St Mary-le-Bow Church, London

St Mary-le-Bow Church, off Cheapside, is an historic church in the City of London. The present incarnation of St Mary-le-Bow was designed by imminent architect, Christopher Wren and built between 1671-1673. Its steeple was only completed in 1680, after the Great Fire of London burnt the previous church on the site down. The previous St Mary-le-Bow Church building had been standing on that site since before the Norman invasion, and was already called by that name. An even earlier copy of the church was destroyed in 1091, in what is believed to be the earliest recorded as well as the most ferocious tornadoes to have ever hit London.

The bells of the St Mary-le-Bow Church was used in the olden times to signal a curfew in the City of London. In those times, it could be heard as far away as Hackney Marshes. According to tradition, a person born within earshot of the sound of St Mary-le-Bow's bells can consider himself a true cockney. St Mary-le-Bow Church also appeared in a children's nursery rhyme, Oranges and Lemons. A recording of the Bow Bells was made in 1926. It has been used by BBC World Service as an interval signal for its English Language broadcasts since the 1940s, and is still used today.

St Mary-le-Bow Church was destroyed by German bombing on 10 May 1941 causing the bells to crash to the ground. Restoration work took place from 1956, and in 1961, the bells were rung once again. The silence of the bells between 1956 and 1961 resulted in a challenge in considering a person a true cockney, by the literal definition, as the Cockney area is defined by earshot of the bells. Furthermore, the increased din of London makes it all the more difficult to hear the bells. In a study conducted in 2000, it was determined that the Bow Bells could be heard six miles to the east, five miles to the north, three miles to the south and four miles to the west. Moreover, there is no hospital with a maternity ward within earshot of the Bells, limiting the number of "true" Cockneys that could be born. The Cockney dialet has since migrated outside its original realm.

St Mary Le Bow Church
Author: Steve Cadman (cc-by-sa-2.0)

Interior of St Mary Le Bow Church
Author: Steve Cadman (cc-by-3.0-unported)

Local Tours of London

A practical and often cost effective way to see London is to join a local tour. Check out the Local Tours of London that you can book online.

Return to London Budget Travel Guide or to UK Budget Travel Guide

Find lowest price for your Hotel Room

Before booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?

The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!

Find a hotel

New York City
Bangkok
Amsterdam

Guests:

Rooms:

Great Travel Deals Wego.com

Flight Checker

Our Flight Checker helps travelers compare flights and get the lowest fare for their trips. If you're flying somewhere, use our Flight Checker to compare the rates from different airlines. To use it, enter where you will be flying from, where you will be flying to, your departure date and return date. Select the number of passengers, and then click search.

Our engine will return you a list of possible flights that you can take. You can compare the fare of different airlines for your trip. Click on your selected airline, and we transfer you to the airline website.

Return to EarthDocumentary World Budget Travel Guide

My message introducing God to all the world: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TIM

EarthDocumentary and globe logo are trademark and service mark of Timothy Tye.

EarthDocumentary logo © copyright Timothy Tye 2007-2010. Content and articles in EarthDocumentary are provided in goodwill and are believed to be correct at time of writing. While every reasonable care is taken to check and verify the information shared, EarthDocumentary disclaims responsibility for its use. Text in EarthDocumentary is available under Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike License meaning you are free to copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make derivative works, as long as you attribute your resulting work and apply it under the same, similar or a compatible license. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Wikipedia and Wikitravel are cited as among the sources of references. Photographs appearing in EarthDocumentary are available according to the licensing terms specified in its caption. Photographs supplied by Panoramio are governed by the Panoramio API terms & condition, are for display only, and may not be downloaded for use. Photographs belonging to the author are the copyright of Timothy Tye and may not be reused without prior written permission from the author. Contact the author for permission and licensing of the photos.