Lot Essay
Strategically located on the banks of the River Thames, the church of St Magnus the Martyr stands at the historic gateway to the City of London. The churchyard formed part of the roadway approach to Old London Bridge before the bridge was replaced in 1831. One of 51 churches rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren following the Great Fire of London of 1666, St Magnus the Martyr is a well known and much admired landmark. The building was immortalised in T.S. Eliot's 1922 poem, The Waste Land:... where the walls/Of Magnus Martyr hold/Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.'