Through fire and bombs, from Roman legionnaires to civilian revolutions, London Stone has remained ever-present. Jackass star Steve-O continues to outdo himself and this time he was in London performing a stunt that ended up getting him detained by. “We think it was a well-known landmark, a gathering place and the point where people travelling into the City would know they had reached London,” said Helen Perkins, Clerk (CEO) of The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, noting that the destruction of the spectacles upon such a famous landmark acted as public deterrent.Īlthough the stone’s original purpose may be lost, its symbolic importance is undeniable. Minutes from a 1671 case stated that 264 spectacles ‘were found badd and deceitful and by judgement of the Court condemned to be broken, defaced and spoyled both glasse and frame. If spectacles in the city were found not to meet the requirements set out by the company, a claim was brought to court where a guilty verdict would result in punishment or destruction of the eyewear. One particular incident comes from The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, an organisation founded in 1629 by royal charter with the purpose to ‘support the prevention and treatment of vision impairment’ – a cause the company champions to this day. While it may not have been used to overthrow the monarchy, London Stone has played a role in enforcing royal decrees. What’s more, the stone would soon be relocated, and the construction of the Metropolitan Railway in the mid-19th Century led much of the stone’s original foundation to be quarried away. Sadly, evidence to support the theories that it formed part of a structure dating from the Roman Empire are sparse and far from conclusive. This theory was supported by 17th-Century architect Christopher Wren who, through his son, Christopher Wren Jr, later speculated that it could have been “in the manner of the Milliarium Aureum, at Rome”, an ancient monument from which all roads in the Roman Empire began and mileage throughout the empire was measured. It could have been “a kind of Obelisque,” noted Robert Hooke, from the Royal Society, the UK’s science academy, at the time of excavation. The ‘root’ of the stone extended around 3m down into the earth. Its position in the middle of the street likely saved the stone from significant damage, but the inferno led to a startling discovery.Īs architects began reconstructing the city, surveyors found that much like an iceberg, the visible stone was only a small portion of a much larger structure. Over the next three to four days The Great Fire of London ravaged the medieval heart of London, destroying more than 13,000 buildings – including those surrounding London Stone. On 2 September 1666, a fire broke out in a bakery on Pudding Lane.
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