St Magnus-the-Martyr
Lower Thames Street
London
EC3R 6DN
T: 0207 626 4481
E: saintmagnus@bulldoghome.com
Visitor Information
Mass Times
12.30pm Tue, Thurs
12.30pm Wed (at St Mary Abchurch)
12.30pm Fri (usually followed by Benediction)
11am Sun (parish mass and sermon)
One of the Tables of Benefactions in the lobby at the West end of the church records the close escape the church had in 1640 during the 'late terrible Fire on London Bridge'. The Table also records the provision for a sermon to be preached on every twelfth day of February to commemorate its preservation. Strype in his revision of John Stow's Survay (sic) down to 1720 writes: 'On the east side near the Bridge is St. Magnus' Church, seated in the Corner, going into Thames Street. It was destroyed by the Fire of London, since which it is rebuilt with Freestone and a Tower Steeple, all of a curious workmanship to which Church is united the Parish of St. Margaret New Fish Street, that church not being rebuilt.'
In the great holocaust of 1666 the church was the second one to perish, the first being St. Margaret, New Fish Street. Today's church although much altered internally was the work of Wren. In the Bodleian Library, Oxford, are 'The Bills of the Parochial Churches', and 'The Ledger of the Parochial Churches' being the manuscripts of Wren's accounts for the rebuilding of the churches of the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666. The accounts for the rebuilding of St. Magnus show that it cost £9,580.