Gog & Magog Clock - Fleet Street, London, UK
N 51° 30.846 W 000° 06.609
30U E 700511 N 5710956
The first public clock in London to have a minute hand, a large historic clock with automatons (Giants, Gog & Magog) striking bells. Located at St Dunstan-in-the-West Church, Fleet Street, City of London.
Waymark Code: WMF3GV
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/17/2012
Views: 12
This church has two clocks of which this clock is the smaller and more interesting. The automatons and bells can be easily seen from the street and the bells are struck on the hour and quarter hours by the two figures Gog and Magog, holding clubs with the Union Flag.
The clock has a plain black face approx 8 feet across, with guilt hands & roman numeral numbers. The two faces look East & West along Fleet street.
"On the façade is a chiming clock, with figures of giants, perhaps representing Gog and Magog, who strike the bells with their clubs. It was installed on the previous church in 1671, perhaps commissioned to celebrate its escape from destruction by the Great Fire of 1666. It was the first public clock in London to have a minute hand. The figures of the two giants strike the hours and quarters, and turn their heads. There are numerous literary references to the clock, including in Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and a poem by William Cowper. In 1828, when the medieval church was demolished, the clock was removed by art collector Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford to his mansion in Regent's Park; during World War I, a new charity for blinded soldiers was lent the house, and took the name St Dunstan's from the clock. It was returned by Lord Rothermere in 1935 to mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V." Source: (
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"The Clock and Giants (Gog & Magog)
St Dunstan-in-the-West was a well-known landmark in previous centuries because of its magnificent clock. This dates from 1671, and was the first public clock in London to have a minute hand. The figures of the two giants strike the hours and quarters, and turn their heads. There are numerous literary references to the clock, including in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, the Vicar of Wakefield and a poem by William Cowper (1782):
When labour and when dullness, club in hand,
Like the two figures at St. Dunstan’s stand,
Beating alternately in measured time
The clockwork tintinnabulum of rhyme,
Exact and regular the sounds will be,
But such mere quarter-strokes are not for me". Source: (
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