St Mary-le-Bow: The Bow Bells
Why is it significant?
Stand on Cheapside and look up at the steeple: tier after tier of columns and arches, climbing like a wedding cake into the sky, and right at the top, a big golden dragon turning in the wind. Many people consider it the most beautiful of all Wren's spires, and it was one of the most expensive.
Key Facts
| Place | St Mary-le-Bow: The Bow Bells |
|---|---|
| Address | St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London EC2V 6AU, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.51370, -0.09350 |
| Part of Walk | London Burning: The Great Fire of 1666 and Wren's Phoenix City, from the Tower to St Paul's |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on Cheapside and look up at the steeple: tier after tier of columns and arches, climbing like a wedding cake into the sky, and right at the top, a big golden dragon turning in the wind. Many people consider it the most beautiful of all Wren's spires, and it was one of the most expensive.
This is the home of the Bow Bells. The old saying goes that a true Cockney is someone born within the sound of Bow Bells. And the name of the church has nothing to do with bows or ribbons: it comes from the bows, the stone arches, of its Norman crypt, which survived the Fire and is still under your feet.
Here is the most famous story. A poor boy called Dick Whittington, so the tale goes, gave up on London and was walking away up Highgate Hill with his cat, when he heard the Bow Bells ringing behind him: turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London. He turned back, made his fortune, and became Lord Mayor. The cat is legend. But Richard Whittington was real, a rich merchant who was Mayor of London four times, around 1400, and left his fortune to the city.
The medieval church burned in 1666, and Wren rebuilt it in the 1670s, putting the grandest steeple on the main shopping street of the City. In 1941 German bombs brought it down again, and the bells crashed to the ground. During the war the BBC broadcast a recording of the Bow Bells to occupied Europe, a sound of hope from a city that refused to give in. The church was rebuilt after the war and the bells were recast and rang again in 1961.
Cheapside itself was the great market street of medieval London, where cheap simply meant market. Bread Street, Milk Street, Honey Lane... the names around you are the old shopping list. Now walk west along Cheapside. Very soon a great grey dome will fill the sky ahead of you.