The London Stone: Brutus's Altar and the City's Soul

The London Stone, a historic block of Rutland oolitic limestone set into the wall at 111 Cannon Street in London, is an ancient monument tied to the legend of Brutus of Troy. Described by historian John Stow in 1598, the former quality-control anvil survived both the Great Fire and the Blitz. Every May, the Worshipful Companies of Masons and Spectacle Makers formally inspect it and report to the Lord Mayor.

London Β· from the walk β€œLondon Through the Eyes of a Black Cab Driver” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

111 Cannon Street, London EC4N 5AR

Who struck the London Stone with his sword in 1450?

Right, now look at this wall here... one hundred and eleven Cannon Street. Most people walk straight past it. Thousands of commuters every single day, heads down, earbuds in, and they have NO idea that they're passing the soul of London.......... See that glass case, set right into the building? That battered lump of limestone behind the glass... that's the London Stone. And mate, let me tell you, there's a story in this rock that most guidebooks won't touch.......... Nobody knows when it was put here, or what it was actually for. Geologically, it's a block of oolitic limestone from Rutland β€” meaning someone hauled it here on purpose. Back in fifteen ninety-eight, the historian John Stow described it as a great stone, pitched upright, fixed in the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron. It used to stand right in the Middle of the road... much bigger than what you see now.......... Here's the bit your average cabbie loves. In fourteen fifty, Jack Cade, leader of a rebellion against the corrupt government of Henry the Sixth, struck this stone with his sword and claimed to be Lord of London. Shakespeare put that moment right into Henry the Sixth, Part Two... Cade sits himself on the stone like a throne and orders that every water fountain in the city should run with claret wine! Great theatre. But as the Museum of London points out... it IS great theatre. It is also fiction.......... Now here's what the tourists Never hear. In sixteen seventy-one, the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers smashed two hundred and sixty-four pairs of dodgy spectacles on this very stone β€” condemned as bad and deceitful, broken to pieces with a hammer right here on Cannon Street. Imagine that. This rock was London's official quality control anvil.......... And the indignities this stone has suffered... Until twenty sixteen, the ground floor was a Whsmith newsagent, and the stone in its glass case was hidden behind a magazine rack, not usually accessible. Before that, it sat in the wall of a Sportec sports shop, surrounded by modern sports equipment. The supposed heart of London... buried behind running shoes and tabloid newspapers.......... But here's the legend that keeps this stone alive. There's an old proverb that says... "So long as the stone of Brutus is safe, so long shall London flourish." It ties the London Stone to the mythical figure of Brutus of Troy, who according to legend, founded Britain. Think of it as London's version of the ravens at the Tower β€” remove them, and the kingdom falls.......... And someone's taking that seriously. Every May, the Worshipful Company of Maysons and the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers conduct a formal inspection of the stone β€” verifying its continued existence and assessing its condition. They then write a letter to the Lord Mayor, reporting their findings. A six-hundred-year-old lump of limestone... with its own annual medical checkup.......... So next time you're in a black cab rolling down Cannon Street, have a look out the window. That modest little rock in the glass box? It survived the Great Fire. It survived the Blitz. It survived being hidden behind a magazine rack. And if the legend holds... as long as IT survives, so does London.

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