A church built here circa 1067 was later dedicated to St Magnus, Earl of Orkney (c. 1075-1116). Magnus, son of Erling, Viking ruler of the Orkneys, converted to Christianity as an adult. After his father died, he refused to fight his cousin Haakon for sole rulership of the Orkneys. He accepted violent death as a sacrifice, praying for Haakon and his followers who murdered him. Like some other nobles who were killed more for political reasons than religious ones, e.g., St Olave, Magnus was venerated as a martyr.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the rector of St Magnus-the-Martyr was Miles Coverdale, the Bible translator who helped William Tyndale revise his translation of the Pentateuch. In 1535, Coverdale's full Bible translation was published, the first printed Bible in English. A wall plaque memorialising him has been placed to the right of the high altar.
In 1666, this was one of the first buildings to be consumed in the Great Fire. The present church was built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1671 and 1676 in an English Baroque style. The church served as the main entrance to the old London Bridge, London’s only bridge until 1750. Wren’s great stone tower topped by an octagonal lantern, lead dome, and spire welcomed people crossing to the City. In 1709 a large clock donated by Lord Mayor Charles Dunscombe was installed on the west side of the tower.
The church has not been well-served by changes since then, however. The bridge was widened in 1759 and a roadway was built through the base of Wren's tower. In 1831 the bridge was demolished and a new London Bridge constructed 100 hundred yards downstream, taking away the church’s commanding position at the entrance to the City. Adelaide House, a large office block built in the 1920s, obscures the west end of the church with Wren’s tower and Dunscombe’s clock. Lower Thames Street has been widened into a major traffic thoroughfare.
As Simon Jenkins puts it, "[T]he exterior of St Magnus is just another riverside church besieged by the Thames Street racetrack".
The photo at left shows the exterior of the church taken from the east, giving a good view of Wren’s fine tower, with Adelaide House on the far side.
(As always, click on photos for larger views.)
Within the church, however, beauty and tranquility abound. In The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot describes St Magnus-the-Martyr: "Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold". In the 19th century, this church became a major centre of Anglo-Catholicism, which sought to return the church to a form of pre-Reformation worship. While not Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic renewal, inspired by the Oxford Movement, re-introduced many medieval rites and liturgical practices.
The church's interior survived the Blitz of World War II intact. It had been restored by Martin Travers in 1924 to reflect the Anglo-Catholic character of the congregation. The magnificent and sumptuously decorated interior features the high altar with a two-tier wooden reredos, shown at right. The lower part of the reredos dates from Wren's time but Travers added the upper part in Wren style. Paintings of Moses and Aaron with commandment boards are placed underneath a pelican, an 18th-century Glory (in the roundel), and Baroque angels. Standing on top of the screen is a rood (Christ on the Cross with Our Lady and St. John on either side).
The Lady Chapel is found in the north-east corner of the church. Here the daily Eucharist is offered. The painting above the altar is a copy of the Madonna and Child by Van Dyke. The reredos and carvings are made of wood from the church, and an old cottage supplied the wooden brackets. On the east wall of the chapel is painted the "Holy Countenance of St. Veronica's Veil", a parishioner's gift in memory of her parents.
In the south aisle stands this statue of St Magnus of Orkney, holding a model of the church in his left hand and a Viking battle axe in his right. The statue was created by Martin Travers in 1925.
St Magnus-the-Martyr Church is a member of Forward In Faith, an international organization of Anglo-Catholic churches formed in 1995 in opposition to ordination of women as Anglican priests. It also seeks to maintain a traditional view on matters of liturgy, ecclesiology, Christology, and the authority of scripture.
The church's home page has much historical information and lots of pictures. Here's a large map.
Links to all my blog posts about British churches and Christian sites can be accessed through the box located at the top of the page.
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