London Stone

Behind the metal grille in the wall of a WH Smith on Cannon Street sits one of the most mysterious objects in London. It's a lump of oolitic limestone, roughly the size of a small suitcase, and nobody — not a single historian, archaeologist, or geologist — can tell you with certainty what it is or why it's here.

The theories are fantastic. It might be the Roman milliarium, the central milestone from which all distances in the province of Britannia were measured. It might be a Druidic altar. Some believe it's the magical heart of London — a talisman that protects the city. The name was first recorded around eleven hundred AD, which means it was already ancient and mysterious to people nine hundred years ago.

In fourteen fifty, rebel Jack Cade marched on London, struck the stone with his sword, and declared himself Lord of the City. Shakespeare wrote the scene into Henry the Sixth Part Two. There's a famous prophecy: "So long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long will London flourish." Sounds ancient and portentous, right? It was actually invented by an eccentric Welsh clergyman around eighteen sixty-two. Completely made up. But it stuck.

The stone has been moved multiple times. It used to sit in the middle of the street. Then it was built into the wall of St Swithin's Church. When the church was bombed in the Blitz, the stone survived. It was temporarily housed in the Museum of London before being returned to Cannon Street in twenty eighteen, placed inside a new glass and steel case in the wall of the WH Smith. So the magical heart of London, the ancient Druidic altar, the Roman milestone to nowhere — it now lives in a newsagent. That feels very London.