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 St
Mary-le-Bow takes its name from the bow arches of its Norman
crypt, although it is also known as Bow Church.
The original church was destroyed
in the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1671 - 80 by Sir Christopher
Wren. Cheapside was the City's main street and so Wren
designed his grandest steeple for St Mary's. The church
cost more to rebuild than any other parish church and nearly
half the money was spent on the spire.
Wren continued the bow arch pattern
from the crypt through the arches on the white spire, which
is 230 feet, 70 meters, high and is surmounted by a copper
dragon weathervane, dated 1672. The spire is one of the architect's
finest works built north of the main church and connected
by a vestibule. It still presides over Cheapside as
it towered over the City of Charles II.
In 1941 St Mary-le-Bow suffered
serious bomb damage and only the tower and steeple and two
outer walls survived.
The present church was restored
in 1956 - 64 by Laurence King and differs significantly from
Wren's work. The body of the church is built of red-brick
with Portland stone dressings, and inside the barrel-vaulted
interior is only three bays long but is wide and has a spacious
feel.
Stained glass by John Hayward
adds colour to the church but its jagged design is not easy
to follow. At the centre is Christ in Majesty and to
the left the Virgin Mary holds a model of Bow Church surrounded
by the spires of other City churches.
In the south-west corner of the
church is a bronze bust of Admiral Arthur Philip, who led
the first settlement at Sydney in 1788. A banner of
the Order of Australia was placed here in 1990.
The 11th century crypt incorporates
the walls of a Saxon church and gives its name to the principal
court of the Church of England, the Court of Arches.
The court met here because from early in the Middle Ages St
Mary's belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The
bishop's chair, now stands north of the sanctuary and is intended
for the Bishop of London.
St Mary-le-Bow is very important
to Londoners, as only those born within the sound of Bow bells
can claim to be true Londoners or 'Cockneys', probably from
the fact that from the 14th to the 19th centuries the church
bells sounded the wake-up call and evening curfew for the
locality.
The present 'Great Bell of Bow'
, a tenor bell 2,134 kilograms in weight, is the successor
of the medieval curfew bell. In 1956 the 12 bells were
recast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and rehung in the newly
restored tower.
Lunchtime recitals are held here
and the Norman crypt houses 'The Place Below' vegetarian restaurant.
Admission free
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