sertayne of ye paryshe, namly, Wyllson, a dyar, and Dyckynson, a fyshemonger, resonyd with ye mynystar for his smyllyng at ye prechar, who resonably aunsweryd; but they toke ye matter so grevowsly that they fell from rwghe wordes at ye last to blowes with them who toke parte with ye mynystar"
108. History of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, Young A.J., p. 86: privately printed by The Worshipful Company of Plumbers, London, 2000
109. Quoted in Chronicles of London Bridge by an Antiquary , pp. 394–5.: Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1827
110. Extant Benefactor's Board
111. "Bishop of London to preach fire sermon" (Diocese of London News Release dated 6 February 2004) at Diocese of London
112. Vidimus, no. 33: October 2009
113. Puritan iconoclasm during the English Civil War, Spraggon, J.: Woodbridge, 2003
114. According to Ancient Custom: The Return of Altars in the Restoration Church of England, Fincham, K., pp. 29–54: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 2003
115. Oxford DNB entry, Seaver P.S.
116. A Journal of the Plague Year, Defoe, D., p. 231: Penguin Classics, 1966 (first published 1722)
117. "The Survey of Building Sites in London after the Great Fire of 1666" Mills, P/ Oliver, J Vol I p2: Guildhall Library MS. 84 reproduced in facsimile, London, London Topographical Society, 1946
118. Samuel Pepys – The Shorter Pepys, Latham, R. (ed.), p. 484: Harmondsworth, 1985, ISBN 0-14-009418-0. Pepys recorded in his diary: "So down , with my heart full of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it began this morning in the King's baker's house in Pudding Lane, and that it hath burned St Magnus's Church and most part of Fish Street already".
119. Oxford DNB entry, Porter, S.
120. "The City Churches" Tabor, M. p78:London; The Swarthmore Press Ltd; 1917
121. London 1: The City of London, Pevsner, N. and Bradley, S., p. 231: London, 1997 ISBN 0-14-071092-2. Betjeman describes St Magnus as "Wren's welcome to the city for people coming over old London Bridge" The City of London Churches, Betjeman, J. : Andover, Pitkin, 1967 ISBN 0-85372-112-2.
122. The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information, Hone, W., cols. 245–246: London, 1838
123. Historic Floors: Their Care and Conservation, Fawcett, J. (ed.): Oxford, 1998 (paperback edition 2001) ISBN 0-7506-2765-4
124. Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship 1547-c.1700, Fincham, K. and Tyacke, N., pp. 327–328: Oxford, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-820700-9
125. The steeples of the two churches are shown in The Old Churches of London, Cobb, G., p.57: London, Batsford, first published 1942, third edition 1988. See also Carolus Borromeuskerk and Carolus Borromeus church. The tower of St Magnus itself influenced William Scamp's design of the tower of St Paul's Anglican Pro-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta (built 1839–44) – see St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Valletta, Shortland-Jones, E. A.: Valletta, 2000 – and the design of the second St Philip's Church in Charleston, built in 1710–23 – see Charleston's church architecture.
126. Everybody's Historic London: A history and Guide, Kiek, J.: London, 1984 ISBN 0-907621-39-2. See also Nicholas Hawksmoor and the Wren City church steeples, Anthony Geraghty in The Georgian Group Journal, Vol X (2000), pp. 1-14.
127. See Hulton Archive
128. Oxford DNB entry, Aylmer, G.E.
129. Chronicles of London Bridge by an Antiquary , pp. 456–7.: Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1827
130. See The True-Born Englishman and Poetry of Daniel Defoe. The poem introduces Duncombe in the following terms: And lest examples should be too remote,
     A modern magistrate of famous note,
     Shall give you his own history by rote.
     I'll make it out deny it he that can,
     His worship is a True-born Englishman,
     In all the latitude that empty word
     By modern acceptation's understood.
     The parish-books his great descent record,
     And now he hopes ere long to be a lord;
     And truly, as things go it would be a pity
     But such as he should represent the city;
     While robbery for burnt-offering he brings,
     And gives to God what he has stole from kings!
     Great monuments of charity he raises,
     And good St. Magnus whistles out his praises.
     To city gaols he grants a jubilee,
     And hires huzzas from his own mobilee.
     Lately he wore the golden chain and gown,
     With which equipp'd, he thus harangued the town;
131. Great Goldsmith: The Life of Sir Charles Duncombe, Duncombe, P., p. 212-213: Chippendale NSW Australia, 2000, ISBN 0-646-37845-7 and "The Historical Organ in the Church of St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge", The Musical Times, Vol. 53, No. 831 (1 May 1912), pp. 306–309.
132. The Spectator, 8 February 1712, quoted in Chronicles of London Bridge by an Antiquary , p. 457-8: Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1827
133. Church of S. Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge: The Story of the Organ, Lightwood, J.T. with additional notes by C.N. W(aterhouse): no date (late 1920s). See photograph at Organ case Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
134. See 18th century composers
135. Church of S. Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge: The Story of the Organ, Lightwood, J.T. with additional notes by C.N. W(aterhouse): no date (late 1920s). See Oxford DNB entries for John Robinson by L. M. Middleton, rev. K. D. Reynolds, and for James Coward by J. A. F. Maitland, rev. Nilanjana Banerji. See also the article on John Robinson in A biographical dictionary of actors, actresses, musicians, dancers, managers & other stage personnel in London, 1660–1800, Highfill, Philip H. et al.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2006 ISBN 978-0-8093-0919-1.
136. "The City of London Churches: monuments of another age" Quantrill, E; Quantrill, M p66: London; Quartet; 1975
137. Dictionary of Organs and Organists, Thornsby, Frederick W. (ed.): 1912 (second edition 1921)
138. Organ appeal leaflet 1995
139. Parish Notice dated 19 April 1998
140. See NPOR. See also Two hundredth anniversary of the Organ of St. Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge (1911) and Organs of St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge, Freeman A, in 'The Organ' No. 17 Vol V (July 1925). Papers and photographs relating to research on organs and organ builders by the Revd Andrew Freeman (1876–1947), priest and organ scholar, are now in the collections of the University of Birmingham.
141. See Hymnary.org and Choral Wiki. Sydney Nicholson composed Missa Sancti Magni, A Simple Communion Service in F based on this hymn tune in 1937 and Gerre Hancock did the same with Missa resurrectionis in 1976.
142. See Canaletto
143. The London Bridge Improvement Act of 1756: A Study of early modern urban finance and administration, Latham, M.: Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester, 2009, available at Leicester University Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
144. Old London Bridge, Home, G., pp. 264 and 280: London, 1931
145. Quoted in 'Accidents and response: sudden violent death in the early modern city, 1650–1750', p.43, Spence C.G., Royal Holloway College University of London PhD thesis, 2013
146. Son of Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, and Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral 1761-91
147. Londinium redivivum; or an ancient history and modern description of London, Malcolm, James Peller, p.389: London, 1803
148. The Statutes at Large from the 26th to the 30th Year of King George II, Pickering, Danby: Cambridge, 1766
149. An engraving of St Magnus by Benjamin Cole immediately before the changes to the west end of the church can be found in The History and Survey of London from its Foundation to the Present Time, Maitland, William: Osborne, Shipton & Hodges, London, 1756 (originally published in weekly numbers beginning on 29 December 1753, finishing in 1756, this was the great rival to the 1754 edition of Stow's Survey).
150. This can be seen in a colour aquatint by William Daniell, III: The City from London Bridge – Six Views of London, published 1 June 1804; see Daniell Archived 8 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
151. Chronicles of London Bridge by an Antiquary, p. 545 et seq.: Smith, Elder and Co., London, 1827, which gives the following quotations from the Public Advertiser. Monday 29 September 1760: "The workmen have paved a great part of the foot-path on the lower side of London Bridge and the tower part of St Magnus' Church has been lately surveyed, in order to make some alteration in the lower part thereof, conducive to the convenience of the passage of the Bridge." Wednesday 4 August 1762: "The North and West Porticos adjoining to the tower of St Magnus' Church at London Bridge, are taking down, in order to form a passage to and from that building, through the spacious arch upon which the steeple is built; the South Portico is also down, which fronts the Bridge and makes a very agreeable appearance". Thursday 30 June 1763: "On Saturday last, 25th , the foot-passage under the arch of St Magnus' steeple was opened; which, besides the convenience for foot-passengers, makes a very pretty appearance. A vestry, built of stone, is to be erected in the Church-yard, to front the new Toll-house, just erected at the corner of London Bridge."
152. Section 4 of the Act for enlarging and improving the North East Avenue of London Bridge, 1761 (c. 30, 2 George III)
153. ^ Wates's Book of London Churchyards: A Guide to the Old Churchyards and Burial-grounds of the City and Central London, Hackman, H., p. 88: London, 1981, ISBN 0-00-216313-6
154. The diary of Richard Hall recalls: "7 June: Sad rioting last night with the Mob – set Fire to the Inside of Newgate, let out the Prisoners, pull'd down Lord Mansfield's House etc. An awful time. May the Lord be our defence and still the tumults of the people. 8 June: Still sad rioting. Marshall Law took place. We had soldiers in the Vestry Room to guard the Toll House and Waterworks." This demonstrated the importance of the area giving access to London Bridge, where the tolls were collected from pedestrians and carriages alike, and of the Waterworks on the other side of the road from St Magnus, which daily pumped water into elm conduits leading to private houses throughout the City. The rioting forced Richard to leave the area for his own safety. See The Journal of a Georgian Gentleman: The Life and Times of Richard Hall 1729–1801, Rendell M.: 2011, ISBN 978-1-84624-523-7
155. Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner, London: The City Churches|page=2002
156. ^ London 1: The City of London, Pevsner, N. and Bradley, S., p. 232: London, 1997 ISBN 0-14-071092-2
157. See London Bridge, with the Monument and the Church of St Magnus
158. The Times, 2 August 1791
159. London Parishes; containing the situation, antiquity, and rebuilding of the Churches within the Bills of Mortality: London, 1824 See London Parishes
160. See Monumental inscription
161. The churches of London, Vol, II, Godwin, G, and Britton, J.: London, 1838
162. The Parish Clerks of London, Adams, R.H.: Phillimore, London and Chichester, 1971
163. ^ The year book of daily recreation and information, Hone, William: London, 1832
164. The History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark, and Parts Adjacent, Vol. 3, Allen, T.: London, 1828
165. See The Times, 15 June 1925, p. 15 for an article commemorating the centenary of this event.
166. Oxford DNB entry, Keene D.
167. Two thousand years of London Bridge, Lennard, P., transcript of a lecture delivered at Gresham College on 10 November 2004 at Gresham College
168. Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Volume 147 (January to June 1830), p. 15. See also History and Antiquities of the Parish of St Michael Crooked Lane, Knight, W.|page=1831
169. Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 165 (July to December 1838), p. 654
170. There is also a fine view of the church from Lower Thames Street dated 1838 in The churches of London Vol, II, Godwin, G, and Britton, J.: London, 1838 – see St Magnus in 1838
171. See Adelaide House
172. See letter of complaint to The Times, 14 March 1924, p. 13 and 'before' and 'after' photographs in The Times, 19 March 1924, p. 18. See also Ancient Lights.
173. The Halls of The Fishmongers' Company, Metcalf, P., Plate 24: Phillimore, Chichester, 1977 ISBN 0-85033-243-5. See also The Times, 3 April 1922, p.5 and 24 February 1923, p. 14; also Hulton Archive. A good view of the church from the river was also available before the development of New Fresh Wharf; see National Maritime Museum
174. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1064621)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
175. See King William Street Station
176. See Steam Packet Inn Archived 15 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
177. The story of the site of Regis House, King William Street, London, EC4, Waddington, Q.: published by Rudolph Palumbo, London, 1931, reprinted 1954. Palumbo had acquired the land in 1929, see London Gazette, which was very close to his business address at 127 Lower Thames Street, the City offices of Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons, and his parents' restaurant at 37 Fish Street Hill. He built 37A Walbrook as the family office in 1952.
178. See Hansard 1963 and City Street Scene Manual Archived 15 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
179. The Upper Thames Street tunnel opened in 1970.
180. This involved the demolition of the Coal Exchange in 1962 and a number of warehouses; see Hansard 1962 and City of London Supplementary Planning Document – Eastcheap Conservation Area (August 2012) Archived 1 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
181. See London Bridge
182. See New Fresh Wharf
183. See Roman Quay At St Magnus House. For the London Waterfront Tenements project see London Waterfront Tenements Archived 15 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. For the pilot study investigating the creation of a digital archive of medieval property transactions along the City waterfront see Tony Dyson archive project Archived 3 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine
184. Aspects of Saxo-Norman London III: The Bridgehead and Billingsgate to 1200, Steedman, K., Dyson T., Schofield, J., p. 21: London, 1992, ISBN 0-903290-40-5. See also London 1: The City of London, Pevsner, N. and Bradley, S., p. 548: London, 1997 ISBN 0-14-071092-2.
185. See View Archived 20 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
186. See, for example, the photograph of St Magnus, The Monument and fish porters at Billingsgate in Wonderful London, volume II, edited by Arthur St John Adcock, published by Amalgamated Press: London 1926/27
187. Bygone Billingsgate, Manton, C. and Edwards, J.: Phillimore, Chichester, 1989 ISBN 0-85033-689-9. For the archaeological excavation see PDN81 Archived 14 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine
188. See Planning and Transportation Committee, Centurion House, Mace and Monument Place
189. The present Regis House replaced the original building of that name (of 1931) and Ridgway House (built in 1913 for Ridgways Teas) in King William Street, together with properties in Fish Street Hill, including the Canterbury Arms pub (a link with the pilgrimage to the shrine of St Thomas Becket). The pub is recalled in the novel 'The Hidden War' by David Fiddimore (Pp 136–7, and 490, as "a drinking haunt of the Customs Officers who worked the Pool of London". London, 2009 ISBN 978-0-330-45448-3) For the archaeological excavations see Brigham, T., Watson, B., Tyers, I. with Bartkowiak, R. 1996 'Current Archaeological work at Regis House in the City of London part 1' London Archaeologist 8 (2), 31–8 Part 1; Brigham T., Watson B. and Bartkowiak R., 1996, 'Current archaeological work at Regis House in the City of London, part 2', London Archaeologist 8(3): 63–68 Part 2; Trevor Brigham, Tony Dyson and Bruce Watson, 'Saxo-Norman, medieval and post-medieval development at Regis House, London EC4', Trans London and Middlesex Archaeol Soc 61 (2010), 89–129 COLAT Archived 15 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine. See also Site record Archived 14 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Discovering trade and transport at Regis House and Current Archaeology. One of the finds was a maiolica altar flower jug decorated with the instruments of the Passion, which is now on display in the Museum of London. Jug
190. See City of London Archived 2 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
191. See Riverside Walk Archived 31 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine
192. See Riverside Walk at London Bridge
193. See The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank
194. "The southern section of Fish Street Hill leads directly from the Monument to the pedestrian crossing opposite St Magnus the Martyr Church and further enhancement of the street with Yorkstone paving used throughout, architectural lighting and improved signage would be of benefit to emphasis this route to the riverside from Monument Station. Lower Thames Street itself forms part of the Transport for London Road Network. Its corridor creates significant severance between the Fenchurch Street area and the City's riverside. While level differences and utility infrastructure are major constraints, additional improvements to the street including enhanced pedestrian crossings and street trees would be of major benefit to reduce the severance caused and encourage greater access to the riverside." See Area Enhancement Strategy Archived 31 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
195. Memorials of the Guild of Merchant Taylors: Of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist in the City of London, Clode, C.M. (ed.)|page=1875
196. Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1874
197. 'The Times', Thursday 25 October 1849, pg. 5, Issue 20316, records that "Fortunately, the church of St. Magnus, although exposed to so much danger, from the men standing on the roof with their hoses from the engines, did not receive the least injury."
198. Extract of a Letter From Mr. M'Caul in The Jewish Expositor, and Friend of Israel (Volume V, page 478) The Jewish Expositor "... there is but one way to bring about the object of the Society, that is by erecting a Judaeo Christian community, a city of refuge, where all who wish to be baptized could be supplied with the means of earning their bread."
199. A scholarship bearing McCaul's name is still awarded by King's College, London McCaul Scholarship
200. 'The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman: Volume VIII: Tract 90 and the Jerusalem Bishopric', Gerard Tracey (ed.), p.291: Oxford, 1999, ISBN 978-0199204038. See Newman Letters and Diaries
201. Elizabeth Finn Care: Our History at Elizabeth Finn Care Archived 5 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
202. See for example a letter to The Times, 27 April 1939; p. 12; Issue 48290 from Constance Finn referring to correspondence from Lord Shaftesbury to McCaul in 1841 regarding Lord Palmerston's instructions to the Consulate at Jerusalem to give protection to any Jews there who might require it.
203. The Quebec Saturday Budget, 2 August 1890
204. The Times, 23 July 1920, p. 11.
205. See Peek family Archived 6 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
206. See "Election of an Alderman" in The Times, 19 September 1885, p. 5 and "The Late Sir Suart Knill" in The Times, 23 November 1898, p. 12
207. The New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 4, 26 January 1899, p. 24.
208. An Encyclopedia of London, Kent, W. (ed.): London, 1937 and The Times, 3 October 1922, p. 13.
209. The Times, 19 October 1923, p. 15
210. Renovating Heaven and Adjusting the Stars, Symondson, A. in Loose Canon: A portrait of Brian Brindley, D. Thompson (ed), p. 69: London, 2004 ISBN 0-8264-7418-7
211. City of London Churches Commission, Lord Phillimore: London 1919–20
212. See 'Coverdale's Church: Appeal to the Bishop of London' in The Times, 15 September 1920, p. 13 and 'The Threat to the City Churches: Today's Debate' in The Times, 25 November 1926, p. 18
213. The Times, 15 June 1920, p. 13
214. Quoted in Anglo-Catholic in Religion – T.S. Eliot and Christianity, Spurr B., p. 36: Cambridge, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7188-3073-1. This was a theme to which Eliot was to return, as in the choruses to The Rock of 1934.
215. Proposed demolition of nineteen city churches. Report by the clerk of the council and the architect of the council, London County Council: London, 1920
216. The Times, 13 August 1920, p. 5
217. The Times, 23 April 1921, p. 12
218. The Times, 28 May 1921, p. 13
219. Union of Benefices And Disposal of Churches (Metropolis) Measure, 1926
220. Hansard
221. London 1: The City of London, Pevsner, N. and Bradley, S., p. 231: London, 1997
222. Church Commissioners' Deed No. 538909 and related correspondence at the Church of England Record Centre. Board of Inland Revenue Valuation Office records at The National Archives, Kew. See also Ridgways Archived 31 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine
223. London Docklands Railway (City Extension) Act 1986 c. xxiii and Pastoral Scheme made by the Church Commissioners dated 9 April 1987. See Monument Station and London Transport Museum
224. Foxes have holes – A personal memoir of St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge from 1984 to 1995, Woodgate, M.: Catholic League, 2005
225. The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches Tucker, T.: London, Friends of the City Churches, 2006 ISBN 0-9553945-0-3. See also a photograph of men at work on the pulpit in The Times, 24 November 1924, p. 16; an account of the alterations and reopening service, with photograph, at which the Bishop of London preached, in The Times, 16 December 1924, pp. 18–19 and a description of the restoration of the organ in The Times, 18 February 1925, p. 12.
226. See the last verse of John Betjeman's poem Anglo-Catholic Congresses in John Betjeman's Collected Poems: John Murray, London, 1958
227. Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1932. Fynes-Clinton was born on 6 May 1875 (birth registered in the first quarter of 1876) and died on 4 December 1959. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, where he read Literae Humaniores.
228. For obituary see Walsingham, Cobb, P. (ed), pp 97–98: 1990, The Times, 7 December 1959, p. 19 and The Times, 12 February 1960, p. 14
229. ^ Walsingham Way, Stephenson, C., p. 135: London, 1970 ISBN 0-232-51137-3
230. Renovating Heaven and Adjusting the Stars, Symondson A. in Loose Canon: A portrait of Brian Brindley, D. Thompson (ed), p. 70: London, 2004 ISBN 0-8264-7418-7
231. Anglo-Catholic in Religion – T.S. Eliot and Christianity, Spurr B., p. 38: Cambridge, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7188-3073-1. For a photograph of a member wearing the collar of the Fraternity see Leslie Gray Fisher Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. See also The Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina
232. The badge is a reference to Revelation, Chapter 12, Verse 1: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars".
233. Colin Stephenson relates that on one of the first pilgrimages organized by Fynes-Clinton the train kept stopping with a jolt and the guard insisted that someone was pulling the communication cord. It was discovered that one of the party, a Miss Few, had hooked an enormous banner on to it, so that when the train went round a bend the pole slid along the floor and pulled the cord. At one point the party were all thrown on their backs when standing to say the Salve Regina.
234. See Catholic League Archived 5 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
235. The Times, 2 March 1922, p. 9
236. The Times, 31 March 1924 p. 7 and 14 April 1924 p. 14, and Images in Churches: Judgement of Sir Lewis Dibdin, Dean of the Arches, in the case of Rector and Churchwardens of St Magnus the Martyr v. All having interest, Publications Board of the Church Assembly and SPCK: London, 1925.
237. Details of the changes made by Fr Fynes-Clinton can be found in John Salter's The Anglican Papalist: A personal Portrait of Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton
238. See obituary in The Times, 19 April 1939, p. 16
239. Hansard HL Deb 22 March 1933 vol 87 cc2-27. See 1933 Measure
240. Printed letter from the Rector and Churchwardens to the members of the Sunday and Weekday congregations of the Church of St Magnus the Martyr, February 1934. The advowson was transferred to the Diocesan Board of Patronage by a deed of conveyance dated 17 September 1934 and registered at the Diocesan Registry on 10 October 1934.
241. The Times, 7 March 1923, p. 13
242. Anglican Papalism, Yelton, M., Plate 1: Canterbury Press, Norwich, 2005 ISBN 1-85311-655-6
243. Henry Joy Fynes-Clinton, Lunn, B. & Haselock, J.: London, 1983 ISBN 0-85191-174-9. In 1939 Fynes-Clinton organised a "Pageant of Nursing'"at St Magnus in conjunction with the London Hospital – see The Times, 25 May 1939, p. 17
244. Available here: British Pathé Archived 8 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
245. The Towers of Trebizond, Macauley, R.: Collins, London, 1956. Chantry-Pigg is said to have been based on John Herbert Cloete Twisaday, vicar of All Saints, Notting Hill. 'Pen portraits' of St Magnus in the time of Fynes-Clinton are given in Anthony Symondson's essay 'Renovating Heaven and Adjusting the Stars' (chapter 9 of Loose Canon: A portrait of Brian Brindley, D. Thompson (ed), pp. 69–70: London, 2004 ISBN 0-8264-7418-7) and The Unity of Christians: The Vision of Paul Couturier, Lunn, B.: Special Edition of 'The Messenger' of the Catholic League, 2003 at Catholic League
246. See Orkney Communities and The Church of St Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge, Anon. : privately printed (no date)
247. Wren Glories, Treasures of the Cultural World Before and After The Fire Attack on the City of London, The Illustrated London News, 18 January 1941
248. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1064601)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
249. The story of the church of St Magnus the Martyr, City of London: The Church Publishers, Ramsgate, no date (early 1970s)
250. See obituary in The Times, 14 December 1981, p. 10
251. Article by Judith G. Scott, Secretary of the Central Council for the Care of Churches, in The Times, 20 May 1958, p.11
252. London Archaeologist, Volume 7–16, 1996
253. See Our Lady's Mirror Archived 5 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
254. See Jubilee 1956 Archived 5 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
255. See announcement in The Times, 8 April 1960, p. 19
256. For obituary see Walsingham, Cobb, P. (ed), pp 90–91: 1990. His funeral at St Magnus has been described as "one of the last major rallying points of the Anglo-Catholic world" – see Ex Fide. See also The Times, 29 October 1983, p. 10.
257. See Guardians Archived 1 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
258. Walsingham, Cobb, P. (ed), pp 85: 1990. See also the report in The Times, 19 May 1959, p. 12
259. See Jubilee 1981 Archived 5 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
260. The Bridge (Sothwark Diocesan newsletter), June 1997
261. The Times, 26 November 1971, p.4
262. The Rt Hon. Lord Templeman, City Churches Commission, Diocese of London, Report to the Bishop. January 1994. See also Templeman Report
263. See Blessing of the Thames
264. See Relic of St Thomas Becket carried in procession to London Bridge
265. See Reception of the relic of St Thomas of Canterbury Archived 20 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine
266. See Tribute to William Petter Archived 20 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine
267. "Our Debut CD | St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge". Archived from the original on 23 December 2014.
268. See Choral composition competition and Advent Composition Competition Archived 29 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
269. See Joseph Atkins
270. Two-page leaflet on the music performed at St Magnus the Martyr on 16 April 2012
271. See Clemens non Papa Consort
272. See Mishaped Pearls & Josephine Lloyd and Band Concert
273. See Jools Holland: London Calling
274. See Platinum Consort
275. See Friends of the City Churches
276. Although these paintings cannot be seen on pre-1924 photographs, they are mentioned in T Francis Bumpus's Ancient London Churches (1910, reissued 1923) and in an article by Philip Norman on The Church of St Magnus the Martyr in the Transactions of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society (1915). It appears that they had faded and the combination of strong, even lighting and longish exposure time, not to mention the quality of contemporary negatives/plates and printing technology, contributed to the loss of detail in the photographs.
277. Typical of "the late stuart chancel expressed a complex, sacramentally high-church, socially royalist theology, rooted in the Anglican rites, Holy Scripture, and Anglican doctrine" The Moral Shecinah: The Social Theology of Chancel Decoration in Seventeenth Century London David H. Chaundy-Smart in Anglican and Episcopal History Vol. 69 No. 2
278. The Visitor's Guide to the City of London Churches, Tucker, T., p. 55: London, 2006
279. Anglican Papalism, Yelton, M., p. 226: Norwich, 2005 ISBN 1-85311-655-6
280. See Sands and Randall and Stations of the Cross – Two Views
281. See Window of 1671 from Plumbers' Hall. The site of the old Plumbers' Hall is now commemorated by a plaque and statue in Cannon Street Station Plumber’s Apprentice Archived 29 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
282. The son of Horace Wilkinson, also an artist working in stained glass, Alfred Wilkinson trained at St Martin's School of Art in London before working with his father from 1920 until 1939 in London. He was subsequently based at several addresses in London, Hertfordshire and Essex, and also designed for G. King & Son of Norwich. Horace Wilkinson (1866–1957) was frequently employed by the architect W.D. Caroe, a Past Master of the Plumbers' Company.
283. See St Magnus and Stained Glass Archived 21 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
284. Official Commemorative Programme: The Lord Mayor's Show 2008, p.49: London, 2008
285. Down Thames Street – a pilgrimage among its remaining churches, Rogers, M., p. 124–5: London, 1921
286. The Brookwood Necropolis Railway, Clarke, J.M.: Oasdale, Usk, 2006 ISBN 978-0-85361-655-9
287. Churchwarden Accounts Vol. 1 MS 2791/1: 10 October 1663
288. St Magnus CW Accounts Vol. 1 (Back pages) MS 2791/1
289. St Magnus Vestry Book Vol. 1 MS 1179/1 13 July 1672
290. St Magnus Vestry Book Vol. 1 MS 1179/1 3 September 1672
291. St Magnus Vestry Book Vol. 1 MS 1179/1 26 November 1672
292. St Magnus Vestry Book Vol. 1 MS 1179/1 9 December 1713
293. Peal book of the Society of College Youths – representing the only known reference to this gift
294. St Magnus Joint Committee Minutes MS 1181 19 July 1831
295. St Magnus Joint Committee Vol 3. MS 1183/3 28 July 1843
296. St Magnus Vestry MS 1180 13 April 1846
297. Ringing the changes: church to end its sixty year silence, photo with caption on p. 8 of Daily Telegraph issue no 47,821 (dated Wednesday 4 March 2009)
298. See Ancient Society of College Youths
299. "The Church Bells of the City of London" – St Magnus the Martyr Archived 29 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
300. See also the photograph of the 11th bell in The Times, 11 February 2012, pp. 96–97
301. Peal record
302. Peal record
303. Peal record
304. Peal record
305. See Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells
306. See The Royal Jubilee Bells
307. St Magnus Bells Archived 24 December 2012 at archive.today
308. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1359203)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
309. The Halls of The Fishmongers' Company, Metcalf, P., p. 180: Phillimore, Chichester, 1977 ISBN 0-85033-243-5
310. See The Times, 22 July 1975, p. 16
311. History of the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, Young A.J., p. 33: privately printed by the Worshipful Company of Plumbers, London, 2000
312. Notes on the will of Henry Cloker, 1573, and St Magnus the Martyr and their connection with The Worshipful Company of Coopers, Lake C.: London, 1924. See also The Times, 2 January 1925, p. 7; Cloker Service Archived 14 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, and Notes and Queries
313. Bridge Ward Club, club handbook (no date, c. 1990)

External links

• Official website
• Virtual tour of St-Magnus-the-Martyr
• Love's Guide to the Church Bells of St Magnus the Martyr Archived 29 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• A Church Near You
• Friends of the City Churches

51°30′33.41″N 0°5′10.81″W / 51.5092806°N 0.0863361°W / 51.5092806; -0.0863361

• Church of England church buildings in the City of London
• 1676 establishments in England
• 17th-century Church of England church buildings
• Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom
• Christopher Wren church buildings in London
• English Baroque church buildings
• Churches bombed by the Luftwaffe in London
• Grade I listed churches in the City of London
• Diocese of London
• Anglo-Catholic church buildings in the City of London
• Anglo-Catholic churches in England receiving AEO
• Churches on the Thames