The church is close to London Bridge and the old approach to the bridge passed close to the west. There is a blue plaque to mark this location in the churchyard.
History of the Church
Early Church
Richard Newcourt's Repertorium records the first church built here was dedicated to St. Magnus. Was this Magnus who suffered martyrdom in A.D. 276 at the time of Alexander, Governor of Caesarea?
Early records show the title as being 'Ecclesia St. Magni Civitatis London juxta pedem, vel as pedem Ponti London' - viz 'The Church of St. Magnus at the foot of London Bridge'. It is recorded in a confirmation of a grant made by William the Conqueror to Westminster Abbey in 1067. A church, made of stone, was standing here at the time of the grant. It was pulled down and a new larger one built in 1234 on a new plot of land.
Its position, near the bridge, played an important part in the life of the church of the City. London Bridge with its twenty arches stretching across the river from the north to the south bank and forming a barrier through which the larger ships could not pass. Ships wishing to unload their goods into the City of London did so along the bankside from the Tower of London to the bridge.
By a decree of Pope Innocent IV in 1250 a bishop visiting his diocese was permitted to summon his clergy to one place for a general meeting. From the 15th to the 17th century the chosen church was St. Magnus, probably because of its proximity to the river. While in the 14th century the Fraternity of Salve Regina was established here. In the late 15th century the priests and clerks of the City were called to order for dallying in taverns and fishing at the 'tyme of dyvyne services' instead of paying attention to their services.
Medieval records show that in the 14th century the Pope was the Patron of the Living and appointed five rectors to the parish. In Pre-Reformation days the parish took part with St. Peter's Cornhill and St. Nicholas Cole Abbey in a joint procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi. This event was often marred by the squabbling between the parishes as to who should lead the procession, the question of precedence being finally settled by the Bishop of London. He decided that St. Peter's Cornhill could, justifiably, claim to be the oldest Christian church site in the Citv of London having been founded in the latter half of the 2nd century.
Reformation to the Great Fire
After the Reformation, patronage alternated between the Abbey of Bermondsey and the Abbot and Convent of Westminster. In the 16th century patronage passed to the Bishop of London Edmund Grindall, who appointed Miles Coverdale to the parish in 1563. At which time the churchwardens were ordered to break, or cause to be broken in two parts, all the altar stones in the church.
The medieval church was repaired in the early 17th century and completely rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666 by Christopher Wren. 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.
Wren's New Church
St. Magnus the Martyr was one of 51 parish churches rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren and his office after the Great Fire (in fact, the enterprising parishioners had already begun to rebuild north wall with the mason George Dowdeswell by 1668). The work spanned 1671-84, but was substantially complete by 1676; at £9579 19s 10d, it was one of his most expensive churches. Wren's craftsmen were John Thompson, mason; Matthew Banckes Senior and Thomas Lock, carpenters; William Cleere, joiner; Doogood & Grove, plasterers; with internal woodwork by William Grey and one Massey. Although the model for the steeple was probably made by 1684 (very closely based on that of St. Charles Borromée by François Aiguillon in Antwerp), it was only completed in 1703-06.
In the following century, a 'dreadful fire suddenly broke out with great violence about ten o'clock in the morning of 18th April 1760 at an OYL (sic) shop adjoining the church, which instantly consumed the vestry room, most part of the roof of the Church, greatly injured the ORGAN, and did very considerable damage to the fabric.'
Under an Act of Parliament dated June 1756, permission was obtained to demolish all the shops and houses on London Bridge. This was to allow for the widening of the bridge facilitating a speedier flow of the traffic going across. Both the Act and the subsequent action did not please those people who lived and worked on the bridge! A reward was offered to anyone who could solve the mystery of the starting of the fire. A reward of two hundred pounds was offered but never awarded. All this in spite of the fact that a certain Mrs. John Dennys made a sworn statement that she had seen, from her bedroom window, three lanterns moving about near the chapel pier. Shortly afterwards the chapel was ablaze. When the bridge was rebuilt a constant guard was kept upon it, with a patrol walking up and down a wooden gallery built just below the line of the roadway.
After the fire the church was fully restored, the organ reinstated and a new vestry room rebuilt at the North-West end at the sole expense of the united parish of St. Magnus the Martyr and St. Margaret, New Fish Street for the cost of upwards of £1,200. In 1762 the City Corporation placed before Parliament that they had not only repaired the bridge but also allowed for it to be widened. This latter condition affected the west end of St. Magnus' Church. Previously the end of the church building, with its vestry room, had been on the edge of the roadway at the north end of the bridge. Now, the widened bridge's footpath was designed to go through the tower of the church. When the surveyor examined the church it was discovered that Wren had filled in the two side arches of the tower. It almost seemed as if he had anticipated the building of a new bridge that would be wider than the medieval one. These arches were duly opened, the vestry room demolished, with an overall effect of shortening the length of the church. A new vestry house was built on the South-West side of the church.
In 1782 in an attempt to reduce the noise of the many iron-rimmed carts working in nearby Billingsgate, the windows in the North wall were altered to their present round form. In 1924-1925 Martin Travers restored the interior when the 'unsightly changes' made in the early 19th century were removed. The box pews were replaced by those currently in use and the three-decker pulpit with its 'rectory pew' dismantled revealing the elegant pulpit of Wren. This pulpit was so greatly admired that two copies were made, one of which was, until the Blitz of 1940-1941, in the Parish Church of St. Lawrence Jewry. After World War II, 1939-1945, new stained glass windows were commissioned and placed in the church, by Laurence King.
Not every visitor to the church has appreciated the various alterations that have been made since its rebuilding in the late 17th century. Besant in his City Churches and their Memories writes 'As to the interior of St. Magnus, up to a year ago it was worth visiting. Spacious and severe - rather bare, as a matter of fact - with high pews and a three-decker pulpit, it was thoroughly representative of the architect and the period. But now all has changed. The three-decker pulpit and high pews are gone by the board. In the place of the one simple altar there are now three, with candles to burn, and a heavy smell of incense, all in the Roman manner - hopelessly and absolutely out of keeping. That is how it strikes me.'
Today's church building reflects the needs of those who worship there and not some idealistic person of the past wishing to impose his ideals on some future generation."
Source: The Church Website.