St Magnus the Martyr, Lower Thames Street, and its monuments

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St Magnus the Martyr, a Wren Church in Thames Street, just down Fish Street Hill from the Monument in the City of London, has a good crop of monuments and a lively, almost gaudy interior with a certain exotic ambience, and should rank fairly high on the list of City Churches to visit.

The pre-Fire church was reputed for its rich monuments, alas lost. Yet in John Stow’s time around 1600, he found them ‘now for the most part utterly defaced’, though he did find ‘Henry Yeuele, Freemason to Edward III, Richard II and Henry IC, who deceased 1400; his Monument yet remayneth.’ Among others he lists several mayors, 'Richard Morgan Knight, chiefe Justice of the common please' d.1556, Mauritius Griffeth, Bishop of Rochester, d.1559, Robert Harding, Salter, 'one of the Shirriffs', 1568, and ‘Sir William Garrard, Haberdasher, Mayor 1555, a grave, sober, wise and discreete Cittizen, equall with the best, and inferior to none of our time, deceased 1571.’ Also buried there, under a monument of his own construction, was Henry Yevele, d.1400, mason to Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV, who made the monument to QUeen Anne of Bohemia in Westminster Abbey. The Great Fire of London swept all away.

Christopher Wren built the current edifice in 1671-6/7. The tower and steeple, rather large for the body of the church, are considered among Wren’s best, and dates a little later, being put up in the 1700s. The site of the church was just by Old London Bridge, and this explains the open porch under the tower, which was constructed, or rather reconstructed, so that those wishing to walk across the bridge could conveniently follow this direct path from the street. The new London Bridge, as typical, was built a little way along the river from the old one. From the street we see the flat wall of aisle and the top of the nave, the former with round windows on blank panels, the latter with oval windows. It seems that the aisle windows were once larger and more conventional, but reduced on the north (street side) so as to cut traffic noise – those on the south side remain full size. Above each round window is a shelf on brackets, and a cherubic head in the key stone position; a side door to the street also has a round window above, with a fructifying festoon above it. The stone mason for St Magnus was John Thompson, who worked for Wren on a number of City Churches, and presumably it was he who was responsible for the carving of the capitals and the scrolls.

The position of the church today is not the happiest, with the large buildings and the fast road. However the grand tower and steeple, 185ft to the top, remains impressive. The tower is square in cross section, recessing slightly at each level, with a balustrade with pots around an upper octagonal construction, which has Corinthian pilasters along each edge, all surmounted by a lead dome and little spire. The view from Fish Street Hill shows the tower against the end of the street, and despite concrete and glass behind and to the right, is perhaps the best aspect of the tower. A large clock is mounted above the porch on a bracket, which dates from 1709, shortly after the tower was completed, the donor being Sir Charles Duncombe, Lord Mayor, goldsmith and banker.

The spire.

There is further minor decoration around the porch, including rich carving of roses and other fruits and leaves around the pillar tops. In the little yard stand a few pieces of stonework, unlabelled, which I understand to be blocks taken from Old London Bridge when it was demolished, which would make them 12th Century.

Inside, the shape of the church is an open hall consisting of a nave and two aisles, with slim ionic columns to mark the division but not really separate the space. The impression is of sumptiousness – a fullness with dark pews, shrine-like constructions with statues and paintings, a wall of small monuments to the north, and fewer but more ornate ones to the south or river-side. The post-war glass in the large southerly windows, showing St Magnus, St Thomas, St Michael, and St Margaret, with various buildings, monks, angels and dragons, is excellent, particularly St Margaret, in bronze toned garments and with finely depicted face and hands. That in the little windows to the north side include a weird mermaid and armoured merman and winged dolphins, and date from 1959.

Much of the exotic atmosphere arises from a 1920s restoration by Martin Travers, and it was during this time that the colourful statue of St Magnus, complete with horned helmet and axe, was added.

We may also note the large altar piece, with Moses and Aaron paintings, and carved décor, including crucifixion, two adjacent figures of saints, and two angels seated in subsidiary positions on left and right flanks; and the highly carved pulpit and sounding board. The carved marble font has a boxlike wooden cover and is suspended from a gilt dove. All this dating from the earliest days of the church.

And the monuments:

• Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter and Rector of St Magnus from 1563-66. Previously interred in St Bartholomew by the Exchange and when that church was demolished in 1841, the tomb was brought to St Magnus. He was the first translator of the Bible into English, working with William Tyndale, hence the open Bible at the top of the monument. The worn inscription is on a panel as if behind a Gothic window with angled outwards borders, a gilt mitre on top, and little corbels underneath the sides in place of the usual brackets.
• Robertus Dickins and William Goffe, 170?. A cartouche with splendid drapery border, loosely knotted and tied, two winged cherub heads below, shield with cross above amongst the swirly drapes, with a leaf or sprig above.
• Thomas Preston, d.1732, and Sarah Preston d.1736 – ‘a very Worthy Citizen & Eminent for Charity, Freindship & Hospitality.’ And more confusingly, Sarah Preston, ‘wife of Tho[mas] Preston only daughter to ye above-mentioned Thomas Collet.’ All in a semicircle surrounded with an ornate border of delicate flowers and fruits beneath a shelf; above this another panel with picture of the head of Christ on a shroud held by three knots, with borders of two curtains, held aside by two entangled cherubs holding torches, a small canopy above. All gilt at the edges and the cherubs painted. Beneath, a small coat of arms. Most unusual, and somehow ideal for this slightly showy, gaudy church interior.
• Charles Dale, d.1779, and wife Elizabeth d.1823, and Francis Parker d.1798, and John Bingley d.1827, a tomb-chest end design with shelf, small carved brackets, and pot on top, on a black truncated pyramidal backing.
• Simon Wooding, d.1793, and wife Ann Wooding, d.1824; a tablet with shelf and small brackets, and on top, an ornately carved flaming pot, all on a black backing with pyramidal top, a very effective design. A later Simon Wooding, d.1827 is commemorated on a panel above, showing a tomb-chest end with thick striated pilasters.

Other, more modest 18th Century plaques include W. Hassell, d.1737; William Williams, d.1764 and wife Blanch, d.1784 and daughters; Joseph Williams, d.1778, wife Elizabeth, d.1814, and various relatives (despite the date, this is a 19th C monument by Thomas Piper III apparently).

Between the large windows on the right hand (southern) aisle are two tall monuments from the end of the century:

• Sir James Sanderson Bt MP, d.1792 and first wife d.1797. The inscription says he was Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1783, Mayor in 1792, ‘in which high station he displayed a spirit of fortitude and prudence in checking the then rising spirits of faction and revolt…’ An ornate monument with heaped up biers, on a tall black backing in the shape of a tapered obelisk. His inscription is on a large tomb chest end monument with fluted receding sides, upon which rests a casket with rams' heads as handles and resting on rams' feet, filled with trophies – staffs of secular and religious office etc. Above is his wife’s simpler plaque, still with a small shelf, with a decorated Greek urn on top. At the base, a coat of arms on a little panel carved to resemble a cloth.
• Miles Stringer, ‘eminent Spice Merchant’ d.1799, and Elizabeth Cozens Stringer, his wife, d. 1808?. Another large monument but in a completely different style, with central round panel, with free pillars to the sides, entablature and shelf; above the pillars are two tiny groups of draped women supporting pots on tombs, the whole supporting above a separate tapered plaque with pot, crossed torches, and a wreath around a coat of arms on upper part. Below all, a base with palmy fronds. A very serious monument. It is signed ‘Simpson Sculpt.’, who is Simpson of London Bridge, also mason to the Skinners Company.

Carrying on in the 19th Century, we may note the following:

• Matthew Armstrong, d.1801, with an inscription in fine flowing script that he was both churchwarden and partner of Sir James Sanderson Roxby and Co, Hop Merchants; and underneath, a monument to Charles Armstrong, d.1830 and wife Mary, d.1845. The upper monument is a tomb-chest end with pilasters decorated with a tall flowering plant, draped pot, tiny high relief figure of a girl with a pot on a tomb, and a little tree; below, a little shield etc. Signed by the rather obscure William Smith of Jermyn Street.
• Coles Child, of Camberwell, d.1802, and wife Isabella d.1802, a bowed plaque with leafy base encompassing a shield, and above, a restrained classical pot. A worn note to daughter Elizabeth Child d.1831 is below.
• Jacob Wrench, d.1808, and wife Elizabeth, d.1818, and various descendents, in closely written capitals, looking almost like hieroglyphs, on a bier-end panel with rosettes at the top of slender side pilasters.
• Robert Brown, d.1814, and wife Susanna, d.1829, and son. Panel with side pillars, sculpted base with fronds, and ornate pot above with fronds and hanging flowers at sides, a wreath above, all on a pyramidal black backing.
• Revd. Thomas Leigh, Rector, d. 1818[?]. A very worn roundel in a square with raised borders, two large crossed keys above, all on a black backing cut out in the shape of a Gothic window.
• John Barrell, d.1823, a small monument with truncated rectangular base, clearly intended for more inscriptions to his descendents, which were never added - perhaps there were none - with a simple pot or lamp above, and black backing.
• Philip Green, d.1823, and wife Mary, d.1805. Tomb chest end with decorated pot on top, covered with baroque rather than simply classical drapes, an open book above, and a little coat of arms with white stags below. The work is by the firm of John Malcott, who signed several other City Church monuments of this period.
• Thomas Preston, d.1826, of Walworth, Surrey, and wife Jane, d.1823, and daughters. Plaque supporting a shelf on two large brackets, with a carved chest monument bearing a broad pot, all under the weeping boughs of a naturalistic tree.

We may note without description the monuments to Jane Bouch, d.1820, and husband John Bouch of Monument Yard, d.1830; Sarah Huxley, d.1818, and parents Ann and Joseph Eaton, both d.1821; Richard Dendy of Monument Yard, d.1822, and wife Elizabeth, d.1828, and daughter; Nathaniel Saunders, d.1830; John King, d.1835, and wife Mrs Lydia Bailey King, d.1850, and two daughters; Jonas Waters, d.1837; Henry Fenn, and wife Jane, d.1840; Revd Alexander McCaul, d.1863; Revd Alexander Israel McCaul, rector, d.1899.

Cherubic head, perhaps by John Thompson, Wren's mason for this church.

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