London Stone
The London Stone is a stone found in central London that is part of several legends. One of them is that London will go under if the stone, a limestone fragment , is ever destroyed or removed from the city. Its traditional location is at 111 Cannon Street in the City of London , across from Cannon Street Station . It is currently in the Museum of London temporarily due to construction work .
history
According to the mythological chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae by Geoffrey of Monmouth , Brutus of Britain from Troy is said to be the founder of the city. He had a temple built in honor of the goddess Diana ; the London Stone supposedly served as an altar stone. According to another legend, the London Stone is the last remnant of a stone circle on Ludgate Hill, where St Paul's Cathedral now stands.
The most realistic theory about the origin of the stone is that the Romans set up the stone around AD 50 to use it as a central marker in the newly founded city of Londinium . All distances in Great Britain are said to have been measured from there.
The London Stone was first mentioned in writing in the 10th century, in a property register from the time of King Æthelstan's reign . The location description "near London Stone" can be found several times. Londenstane appears on a map from 1198 . Henry Fitzailwyn, the first Lord Mayor , called himself de Londonestone . In the Middle Ages, contracts were made, oaths were sworn and official edicts were made on the London Stone.
Jack Cade , leader of an uprising against King Henry VI. , raided the city with a rebel army in 1450. He went to the London Stone and struck it with his sword. With this symbolic gesture, he declared himself ruler of London. William Shakespeare described this scene in the second part of his drama Henry VI.
In 1742 the city authorities decided to widen Cannon Street to accommodate the increasingly numerous wagons . The stone was moved to the north side of the street and placed on the wall of the Saint Swithin Church built by Christopher Wren . In 1798, the parish wanted to have the stone removed because it was an obstacle. After protests the stone was brought back to the church. Now it was no longer in the open, but was walled up in the south wall of the church.
In 1941 the church was completely destroyed in air raids by the German Air Force during the Second World War , but the stone remained intact. Instead of the church, a modern office and commercial building was built in 1960, in the south wall of which the London Stone has since been kept in an inconspicuous glass box behind an ornamental grille. In May 2016 the stone was temporarily moved to the Museum of London as the commercial building was being demolished. After the construction of a new building, it should return to its old location, albeit on a special base on which it should be more effective than before.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Catherine Neilan: Mythic London Stone is going on show at Museum of London as current home on Cannon Street is demolished , City AM, May 10, 2016
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '42.1 " N , 0 ° 5' 22.2" W.