St. Mary-le-Bow

When William of Normandy conquered England in 1066 he never forcibly subdued London but merely negotiated a treaty with its Saxon citizens. In the following years he found other ways in which to impose his supremacy on the people of the city, in the form of castles and religious institutions in the Norman style. In the east he erected the White Tower of the Tower of London; in the west the vast new St. Paul’s Cathedral; and to the south was Bermondsey Abbey. In the very middle of the city, on its main street of Westcheap (now Cheapside) he commissioned a great new church that towered over its surrounding buildings. In its earliest times St. Mary-le-Bow church was therefore most likely considered by Londoners to be a sign of oppression by a conquering Norman baron.

The Norman crypt of St. Mary-le-Bow, consisting of two aisles and a nave. Although much altered over the centuries, the arches that gave the church its name can still be seen.

The Norman building – which may have replaced an earlier Saxon church – was built in around 1080 by William’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, and quite possibly designed by Gandulf, who was also responsible for the Tower of London. It was constructed from the same Caen stone as the Tower, which can still be seen below the main church. What is now effectively the crypt was in those times an undercroft, a lower level. The church stood so much higher than its neighbouring buildings because it was built above the undercroft, and worshippers ascended from ground level via stairs into the main nave.

The Norman church, of which no image above the crypt remains, was dedicated to Sancta Maria de Arcubus (St. Mary of the Arches). The arches in question, which can still be seen in the three-aisled crypt, were a feature of the original Norman building, a relatively new introduction to architecture in England at that time. The name evolved into St. Mary Arcubus or St. Mary atte Bowe in English, and later St. Mary-le-Bow, in the same way as the district of East London became known as Bow after the arches of the bridge over the river Lea.

St. Mary-le-Bow stands in a prominent position on Cheapside in Civitas Londinum (the ‘Agas map’) from about 1561.

The original parish of St. Mary-le-Bow was mainly on the south side of Cheapside behind the church along Hosyer Lane (now the northern part of Bow Lane), with a small section on the north side of Cheapside. The Tudor historian John Stow wrote that “for divers accidents happening there, [St. Mary] hath been made more famous than any other parish church of the whole city or suburbs”. Stow recorded:

in the year 1090, and the 3^rd of William Rufus, by tempest of wind, the roof of the church…was overturned, wherewith some persons were slain, and four of the rafters, of twenty-six feet in length, with such violence were pitched in the ground of the high street, that scantily four feet of them remained above ground, which were fain to be cut even with the ground, because they could not be cut out, for the city of London was not then paved, and a marsh ground.

The parish seal showing the tower of St. Mary-le-Bow prior to the Great Fire.

The building was destroyed in 1196 and had to be replaced after a revolt took place against King Richard. According to Stow:

William Fitz Osbert, a seditious tailor, took the steeple…and fortified it with munitions and victuals, but it was assaulted, and William with his accomplices were taken, though not without bloodshed, for he was forced by fire and smoke to forsake the church; and then, by the judges condemned, he was by the heels drawn to the Elms of Smithfield, and there hanged with nine of his fellows…Such was the end of this deceiver, a man of an evil life, a secret murderer, a filthy fornicator, a polluter of concubines…

The tower of that new building collapsed in 1271 and was replaced on a site further north, although not complete with steeple until 1512. An image can be seen in the parish seal, with a central lantern held on arches, with four smaller lanterns on each corner of the parapet.

In 1331 a balcony collapsed while Queen Philippa and her attendants watched a jousting ceremony to celebrate the birth of Prince Edward (the Black Prince), resulting in the royal party falling to the ground.

Despite being in the centre of London, St. Mary-le-Bow remained in the diocese of Canterbury, from the time of its foundation by Archbishop Lanfranc until 1850. The church gave its name to the Court of Arches, at which ecclesiastic law cases for the southern province of the English Protestant Church are heard. The court is still convened at St. Mary-le-Bow, as it has for much of the time since around 1250. It is here that the election of bishops in the Province of Canterbury is confirmed and where the new bishop takes their oath of allegiance before the Archbishop. The church remains the City headquarters of the Archbishop of Canterbury and he continues to visit several times each year.

St. Mary-le-Bow was all but destroyed in the Great Fire. In 1670, following the Act of Parliament for rebuilding the City churches, the Commission that was set up to oversee the work made a list of fifteen that would be treated as a priority. As the most important in the City after St. Paul’s Cathedral – it being the location of Archbishop’s Court of Arches – one of those was St. Mary-le-Bow. The Commission decided to enlarge the building and make it into a more regular shape by purchasing land in the south-west corner and on the south side adjoining Bow Lane. In June 1670 a budget was set aside for work to begin.

The old tower had survived and, as with many of the rebuilds, the initial plan was to leave it in place and use the available funds for other parts of the building. In around 1668 efforts were made by the parishioners to preserve it, but cracks grew ever larger and in 1671 the Commissioners decided it needed to be rebuilt. Additional space was purchased on Cheapside for a new tower, on land owned by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral. The office of Sir Christopher Wren produced an early idea for the new tower, drawn by Edward Woodroffe and still preserved. In the following years that initial design went through many changes. In the meantime, a temporary tabernacle was leased in which services could be held.

The demolition of the old tower and laying of foundations for its replacement began in May 1671. It was while that was taking place that a Roman causeway was discovered at a lower level.

Sir Christopher Wren was extremely busy in the years following the Great Fire so it is unlikely that he spent much time in the detail of the many churches that are attributed to him. St. Mary-le-Bow is an exception that warranted his attention. Wren based the design of the new building on the Basilica of Maxentius (known then as Templum Pacis) in Rome. He never actually saw the basilica with his own eyes but it would have been known to him from the published plans and descriptions by Serlio and Palladio. The entrances are inspired by the Hôtel de Conti in Paris.

Even with St. Mary’s, it is unlikely that the design was entirely that of Wren. Some drawings are in the hand of Edward Woodroffe and Robert Hooke. Like other churches for which there is strong evidence of Wren’s direct involvement, however, St. Mary’s is of basilican design, with a plain exterior, faced with Portland stone, and built with a regular outline, its corners at right angles, so there is little doubt that Wren was the main architect of St. Mary-le-Bow. Upon completion of St. Mary’s, its vestry awarded him 20 guineas.

While the main buildings of the City churches were being constructed there had been a ban on building steeples. For ten years St. Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside had been shrouded in scaffolding, waiting for its steeple to be added. The final design was based on that of St. Charles Borromeo church in Antwerp, a drawing or model of which was known to Wren and Hooke. It is different to anything known to have been designed by Hooke and must be the work of Wren. Finally, in 1680 the steeple was complete and the scaffolding taken down to reveal the full glory of Wren’s work. There was nothing like it in the whole country: the first classical steeple on any church, and of great height, dominating the skyline.

Wren’s completed building is of brick construction, with Portland Stone dressings. The steeple is Wren’s most celebrated. It is on a square tower, then a central rotunda of 12 columns, topped by an obelisk spire capped by a golden ball and a nine-foot long golden dragon, which stands 224 feet (68 metres) above street level. It was his tallest structure after St. Paul’s and St. Bride’s and became known as ‘the Cheapside pillar’. Predecessors had stood back from the street but Wren brought it forward, separated from the main body of the church by a vestibule, making it a prominent landmark on Cheapside.

Unusually there are two pulpits, an ancient custom for reading of the Old and New testaments, now used for debates.

There is a three-bay interior. The nave and aisles are separated by piers with half-round Corinthian columns. It is a barrel-vaulted ceiling, painted blue and white, with gold decorations. The main entrance is on the west side, with another in the base of the tower. There was a south door but that was later bricked up and can only be seen from outside.

Wren had little interest in the Norman crypt and left it in place, with the only access by a trapdoor and ladder. The total cost of the work was £15,421, by far the highest rebuilding cost of any of the City churches, indicating its importance.

In 1820 the spire was repaired by the architect George Gwilt. The spire was shortened and the Portland stone upper columns renewed with Aberdeen granite.

Fragments of the damaged roof lay in front of a monument. Photo by Cecil Beaton.

St. Mary-le-Bow was badly damaged by incendiary bombs in December 1941, although less so than some other churches. Its roof was smashed and windows blown in but its walls and tower remained standing, despite much destruction along Cheapside. It was restored, but only from 1954, after a long campaign to save it, and in part with funds from Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York. When that church had been founded in 1697 the charter from the Bishop of London stated that “All shall be ordered as it is in the church of St. Mary le Bow”. The rebuilding work was undertaken by Lawrence King, with decorative work in the crypt and upper church, including the glass and organ case, by John Hayward. The work was completed in 1964. Only the outer walls and bell tower remain of Wren’s building. The interior is almost square, with a central nave and aisles. The twin pulpits are based on an ancient tradition that the Old and New Testaments were read from one side and the Gospels from the other.

In past centuries, when buildings were much smaller, the sound of St. Mary’s ‘Great Bell of Bow’ carried over long distances and could be heard for many miles around. In modern times it is barely audible at the ends of Cheapside. From at least 1363 until 1876 it was rung at nine o’clock every evening to signal the end of the working day for apprentices. The ringing of Bow Bell was also the signal for other churches around the city to ring the curfew, when the city gates closed.

‘Born within the sound of Bow Bell’ was used to define all Londoners as cockneys until the 19^th century when the term became more restricted to those in East London. The legend is that Dick Whittington heard Bow Bells from Highgate and was persuaded to return to the city, becoming “thrice mayor of London”. The bell also features in the nursery rhyme Oranges & Lemons:

When will you pay me? say the bells of Old Bailey.
When I grow rich, say the bells of Shoreditch.
When will that be? say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know, says the Great Bell of Bow.

Since the 18^th century the church bells were cast at Whitechapel Bell Foundry and from 1881 the bell-tower has contained a peal of twelve. Following destruction in the Second World War the present bells were cast in 1956, using salvaged metal from a previous casting of 1933. These each contain a Biblical inscription, the first letters of which make up ‘D Whittington’.

St. Mary-le-Bow remains as a parochial church. Numerous other parishes have been amalgamated into that of St. Mary, which are: St. Faith under St. Paul’s (demolished in the 13^th century to make way for an extension of St. Paul’s Cathedral); All Hallows Honey Lane, St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook, St. John the Evangelist Friday Street, All Hallows Bread Street, St. Margaret Moses, St. Pancras Soper Lane, and St. Thomas the Apostle (all destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt); St. Antholin Budge Row (demolished in 1874); St. Augustine Watling Street, St. Mary Aldermanbury, and St. Mildred Bread Street (each destroyed in the Second World War).

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