St Mary-le-Bow

Though archaeological excavations suggest an earlier Saxon building may have stood on the site prior to the Norman Conquest, the first confirmed church dedicated to St Mary on Cheapside was built by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1080. Lanfranc, who was William the Conqueror's archbishop brought over from Normandy, founded the church as part of the Norman policy of dominating London. The church at Cheapside was dedicated to St Mary and was constructed from Caen stone from Normandy, the same stone used in the Tower of London. The architect for the Tower of London was Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, who may have also designed the first St Mary-le-Bow. This early church was built on two…

Only three bays make up the nave of the church, which is divided into small aisles by large round-headed arches. These arches are supported by compound piers with attached demi-columns that feature shorter pilasters for the openings and Corinthian capitals for the nave and aisles. Hayward’s scheme comprises nine windows in total, five in the east wall and four in the west wall. Their modern design combines bold palettes of colour and sharp geometries with recognisable figurative iconography. In the east wall are three windows with rounded arches, the central window being taller and wider than its neighbours, which both have smaller round windows above them. Depicted across the three…

The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow, a London-based chamber orchestra founded in 2016, is the resident orchestra at St Mary-le-Bow. It gave its debut concert at the church in August 2016 and continues to present regular performances there.

The bells, often considered amongst the most famous in the world, have typically been used to define whether or not one is a true Londoner or Cockney; anyone born within their earshot is considered such. With the urbanisation of the City of London in the 20th and 21st centuries, the increasing population, noise pollution and the soundproofing measures installed in the belfry, the range of the Bow bells is significantly smaller than at its peak. In 1851, the bells could be heard across north and east London, as far as Hackney Marshes, Stratford and Limehouse, with reports that they could also be heard south of the Thames in Southwark. An acoustic study taken in 2012 shows that this range has…