Elizabeth I's occultist, John Dee, believed this stone had magic powers. Elsewhere you may read that it is connected to the Roman Brutus but that story was fabricated in 1862. The Museum of London thinks that it might have been part of the Roman government offices that were sited where Cannon Street station is now.
All that is known for certain is that the Stone is first referenced in about 1100 and occasionally thereafter as a landmark. In the late 1550s it appears on the first printed map of London. It is referenced by Shakespeare in Henry VI Part 2. In the 18th century it was moved a few times for its protection.
It was incorporated into St Swithin's church which was on the site of 111 Cannon Street. This photo shows the stone in place at St Swithin's in 1962 just before the remains of this bomb-damaged church were finally demolished. It was then erected behind a grille in the wall of an office block.
There are actually at least three other "London stones": one on the banks of the Thames in Staines, erected in 1285 by the Corporation of the City of London to mark the westernmost limit of its jurisdiction. Another, eight metres high, stands on the south bank of Yantlet Creek on the Isle of Grain in Kent. Another, called the Crow Stone, was erected in 1837 (replacing a smaller one erected in 1755) on the north bank at the end of Chalkwell Avenue in Southend-on-Sea. The line between these two, the "Yantlet Line" marks the boundary for the Port of London Authority. For more information about these two stones see A London Inheritance.
The Cannon Street London Stone has its own website.
