St. Mary-le-Bow is renowned for the Bow Bells, which appear in many a London legend. They say you have to be born within earshot of these dingers to be a true Cockney. They were the bells that made Dick Whittington turn again, to become three times Lord Mayor of London. And the BBC World Service still uses a 1926 recording of them as an interval signal. Like many London churches of note, St. Mary-le-Bow has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times.

The London headquarters of the Archbishop of Canterbury in around 1080, the church was destroyed by fire, rebuilt by Christopher Wren, destroyed in World War II and finally rebuilt again to its current proportions. The Bow Bells first rang out in 1469 as a 21.00 curfew for Londoners, a custom that only ended in 1876.

Besides a café in the crypt to draw visitors, the church is the burial site of Captain John Smith. A parishioner of the church and founder of Virginia, you may recognise Smith as the love interest in Disney's Pocahontas. 

St. Mary-Le-Bow Church

Cheapside, London EC2V 6AU

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