My curiosity about what happened to the stones from old London Bridge (the one with houses on top which was demolished in the 1830s after lasting over 600 years) took me back the other day to the amazing church of St Magnus the Martyr on the north side of the river close by the present London Bridge. I knew that the church was on the road that led to the old bridge and that some of the original stones were still lying in the churchyard (above, left) as I recorded in our Gems of London app for the iPhone. But I hadn’t fully taken on board the fact that the passageway you see today carved out from under the church’s tower (see above right) was the actual entrance through which pedestrians crossed the bridge – so it is a bit of the old bridge still intact today as it was. hundreads of years ago. Not all of London Bridge was falling down. . . .
