Wren & After: St. Magnus the Martyr was one of 51 parish churches rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren and his office after the Great Fire (in fact, the enterprising parishioners had already begun to rebuild north wall with the mason George Dowdeswell by 1668). The work spanned 1671-84, but was substantially complete by 1676; at £9579 19s 10d, it was one of his most expensive churches. Wren's craftsmen were John Thompson, mason; Matthew Banckes Senior and Thomas Lock, carpenters; William Cleere, joiner; Doogood & Grove, plasterers; with internal woodwork by William Grey and one Massey. Although the model for the steeple was probably made by 1684 (very closely based on that of St. Charles Borromée by François Aiguillon in Antwerp), it was only completed in 1703-06.

Rebuilding after the fire of 1760 coincided with the last major renovation of old London Bridge, which saw the demolition of its shops and houses, and the expansion of pedestrian access literally through the west end of the church: two of its nine bays were demolished, and the tower base converted to an external porch pierced by arches to create a path between Fish Street Hill and the bridge (possibly to designs by George Dance the Elder, the City Surveyor). The building now stands 90ft (27m) long, 59ft (18m) wide and 41ft (12.5m) high, with a 185ft (56m) steeple.

Wren's original plan is best imagined from the exterior, where the north wall reveals that the church once had nine bays (to the present seven), with four tall windows on either side of a central door directly on Lower Thames Street. In 1782, that door was blocked and those windows converted to the present high round form (matching the one over the door), largely to reduce the noise (and smell) of the busy road and nearby Billingsgate (from 1699 until 1982, London's principal fish market, now removed to Docklands).

The internal arrangements are more challenging: even the redoubtable Prof. Pevsner can only speculate that the graceful Ionic columns may originally have formed an internal transept (as at the nearby Wren church of St. James Garlickhythe). Certainly, the nave was longer when the nine-bay church enclosed the tower, and doors on the north and south walls would have created a natural axis. The gallery was probably introduced in 1712 to accommodate the new organ, although the lobby below it was only screened off in 1782. The south wall was rebuilt in 1803 by Samuel Robinson, and Pevsner suggests that the clerestory may date from further 'beautifications' undertaken in 1814.

Remarkably, the church then seems to have remained substantially unchanged for a century, even retaining its box pews and triple-decker pulpit until the 1920s. in 1922, T.S. Eliot (then still by day a bank clerk in Lloyds Foreign Department the City), wrote in The Wasteland:

O City city, I can sometimes hear
Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street,
The pleasant whining of a mandoline
And a clatter and a chatter from within
Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls
Of Magnus Martyr hold
Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.

The last renovation was undertaken in 1924-25 by Martin Travers, who added a new pair of columns, and ingeniously combined elements of the old and new. The reredos (last modified ca. 1890) was extended to combine the original altarpiece (where paintings of Moses and Aaron and commandment boards stand between Corinthian columns) with its crowning pelican (a symbol of piety and self-sacrifice, from the belief that it feeds its young on the blood of its own breast), an early 18thC Glory (in the roundel), 18thC Baroque angels, flaming urns, old woodwork and his Crucifixion group of the 1920s. The side reredoses also re-use 17thC woodwork (including the former north doorcase), and a painting of the Virgin and Child after Van Dyck.

Communion rails of early 18thC Sussex wrought iron surround the chancel, raised by Travers in the 1920s; the original communion table now stands in the south-east chapel, near a splendid late 16thC Flemish aumbry (a cupboard for sacred vessels) on the east wall. On the north side of the sanctuary, a small shrine houses a sliver of the True Cross; this relic was shared with the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, whose image stands nearby. Other relics on the south-east altar, the Russian icon on the north wall, and the stations of the cross around the nave, reflect the Anglo-Catholic character of the present congregation; Our Lady de Salve Regina was a parish guild, formed by the fishermen of Billingsgate in the 15th century, and revived as a confraternity by Father Fynes-Clinton in the 1920s.

The pulpit, cut down in the 1920s from William Grey's 17thC three-decker, stands on a slender shaft beneath a commanding tester. The sword rest dates from 1708, but displays the Royal Arms of 1810-16. (The church also has hatchments for Princess Charlotte d.1817; her mother, George IV's Queen Caroline d.1821; and grandmother, George III's Queen Charlotte d.1818. On the gallery, four iron columns bear the monograph of Queen Anne d.1714.)

The benches are by Travers, although the old high-sided churchwardens' pews are retained at the west end, near the font and cover of 1683 (on a later stand). The decoration of the adjacent late 18thC Benefactors' Board includes carved garlands and a painting of John the Baptist by Alfred Stevens, after Murillo. The Corinthian screen and doorcase set against the west lobby wall are by Wren's joiner Massey, while the lobby screen of the 1760s incorporates some 16thC work.

Stained Glass: Like most City churches, St. Magnus the Martyr lost much ancient glass to the hazards of fire and war, but the extreme north-west window bears armorial glass of 1671 from the former Plumbers' Hall, alongside other livery companies' arms by A.L. Wilkinson (1953-60). On the south aisle, four windows by Lawrence Lee (1949-53) portray St. Magnus and his ancient church at Egilsay, St. Margaret with her lost church in New Fish Street, St. Thomas with his erstwhile chapel on old London Bridge, and St. Michael with his lost church in Crooked Lane. 

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