London Stone is a historic stone that is now set within a Portland stone surround and iron grille on Cannon Street, in the City of London.
London Stone is a block of oolitic limestone and measures approximately 53 x 43 x 30 cm (21 x 17 x 12 inches). This material does not occur naturally in London, its nearest source being in Kent. It is thought to have originally been much larger. Speculation in the 17th and 18th centuries suggested it was either a milliarium, marking the central spot from which all distances were measured in Roman Britain or an object of Druidic worship, suggestions that are now generally dismissed as lacking any evidence.
There are no medieval sources to suggest that the stone had any symbolic authority or meaning during the medieval period. In 1450 Jack Cade, leader of a rebellion against Henry VI struck his sword against it and called himself “Lord of the City” although no contemporary accounts comment on the meaning of this. The event was dramatised in William Shakespeare‘s Henry VI, Part 2 (Act 4, Scene 6) – except that, in the play, the sword became a staff.
There is supposedly a myth that London Stone’s safety is linked to that of the city itself. However, this myth can be traced back no further than the 1850s, when the Rev Richard Williams Morgan invented a so-called ancient saying “So long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long shall London flourish” and claimed that the stone was part of an altar built by Brutus of Troy.
London Stone was originally situated in the middle of Cannon Street and was much larger than it is now. If it was Roman it might have been part of a Roman office building between the principle Roman Street and the Thames, the remains of which were excavated beneath Cannon Street Station. It is shown on the 1550s copperplate map of London, as a large block of stone in Candlewick Street (now Cannon Street) outside St Swithin’s Church. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt by Christopher Wren, who encased the old stone in a larger protective carved stone. By 1742, the stone had become an obstruction to traffic, and was moved from the south side of Cannon Street to the north side. For similar reasons, it was moved again in 1798, and by 1828 was set into the south wall of St Swithin’s Church, on the north side of Cannon Street. In 1941 St Swithun’s church was gutted in the Blitz but the stone was left unscathed. In 1962 the Wren church was demolished and replaced by the current building at 111 Cannon Street, where the stone is placed in an alcove in the wall.
The nearest London Underground and National Rail station is Cannon Street – the station’s main entrance is opposite the Stone on Cannon Street. There is also a pub nearby called The London Stone.
