St Magnus the Martyr - Lower Thames Street, London, UK - Town Clocks on Waymarking.com

The clock hangs over the churchyard that can be accessed from Lower Thames Street. It has two faces: one facing north that can be seen by anyone descending Fish Street Hill and the other facing south.

The clock has an ornate wooden case and has similar faces on each side. The case is black and has some edging and other work picked out in gold. At the bottom of the clock is the year 1709.

The clock face is black with a decorated, gold coloured ring around the outside. The minute hands are generally single gold marks with the five minute marks being gold, triangular shapes. The hour marks sit within the minute marks and are also gold and are traditional Roman numerals. The pointer parts of the hands are gold coloured and the tails are black.

The wooden bracket, that holds the clock casing to the tower wall, is also black and has some intricate carving on it.

"For over two centuries, the great clock projecting from the tower of St. Magnus was a London landmark, until its profile was subsumed by skyscrapers. It was made by Langley Bradley, dated 1700 on a benefaction board within, but presented by Sir Charles Duncombe in 1709, legendarily in fulfilment of a vow made as an apprentice, after missing an appointment for want of a reliable public clock. It cost £485 5s 4d, at a time when the national per capita income was less than £12; its original gilded figures (of St. Magnus and St. Margaret, Atlas and Hercules, and two cupids) were replaced in the early 19thC by the present plain pediment. Sir Charles was a wealthy goldsmith, Lord Mayor in 1709, satirised by Pope for his purchase of an aristocratic country seat; in town, he lived under the sign of The Grasshopper in Lombard Street, once the home of Sir Thomas Gresham (founder of the Royal Exchange) and now No. 68."

Source: The Church Website.