London Stone Author Janelle Jenstad Encoder Liam Sarsfield Programmer Stewart Arneil Data Manager Tye Landels Junior Programmer Joey Takeda Programmer Martin Holmes Associate Project Director Kim McLean-Fiander Project Director Janelle Jenstad The Map of Early Modern Londonhttp://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/includes.xmlVictoria, BC, Canada
Department of English P.O.Box 3070 STNC CSC University of Victoria Victoria, BC Canada V8W 3W1
2016University of Victoria978-1-55058-519-3 Janelle Jenstad london@uvic.ca

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 Provider: University of Victoria Database: The Map of Early Modern London Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8" TY - ELEC A1 - Jenstad, Janelle ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - London Stone T2 - The Map of Early Modern London ET - 7.0 PY - 2022 DA - 2022/05/05 CY - Victoria PB - University of Victoria LA - English UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/LOND2.htm UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/LOND2.xml ER - Jenstad, Janelle. London Stone. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 05 May 2022, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/LOND2.htm. Jenstad, Janelle. London Stone. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed May 05, 2022. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/LOND2.htm. Jenstad, J. 2022. London Stone. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 7.0). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/7.0/LOND2.htm. Born digital. Camden, William. Britain, or A chorographicall description of the most flourishing kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the ilands adjoyning, out of the depth of antiquitie beautified vvith mappes of the severall shires of England: vvritten first in Latine by William Camden Clarenceux K. of A. Translated newly into English by Philémon Holland Doctour in Physick: finally, revised, amended, and enlarged with sundry additions by the said author. London, 1637. STC 4510.8. Cobbes, Edmund. Mundanum speculum, or, The worldlings looking glasse Wherein hee may clearly see what a woefull bargaine he makes if he lose his soule for the game of the vvorld. A worke needfull and necessarie for this carelesse age, wherein many neglect the meanes of their saluation. Preached and now published by Edmund Cobbes, master of the Word of God. London, M. Flesher for Phillip Waterhouse, 1630. STC 5453. Crouch, John. Londinenses Lacrymæ. Londons Second Tears mingled with her Aſhes. London: T. Palmer, 1666. Wing C7299. Dekker, Thomas. The Shoemaker’s Holiday. Ed. R.L. Smallwood and Stanley Wells. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1979. The Revels Plays. Englands deadly disease to bee sick of a king, or, Religions iust complaint against her enemies the hereticks, who call the diety into question and revoke their covenant, scornfully to have it hanged lower in the steeple-houses, for dogs to pisse upon &. London: George Lindsey, 1647. Wing E2956. Fabyan, Robert. Fabyan’s cronycle newly prynted, wyth the cronycle, actes, and dedes done in the tyme of the reygne of the moste excellent prynce kynge Henry the vii. London, 1533. STC 10660. Haughton, William. English-men for my money: or, A pleasant comedy, called, A woman will haue her will. London: W. White, 1616. STC 12931. Here begynneth a treatyse of this galaunt with the maryage of the bosse of Byllyngesgate. vnto London stone. London: J. Skot for Wynkyn de Worde, 1521. STC 24242. Heywood, Thomas. The foure prentises of London VVith the conquest of Ierusalem. As it hath bene diuerse times acted, at the Red Bull, by the Queenes Maiesties Seruants. London: [Nicholas Okes] for I. W[right], 1615. STC 13321. Holinshed, Raphael and William Harrison. The first and second volumes of Chronicles comprising 1 The description and historie of England, 2 The description and historie of Ireland, 3 The description and historie of Scotland: first collected and published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and others: now newlie augmented and continued (with manifold matters of singular note and worthie memorie) to the yeare 1586. London, 1587. STC 13569. Jenstad, Janelle. Using Early Modern Maps in Literary Studies: Views and Caveats from London. GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear, James Ketchum, Sarah Luria, and Doug Richardson. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge, ed. A Survey of London by John Stow. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. Print. Knowles, Ronald, ed. King Henry VI Part 2. By William Shakespeare. London: Thomas Nelson, 1999. Reprinted by London: Thomson Learning, 2001. Arden Shakespeare. Print. Nashe, Thomas. The returne of the renowned Caualiero Pasquill of England from the other side the seas, and his meeting with Marforius at London vpon the Royall Exchange where they encounter with a little houshold talke of Martin and Martinisme, discouering the scabbe that is bredde in England, and conferring together about the speedie dispersing of the golden legende of the liues of saints. London, 1589. STC 19457.3. Rowlands, Samuel. Humors looking glasse. London: Imprinted by Ed. Allde for VVilliam Ferebrand and are to be sold at his shop in the popes-head Pallace, right ouer against the Tauerne-dore, 1608. STC 21386. Shakespeare, William. The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004. 552–984. Shakespeare, William. The first part of the contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster with the death of the good Duke Humphrey: and the banishment and death of the Duke of Suffolke, and the tragicall end of the proud Cardinall of VVinchester, vvith the notable rebellion of Iacke Cade: and the Duke of Yorkes first claime vnto the crowne. London, 1594. STC 26099. Shakespeare, William. Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies Published according to the true originall copies. London, 1623. STC 22273. Sheppard, Francis. London: A History. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print. Smith, Al. Dictionary of City of London Street Names. New York: Arco, 1970. Print. Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert, eds. The London Encyclopaedia. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1983. Print. [You may also wish to consult the 3rd edition, published in 2008.] West, Richard. Newes from Bartholmew Fayre. London, 1606. STC 25264. Stow, John. A Survey of London. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. See also the digital transcription of this edition at British History Online. Candlewick Street

Candlewick, Candlewright, or, later, Cannon Street, ran east-west from Walbrook Street in the west to the beginning of Eastcheap at its eastern terminus. Candlewick Street became Eastcheap somewhere around St. Clements Lane, and led into a great meat market (Stow 1:217). Together with streets such as Budge Row, Watling Street, and Tower Street, which all joined into each other, Candlewick Street formed the main east-west road through London between Ludgate and Posterngate.

(CAND1.xml) London

The city of London, not to be confused with the allegorical character (London).

(LOND5.xml) St. Swithins Lane Information is not yet available. (STSW1.xml) Walbrook Street Information is not yet available. (WALB1.xml) Little Conduit (Cheapside)

The Little Conduit (Cheapside), also known as the Pissing Conduit, stood at the western end of Cheapside Street outside the north corner of Paul’s Churchyard. On the Agas map, one can see two water cans on the ground just to the right of the conduit.

(LITT2.xml) Walbrook Ward

Walbrook Ward is west of Candlewick Street Ward. The ward is named after the Walbrook, a river that ran through the heart of London from north to south. The river was filled in and paved over so that it was hardly discernable by Stow’s time (Harben, Walbrook (The)).

(WALB2.xml) Candlewick Street Ward

Candlewick Street Ward is west of Bridge Within Ward. Its main street is Candlewick Street (Stow 1633, sig. X3v).

(CAND2.xml) Aldgate

Aldgate was the easternmost gate into the walled city. The name Aldgate is thought to come from one of four sources: Æst geat meaning Eastern gate (Ekwall 36), Alegate from the Old English ealu meaning ale, Aelgate from the Saxon meaning public gate or open to all, or Aeldgate meaning old gate (Bebbington 20–21).

(ALDG1.xml) Holy Trinity Priory

Holy Trinity Priory, located west of Aldgate and north of Leadenhall Street, was an Augustinian Priory. Stow notes that Queen Matilda established the Priory in 1108 in the parishes of Saint Marie Magdalen, S. Michael, S. Katherine, and the blessed Trinitie, which now was made but one Parish of the holy Trinitie (Stow). Before Matilda united these parishes under the name Holy Trinity Priory, they were collectively known as the Holy Cross or Holy Roode parish (Stow; Harben).

(HOLY1.xml) St. Paul’s Cathedral

St. Paul’s Cathedral was—and remains—an important church in London. In 962, while London was occupied by the Danes, St. Paul’s monastery was burnt and raised anew. The church survived the Norman conquest of 1066, but in 1087 it was burnt again. An ambitious Bishop named Maurice took the opportunity to build a new St. Paul’s, even petitioning the king to offer a piece of land belonging to one of his castles (Times 115). The building Maurice initiated would become the cathedral of St. Paul’s which survived until the Great Fire of London.

(STPA2.xml) London Wall (street)

London Wall was a long street running along the inside of the northern part of the City Wall. It ran east-west from the north end of Broad Street to Cripplegate (Prockter and Taylor 43). The modern London Wall street is a major traffic thoroughfare now. It follows roughly the route of the former wall, from Old Broad Street to the Museum of London (whose address is 150 London Wall).

(LOND3.xml) The Thames Information is not yet available. (THAM2.xml) Royal Exchange

Located in Broad Street Ward and Cornhill Ward, the Royal Exchange was opened in 1570 to make business more convenient for merchants and tradesmen (Harben 512). The construction of the Royal Exchange was largely funded by Sir Thomas Gresham (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 718).

(ROYA1.xml) London Bridge

As the only bridge in London crossing the Thames until 1729, London Bridge was a focal point of the city. After its conversion from wood to stone, completed in 1209, the bridge housed a variety of structures, including a chapel and a growing number of shops. The bridge was famous for the cityʼs grisly practice of displaying traitorsʼ heads on poles above its gatehouses. Despite burning down multiple times, London Bridge was one of the few structures not entirely destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.

(LOND1.xml) Boss (Billingsgate)

According to John Stow, the Boss of Billingsgate was a fountain of spring water continually running, which was set into the wall of Boss Alley (Stow 1598, sig. M2v). This boss was the subject of an early modern poem, which personified both the Boss of Billingsgate and the London Stone. In this poem, the Boss is described as a fallen woman, who the London Stone marries (Bosse of Byllyngesgate sig. A5v). While the Boss of Billingsgate was located on the north side of Billingsgate Ward, its exact coordinates remain unknown and it is not labelled on the Agas map.

(BOSS2.xml) Billingsgate

Billingsgate (Bylynges gate or Belins Gate), a water-gate and harbour located on the north side of the Thames between London Bridge and the Tower of London, was London’s principal dock in Shakespeare’s day. Its age and the origin of its name are uncertain. It was probably built ca. 1000 in response to the rebuilding of London Bridge in the tenth or eleventh century.

(BILL1.xml) St. Swithin (London Stone) Information is not yet available. (STSW2.xml) Eastcheap

Eastcheap Street ran east-west, from Tower Street to St. Martin’s Lane. West of New Fish Street/Gracechurch Street, Eastcheap was known as Great Eastcheap. The portion of the street to the east of New Fish Street/Gracechurch Street was known as Little Eastcheap. Eastcheap (Eschepe or Excheapp) was the site of a medieval food market.

(EAST2.xml) Leadenhall Street

Leadenhall Street ran east-west from Cornhill Street to Aldgate Street. All three form part of the same road from Aldgate to Cheapside Street (Weinreb and Hibbert 462). The street acquired its name from Leadenhall, a onetime house and later a market. The building was reportedly famous for having a leaden roof (Bebbington 197).

(LEAD2.xml) Fenchurch Street

Fenchurch Street (often called Fennieabout) ran east-west from the pump on Aldgate High Street to Gracechurch Street in Langbourne Ward, crossing Mark Lane, Mincing Lane, and Rodd Lane along the way. Fenchurch Street was home to several famous landmarks, including the King’s Head Tavern, where the then-Princess Elizabeth is said to have partaken in pork and peas after her sister, Mary I, released her from the Tower of London in May of 1554 (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 288). Fenchurch Street was on the royal processional route through the city, toured by monarchs on the day before their coronations.

(FENC1.xml) Tower Street

Tower Street ran east-west from Tower Hill in the east to St. Andrew Hubbard. It was the principal street of Tower Street Ward. That the ward is named after the street indicates the cultural significance of Tower Street, which was a key part of the processional route through London and home to many wealthy merchants who traded in the goods that were unloaded at the docks and quays immediately south of Tower Street (for example, Billingsgate, Wool Key, and Galley Key).

(TOWE3.xml) Crutched Friars

Crutched Friars was a street that ran east-west from Poor Jewry Lane to the east end of Hart Street above Seething Lane. When Stow wrote, most of Crutched Friars was known as Hart Street, so Stow only uses the name Crutched Friars to refer to Crutched Friars Priory (Harben). Since Stow does not name the street that ran from Aldgate to Woodroffe Lane, it could have been known as Hart Street, Crutched Friars, or something different.

(CRUT1.xml) Ivy Bridge Lane Information is not yet available. (IVYB1.xml) Strand Lane

Strand Lane was a narrow and rather winding thoroughfare leading to the Embankment a few yards to the east of Somerset House (Thornbury).

(STRA1.xml) Westminster Information is not yet available. (WEST6.xml) Shoreditch

A suburban neighbourhood located just north of Moorfields and outside Londonʼs City Wall, Shoreditch was a focal point of early modern theatrical culture. Following a boom in Londonʼs population from 1550 to 1600, the neighbourhood became a prime target for development. The building of the Theatre in 1576 and the Curtain in the following year established Shoreditchʼs reputation as Londonʼs premier entertainment district, and the neigbourhood also featured a growing number of taverns, alehouses, and brothels. These latter establishments were often frequented by local players, of whom many prominent members were buried on the grounds of nearby St. Leonardʼs Church. Today, Shoreditch faces the potential revival of its early modern theatrical culture through the efforts of the Museum of London Archaeology and the Tower Hamlets Theatre Company.

(SHOR1.xml) Bishopsgate Street

Bishopsgate Street ran north from Cornhill Street to the southern end of Shoreditch Street at the city boundary. South of Cornhill, the road became Gracechurch Street, and the two streets formed a major north-south artery in the eastern end of the walled city of London, from London Bridge to Shoreditch. Important sites included: Bethlehem Hospital, a mental hospital, and Bull Inn, a place where plays were performed before Shakespeare’s time (Weinreb and Hibbert 67).

(BISH3.xml) Abchurch Lane

Abchurch Lane runs north-south from Lombard Street to Candlewick Street. The Agas Map labels it Abchurche lane. It lies mainly in Candlewick Street Ward, but part of it serves as the boundary between Langbourne Ward and Candlewick Street Ward.

(ABCH1.xml)

London Stone was, literally, a stone that stood on the south side of what is now Cannon Street (formerly Candlewick Street). Probably Roman in origin, it is one of London’s oldest relics. On the Agas map, it is visible as a small rectangle between Saint Swithin’s Lane and Walbrook Street, just below the nd consonant cluster in the label Londonſton.

The Julian calendar, in use in the British Empire until September 1752. This calendar is used for dates where the date of the beginning of the year is ambigious.

The Julian calendar with the calendar year regularized to beginning on 1 January.

The Julian calendar with the calendar year beginning on 25 March. This was the calendar used in the British Empire until September 1752.

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The Anno Mundi (year of the world) calendar is based on the supposed date of the creation of the world, which is calculated from Biblical sources. At least two different creation dates are in common use. See Anno Mundi (Wikipedia).

Regnal dates are given as the number of years into the reign of a particular monarch. Our practice is to tag such dates with calendar=regnal, and provide an equivalent date using a more systematic calendar (usually Julian) in a custom dating attribute.

 Joey Takeda Joey Takeda JT

Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.

 Tye Landels-Gruenewald Tye Landels-Gruenewald TLG

Data Manager, 2015-2016. Research Assistant, 2013-2015. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.

 Liam Sarsfield Liam Sarsfield LS

Research Assistant, 2010. At the time of his work with MoEML, Liam Sarsfield was a fourth-year honours English student at the University of Victoria. He now works at MetaLab.

 Kim McLean-Fiander Kim McLean-Fiander KMF

Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–2020. Associate Project Director, 2015. Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014. MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to The Map of Early Modern London from the Cultures of Knowledge digital humanities project at the University of Oxford, where she was the editor of Early Modern Letters Online, an open-access union catalogue and editorial interface for correspondence from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. She is currently Co-Director of a sister project to EMLO called Women’s Early Modern Letters Online (WEMLO). In the past, she held an internship with the curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, completed a doctorate at Oxford on paratext and early modern women writers, and worked a number of years for the Bodleian Libraries and as a freelance editor. She has a passion for rare books and manuscripts as social and material artifacts, and is interested in the development of digital resources that will improve access to these materials while ensuring their ongoing preservation and conservation. An avid traveler, Kim has always loved both London and maps, and so is particularly delighted to be able to bring her early modern scholarly expertise to bear on the MoEML project.

 Janelle Jenstad Janelle Jenstad JJ

Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and PI of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media (Routledge). She has prepared a documentary edition of John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation,Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter, 2016), Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, 2015), Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana, 2016), Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota, 2017), and Rethinking Shakespeare’s Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018).

 Stewart Arneil Stewart Arneil

Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) who maintained the Map of London project between 2006 and 2011. Stewart was a co-applicant on the SSHRC Insight Grant for 2012–16.

 Martin D. Holmes Martin D. Holmes MDH

Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.

 Jack Cade Jack Cade

Rebel leader.

ODNB Wikipedia William Shakespeare William Shakespeare

Playwright and poet.

EB ODNB Wikipedia John Stow John Stow

Historian and author of A Survey of London. Husband of Elizabeth Stow.

MoEML ODNB Wikipedia

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London Stone London Stone

Most modern readers of Shakespeare will recognize London Stone as the place where Jack Cade declares himself lord of London and christens himself Lord Mortimer. 4.6 of Henry VI, Part 2 begins at London Stone, where Cade proclaims:

Now is MortimerI.e., Cade. lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that, at the city’s cost, the Pissing Conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls me other than Lord Mortimer.4.6.1–6

The 1594 stage direction in the first quarto (Q1) text of The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster reads Enter Iacke Cade and the reſt,and ſtrikes his ſword on London ſtone (Shakespeare sig. G1v). In the 1623 Folio stage direction, Cade ſtrikes his ſtaffe on London ſtone (Shakespeare sig. O1r). The incident is recorded in contemporary chronicles. Fabyan’s Chronicle records that Cade rode thorough dyuers ſtretes of the cytie / and as he came by London ſtone, he ſtrake it with his ſwerde, and ſayd now is Mortymer lorde of this cytie (Fabyan sig. 2I5r). Likewise, Holinshed’s Chronicles record that After that, he [Cade] entred into London, cut the ropes of the draw bridge, & ſtrooke his ſword on London ſtone; ſaieng, Now is Mortimer lord of this citie (Holinshed and Harrison sig. 3O3v). Clearly, London Stone had some cultural significance that made it an appropriate place for a royal challenger to stake his claim. (See also Stow 1:25.)

London Stone was, literally, a stone that stood on the south side of what is now Cannon Street (formerly Candlewick Street). Probably Roman in origin, it is one of London’s oldest relics. On the Agas map, it is visible as a small rectangle between Saint Swithin’s Lane and Walbrook Street, just below the nd consonant cluster in the label Londonſton.

Stow frequently assumes his readers’ familiarity with London Stone. He invokes it as a landmark to orient his readers when describing potentially unfamiliar places. In fact, he mentions it at least five times in A Survey before giving a detailed description of London Stone when he gets to Walbrook Ward, where Candlewick Street marks the boundary between Candlewick Street Ward on the north side of the street and Walbrook Ward on the south:

On the south side of this high streete, neare vnto the channellI.e., the gutter, in the middle of the street in Stow’s day is pitched vpright a great stone called London stone, fixed in the ground verie deepe, fastned with bars of iron, and otherwise so strongly set that if Cartes do runne against it through negligence, the wheeles be broken, and the stone it selfe vnshaken.

The cause why this stone was there set, the time when, or other memorie hereof, is none, but that the same hath long continued there is manifest, namely since (or rather before) the time of the conquest: for in the ende of a faire written Gospell booke giuen to Christes Church in Canterburie, by Ethelstane king of the west Saxons [925–940 A.D.], I find noted of landes or rentes in London belonging to the sayd Church, whereof one parcell is described to lie neare unto London stone. Of later time we read that in the yeare of Christ 1135. the first of king Stephen a fire which began in the house of one Ailward, neare vnto London stone consumed all East to Aldgate, in the which fire the Priorie of the holy Trinitie was burnt, and west to S. Erkenwalds shrine in Paules Church: and these be the eldest notes that I reade therof.

Some haue saide this stone to be set, as a marke in the middle of the Citie within the walles: but in truth it standeth farre nearer vnto the riuer of Thames, then to the wall of the Citie: some others haue saide the same to be set for the tendering and making of payment by debtors to their creditors, at their appoynted dayes, and times, till of later time, payments were more vsually made at the font in Powles Church, and now most commonly at the Royall Exchange: some againe haue imagined the same to bee set vp by one Iohn or Thomas Londonstone dwelling there agaynst, but more likely it is, that such men haue taken name of the stone, rather then the stone of them, as did Iohn at Noke, Thomas at Stile, William at Wall or at Well, &c.

Stow 1:224–225

Even in Stow’s day, then, the stone was a bit of a mystery. According to A Survey, early modern Londoners thought it might have been a marker of London’s centre, a place for debt repayment, or a personal memorial erected by a man named Londonstone. Stow discredits the first and third theories on the origins of the stone and reserves judgement on the second theory. He is probably most correct when he asserts that there is no cultural memory of the origins of the ancient stone.

Its original purpose has been the subject of much speculation by archeologists and historians. It may have been a Roman measuring marker. Smith notes that in 1833, during the construction of London Bridge a section of Roman road was discovered that led in the direction of London Stone (33). Theories going back to the historian William Camden (1551–1623) have it that the Romans measured all distances throughout the island from London Stone (Kingsford 2:316; see also Weinreb and Hibbert 477). Camden took London Stone to have beene a Milliary, or Milemarke, ſuch as was in the Mercate [i.e., market] place of Rome: From which was taken the dimenſion of all journies every way, conſidering it is in the very mids of the City, as it lyeth in length (Camden sig. 2M6r). Camden thought the stone predated the wall, thus implicitly addressing Stow’s objection that the stone was not at the midpoint of the city’s north-south axis. Weinreb and Hibbert wondered in 1983 if the stone might be the rounded top of an early wayside Roman funerary monument, whose base may still await discovery on the south side of Cannon Street (Weinreb and Hibbert 478). They describe the stone’s current appearance as weathered Clipsham limestone with no markings except a pair of grooves worn in the top (Weinreb and Hibbert 478). However, archeological evidence from the 1980s seems to confirm Camden’s theory. Shepherd notes that it stood on the line of the central axis of the supposed [governor’s] palace and on the probable site of the principal entrance to it, where may well have stood a monument or milestone from which distances throughout the province were to be measured (29n).

The first mayor of London, Henry Fitz-Alwin, lived at London Stone, and the site of his house has been associated with the temporal governance of the city and the livery until the twentieth century. Kingsford traces the history of the site back to Henry Fitz-Alwin (1189?-1211) (Kingsford 2.315–16; Stow 2:149–152). In the possession of the Prior of Tortington for a time, Fitz-Alwin’s house passed to the Earls of Oxford at the dissolution of the religious houses in the sixteenth century. The fifteenth and sixteenth Earls of Oxford (both named John de Vere) made their London home here. Stow tells us in Of Customs and Orders that the latter rode to this house with a great retinue of 80. Gentlemen in a liuery of Reading Tawny and 100. tall yeomen in the like liuery (Stow 1:89). The earl’s homecoming must have been quite the spectacle, sure to have made an impact on the denizens of Candlewick Street. Known to Stow’s contemporaries as Oxford House or Oxford place by London Stone (Stow 1:224, marginalia), the house was then home to two other mayors. Stow tells us: In this Oxford place sir Ambrose Nicholas [a Salter] kept his Maioralitie [1576–1576], and since him the said sir Iohn Hart Sheriff in 1579-80, Mayor in 1589–90] (Stow 1:224; see Stow 2:184 for dates of office). Sir John Hart’s daughter married Humphrey Smith, Alderman of Walbrook Ward (Kingsford 2.316), and they continued to live at the London Stone address. The house was purchased by the Salters’ Company in 1641 and became the site of their company hall until 1941 (Kingsford 2.316; see also the Salters’ Company online history of their hall).

London Stone was a convenient shorthand address for nearby shops and houses. Stow reports several times that in 1136 a fire began in the house of one Ailewarde, neare vnto London stone. This fire burned much of London, spreading to Aldgate in the east and to Paul’s Church in the west, and damaging the timber bridge over the Thames (Stow 1:22; see also Stow 1:139 and Stow 1:224–225). At least two seventeenth-century booksellers lived near London Stone, as we can learn from the addresses they included on the title pages of their stock. Phillip Waterhouse had a shop at the signe of St. Pauls Head in Canon Street neare London Stone (Cobbes sig. π1r). The title pages of books dated from 1629 to 1631 indicate the proximity of his shop to London Stone. A slightly later bookseller worked in the vicinity from at least 1643 to 1649. George Lindsey sold books from his shop overagainst [sic] London-stone (Englands deadly disease sig. A1r). Richard West’s Newes from Bartholmew Fayre indicates that there was a tavern named the Bores head, néere London ſtone (West sig. B1r).

London Stone is mentioned throughout the literature of the period. One of the odder texts in the corpus of early modern London literature is a poem anthropomorphizing London Stone and the Boss at Billingsgate (a water conduit) as a man and woman wishing to marry. London Stone, described as curtes and gente (i.e., courteous and gentle) (Bosse of Byllyngesgate sig. A5v), defends the reputation of the Boss from those who would slander her. Another text tells us that London Stone was known across the country to be one of London’s principal sites. The honeſt Country foole in Samuel Rowlands <ref target="ASST1.xml">A straunge ſighted Traueller</ref> is taken by his tour guide to the main tourist attractions of London, which included Great tall Pauls Steeple and the royall-Exchange: / The Boſſe at Billings-gate and London ſtone (Rowlands sig. D3r).

Stow’s frequent invocations of the stone indicate its importance as a literal and imaginative landmark for Londoners. Like Jack Cade, the fictional Cavaliero Pasquil in Thomas Nashe’s Marprelate countertracts takes London Stone as the ideal place to launch a challenge. At the end of Pasquils retvrne to England, Pasquil asks his imaginary interlocutor Marforius to post a challenge to Martinists on London Stone: ſet vp this bill at London ſtone. Let it be doone ſollemnly with Drom and Trumpet, and looke you aduance my collours on the top of the ſteeple right ouer againſt it [St. Swithin’s church steeple], that euery one of my Souldiers may keepe his quarter (Nashe sig. D3v). The bill that follows is Pasqvils Protestation Vppon <ref target="LOND2.xml">London Stone</ref>:

I Caualiero Paſquill, the writer of this ſimple hand, a young man, of the age of ſome few hundred yeeres, lately knighted in Englande, with a beetle and a bucking tub, to beat a little reaſon about Martins head, doe make this my Proteſtation vnto the world, that if any man, woman, or childe, haue any thing to ſay againſt Martin the great, or any of his abettors, of what ſtate or calling ſoeuer they be, noble or ignoble, from the very Court-gates to the Coblers ſtall, if it pleaſe them theſe dark Winter-nights, to ſticke vppe their papers vppon London-ſtone, I will there giue my attendance to receiue them, from the day of the date heereof, to the full terme and reuolution of ſeuen yeeres next enſuing. Dated 20. Octobris. Anno Millimo, Quillimo, Trillimo, Per me venturous Paſquill the Caualiero. Nashe sig. D3v

This passage suggests that London Stone might have functioned as a gathering place for popular protest and dissemination of information, even though Pasquil does characterize his act of diſplaying my Banners vpon London-ſtone as an act of Soldateſcha bravur (Nashe sig. D4r; i.e., soldier’s courage or bravura). The Earl of Bulloigne’s sons in Thomas Heywood’s The Four Prentices of London (performed 1594; printed 1615) also represent London Stone as a gathering place, although they imagine it as a military recruiting point. When the four brothers, who have left their city apprenticeships to fight for distinction in the crusades, wish for London reinforcements in the battle to come, they think of Eastcheap, Candlewick Street, and London Stone as places where young men might be found in abundance:

Oh that I had with mee As many good lads, honeſt Prentiſes, From Eaſtcheap, Canwicke-ſtreete, and London-ſtone, To end this battell, as could wiſh themſelues Vnder my conduct if they knew me heere; The doubtfull daies ſucceſſe we need not feare. Heywood sig. D4v

In the subsequent city comedies and citizen romances that stage London in topographical particularity, the site is a common point of reference. In William Haughton’s Englishmen for My Money (performed 1598; printed 1616), a play widely taken by modern critics to be the first city comedy, a central development of the plot entails leading the foreign suitors away from the usurer Pisaro’s house. Once the English suitor Heigham has misled the Italian and French suitors to believe they are in Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street respectively, Frisco (servant to Pisaro), although outwitted himself, has a bit of fun with the foreign suitors’ lack of local knowledge. Pretending to lead them from Tower Street to Crutched Friars, Frisco can tell them that their route takes them past London Stone (south-west of Pisaro’s house), Ivy Bridge Lane (far west of the city, running south off theStrand en route to Westminster), and Shoreditch (far north of the City, accessed via Bishopsgate Street). In the late evening dark, Frisco finds his way by touch and smell.

I haue the ſcent of London-ſtone as full in my noſe, as Abchurch-lane of mother Walles Paſties: Sirrs feele about, I ſmell London-ſtone. Haughton sig. G1v

Frisco is here representing local topographical knowledge as being imbricated in sensory experience that the foreigners do not have.See my analysis of this passage in Jenstad, Using Early Modern Maps. In Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599), Firk invokes the ubiquitous knowledge of London Stone. Having been told that his nephew intends to marry the next day, Oatley questions Firk’s knowledge:

Oatley But art thou sure of this? Firk Am I sure that Paul’s Steeple is a handful higher than London Stone? 16.110–11

Firk’s reply contains a truism of London cultural knowledge, that Paul’s Steeple is the highest structure in the City. The second item in his comparison has to be equally well known—and known to be much shorter than Paul’s Steeple—in order for his question to be rhetorical.

Over the centuries, London Stone has been moved several times. Stow’s description suggests that its location in the middle of Candlewick Street was a hindrance to traffic flow, but it remained in place until after the Great Fire, which it survived intact. A 1666 elegy for the burned city, Londinenses Lacrymae, mourns the loss of All things of beauty, ſhatter’d loſt and gone; / Little of London whole but London-ſtone (Crouch sig. A3v). In the post-fire rebuilding, the stone was moved to the north side of Cannon Street, where it was embedded in the wall of St. Swithin’s Church (designed by Sir Christopher Wren). St. Swithin’s was destroyed by bombing in 1941, but London Stone survived (Weinreb and Hibbert 766). (Note that the footnote to the Jack Cade passage in Ronald Knowles’ Arden3 edition of Henry VI, Part 2 erroneously indicates that the stone is still embedded in the wall of the now non-existent St. Swithin’s Church [317 n.0.2].) The Stone was moved to the south side of Cannon Street, where it can be seen today, embedded in a case in the wall of a bank building. Now relegated to a foot-level display case, London Stone has nonetheless played an important part in the cultural imagination of Londoners over many centuries.

Further Resources

Watch the Museum of London’s video about the history and significance of London Stone.