Monday 4 February 2013

The Heart of London - *Giveaway*

WIN A $20 AMAZON VOUCHER - as part of the "Follower Love" blog hop.
GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - and the winner is:
"Bookish Stacy" - many congratulations to Stacy, your eVoucher is on its way!!

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Where is the Heart of London?

 

A reasonable answer would be the centre of London - but where is this?
This answer is the London Stone - a lump of masonry believed by many to imbued with mythical powers, and yet hundreds of commuters walk past it everyday without noticing.
 
The London Stone is said to have been used by the Romans as the milestone from which all distances in England were measured, and marked the exact centre of the ancient city of Londinium. If this is true or not, it was certainly an important landmark for it was said people met at the London Stone to settle debts, to pin important notices or indeed that it was the last remaining stone of the first Lord Mayor's house.
Behind this grill rests the London Stone.
Cany you see it?
Whatever the claims for the London Stone, it is certainly one of the oldest building stones to be found above ground. References to it extend back through the centuries and one 16th century chronicler, John Stow, claimed to find it mentioned in a book dating back to the Saxon king Ethelstane (925-940). There are numerous casual references throughout the centuries and although its exact history is unknown, there are several conjectures as to its historical importance.

Wilder theories imbue the London Stone with mythical powers, including the stone embodying the soul of the city and that if it is destroyed, London will fall. The origin of this theory perhaps comes from stories of the stone being the last evidence of a sacred monolith (a sort of London Stonehenge), or brought by Brutus when he founded the city.

The modern resting place of the London Stone.

Legends concerning the stone are many and varied but one of my favourites concerns the significance of 'striking the stone.' In Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 2, the leader of the Kentish Rebellion, Jack Cade, strikes the stone with his sword and declares:
"Now is Mortimer lord of this city."

This goes in some way to back an ancient belief that striking the stone was a key part of a ritual which legitimized a leader's claim to authority (echoes of King Arthur and the sword in the stone?), in particular the idea that no Lord Mayor could take office without striking the stone with his sword.

So considering the rich history surrounding the London Stone, what became of it?

Is it royally housed in a shrine, surrounded by security cameras and subdued lighting? Sadly, not. It sits sadly overlooked, embedded in the wall of a betting shop in Cannon Street, behind a dirty glass screen and shielded from the pavement by an iron screen. Come to think of it, perhaps hiding it in plain sight is a good idea - a great way to disguise mythical powers…don’t you think…
 
The shameful last home of the London Stone -
in the wall of a betting shop in a grotty London street.
 
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71 comments:

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  12. It seems a shame that something with such history is left well, to crumble as it were. Is there at least a marker for it?

    Ps. I love these little tid-bits of history.

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  14. That is a fascinating bit of history.

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  18. Grace,

    I am already subscribed.

    Thanks for the cool blog..... wouldn't that make for a great story, somewhere in the future, some enemy of England, runs across the leg and of the Stone..... and starts a camping to destroy it, to destroy all of England. :-) might be a good time for Arthur to come back.... the Heart of London maybe being the stone he pulled Excalibur from. Think of it, London wasn't around yet... wouldn't it be cool if the Romano's used that stone, unknowingly? Lol

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    This story was great. Reminds me of our vacation to Paris several years ago. In the basement of the Louvre they has uncovered/excavated some of the original city wall (I don't remember, but around 500's I think). At the time, it was exposed and we could walk up to part of it & just touch it. There were different layers (of stone, walls or such) showing & I even have a pic of me touching it. After reading a history of Paris before our trip, I really had an idea of just how much I was reaching back through time to touch. I was kind of amazing and unreal all at the same time. But the really odd thing was that there were no plaques or info cards up there like everywhere else- so if you hadn't read about it before goes into the museum you would have no idea about what was exposed or why they had the area set up. I'm not sure what it's like now...

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  41. I never knew about the London Stone, how fascinating! I'm a new subscriber.

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