London Stone (riparian)

In 1197 King Richard I, in need of money to finance his involvement in the Third Crusade, sold the rights over the lower reaches of the River Thames to the City of London.

[1] In Victorian times, the Lord Mayor would come in procession by water and touch the Staines stone with a sword to re-affirm the City's rights.

Its sole inscription is a very eroded etching 'STANE' in its top section of uncertain date, the Old English word for Stone (as in Stane Street).

It is possible that there was more than one such stone, explaining the Anglo Saxon name of the town, which was established many centuries after the Romans noted they called their staging post at the bridge, Ad Pontes.

The replica, due to its location, is in the lowest category of architecture, a Grade II listed structure partly achieved since it happens to stand on the point of one of the former coal-tax posts.

They include Horatio Thomas Austin and Warren Stormes Hale, sometime Lord Mayor and founder of the City of London School.

[10] Two London Stones stand at grid reference TQ762712, between the Arethusa Venture Centre and the River Medway in Lower Upnor, Kent.

The London or 'Crow' Stone at Chalkwell , Southend, which formerly marked the seaward limit of the authority of the City of London.
Plaque on the Crow Stone, Chalkwell
London Stone, Staines
London Stone, Yantlet Creek
The original Crow Stone from 1775, removed in 1837. It now stands in front of Prittlewell Priory in Southend-on-Sea , a few miles inland from its original location
London Stones, Lower Upnor , Kent