+ If you have particular personal or family connections, you may already qualify to marry here. Alternatively:

+ At least one of you needs to attend services regularly for six months and may seek inclusion on the Electoral Roll of the Parish Church. It is usual for one of the parties to have been baptised. There are plenty of services to choose from at various times of day.

+ Because we don’t have Sunday services, we can’t publish ‘Banns of Marriage’. Instead, you’ll need to swear an oath saying that there’s no reason you shouldn’t be married.

+ There are certain fees, some of which are set by the Church of England for the whole country, and some of which pay for ‘optional extras’. These change from time to time, so please ask us.

+ Professional photography is permitted in the church during marriage services, by agreement of the Rector. Audio and video recording will be allowed but by an approved videographer only.

What is Baptism?

+ Holy Baptism (also called Christening) is a sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.

+ Children and adults can be baptised, but adults make the promises for themselves and make their own declaration of Christian faith.

What is Confirmation?

+ If you were baptised as an infant, your parents and godparents made the solemn promise and vow on your behalf. It is necessary as an adult to ratify and confirm it, otherwise, in a way, one remains an infant. St Paul says, writing to the Corinthians, ‘When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.’ In confirmation the Bishop asks, ‘Are you ready with your own mouth and from your own heart to affirm your faith in Jesus Christ?’ This is something only an adult can do.

+ Confirmation is the sacrament that confirms our baptism and strengthens us in the power of the Holy Spirit for our Christian discipleship. The confirmed are also able to receive Holy Communion.

+ The Bishop confirms young people and adults, who have already been baptised, by the laying on of hands and anointing.

+ Adults who have not been baptised previously are baptised by the Bishop and confirmed at the same service.

What promises do I have to make?

+ Adults wishing to be baptised or confirmed must affirm their allegiance to Christ and their rejection of all that is evil by giving the answers to the following questions:

Do you turn to Christ?
reply: I turn to Christ.

Do you repent of your sins?
reply: I repent of my sins.

Do you renounce evil?
reply: I renounce evil.

The organs of St Mary-le-Bow

The main organ in the west gallery was built by Kenneth Tickell & Company in 2010, replacing a former instrument by Rushworth & Dreaper. The casework, designed by John Hayward and made by Dove Brothers, dates from the rebuilding of the church in 1964 after its destruction by enemy action in 1941.

The case seems to be loosely based on the work of the Alsace Silbermanns and this French influence was carried into the stop-list. Hence fine mutation registers and reeds with great character. The organ has also a Germanic pleno, rendering it highly suitable for the music of J.S. Bach and other German baroque composers. The French influence enables authentic performances of all periods. In fact, the careful choice and blending of the sensitively voiced registers and the superb ambient acoustic in the church, makes it possible to play almost any style of music with convincing colour, richness and depth.

THOMAS ALLERY has been Director of Music and Organist at St Mary-le-Bow since February 2018. 

Thomas Allery enjoys a varied career spanning work as an organist and choral director in church music, continuo playing, research and teaching.
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He is Director of Chapel Music at Worcester College, Oxford, where he is responsible for the musical development of the Chapel choirs and organ scholars. He directs and trains the two Chapel choirs, of mixed and boys’ voices, for regular chapel services, concerts, tours and recordings.

Tom is also Assistant Director of Music at St Marylebone Parish Church, London, where he accompanies the professional choir, and is Director of the church’s Youth Choir.

Tom graduated with Distinction from the Masters programme at the Royal College of Music, London, in 2014, where he studied organ with Margaret Phillips and harpsichord with Terence Charlston.

As a harpsichordist and continuo player, Tom has a particular interest in the instrumental music of the 17th-century Stylus Phantasticus. He performs regularly with his own period ensemble, Ensemble Hesperi, with whom he is undertaking research into late 18th-century Scottish Baroque Music.

www.thomasallery.com

Composer Alan Wilson writes:

Everyone will know the nursery rhyme ‘Oranges and Lemons’ with its reference to ‘the great bell of Bow’, and the cockney association if one is born within the sound of Bow Bells. The tower clock also chimes every 15 minutes to a melody by C.V. Stanford.

The origins of this toccata date back to an improvisation I did at an organ recital a few years ago and in the summer of 2016 I decided to write it down for future performances. I set about a carefully constructed piece using both the ‘Oranges and Lemons’ tune and the ‘Bow Bells’ carillon chime (on which I had previously written a Mass setting).

The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow was formed in 2016 with the aim of giving young people working in a variety of professions in London the opportunity to play orchestral music to a high standard.

Supported by the Parochial Church Council of St Mary-le-Bow, the orchestra, directed by Alex Fryer and joined by young professional soloists, gave its inaugural concert here in August 2016. 

The Academy continues to perform a wide range of orchestral repertoire here and in other London venues in the capital.

www.academyofstmarylebow.com

Bow bells are probably the most famous in the world and for many hundreds of years have been woven into the folklore of the City of London. In 1392 Dick Whittington heard Bow bells call him back to London to become Lord Mayor; to be born within the sound of Bow bells was the sign of a true Londoner or Cockney; and Bow bell’s authority ends the medieval nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons, ‘I do not know says the Great Bell of Bow’. During the Second World War the BBC’s World Service broadcast a recording of Bow bells, made in 1926, as a symbol of hope to the people of Europe. This recording is still used as an interval signal.

The first known reference to Bow bells is in 1469 when the Common Council ordered that a curfew should be rung at 9 o’clock each evening. Soon after this John Donne, a mercer, gave the church two houses in Hosier Lane (now Bow Lane) for the maintenance and regular ringing of the bells. In 1515 William Copland, a churchwarden, gave a great bell to the church making five in number. Sadly this bell was rung for the first time for Copland’s funeral. Ringing the curfew bell was stopped in 1876.

Bow church dominated life in the city and the 9 o’clock bell not only marked the curfew but also the end of an apprentice’s working day. The bell was often rung late prompting this rhyme:

‘Clarke of the Bow belle with the Yellow lockes,
For thy late ringing thy head shall have knockes’
To which they received the reply:
‘Children of Cheape, hold you all still,
For you shall have the Bow bell rung as you will.’

Ringing prospered in the seventeenth century and in 1603 the Society of Cheapside Scholars was founded. Fabian Stedman, the father of modern change-ringing, was a member. This society became extinct in 1662. By 1635 the tower contained six bells and in 1643 the bells were rung to celebrate the demolition of the famous Cheapside cross by a crowd of citizens and soldiers loyal to Parliament. The cross was seen as a symbol of Popery. There is a curious reference in the Bodleian Library in Oxford to Bow having twelve bells in 1652 ‘of which ten which were rung and two were tolled’. No evidence has yet been found to prove this claim. Samuel Pepys’ Diaries contain occasional references to Bow bells.

The tower and bells were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in September 1666. Although the new tower was designed for twelve bells the bellfounder, Christopher Hodson from Crayford in Kent, cast a heavy peal of eight for Wren’s new church in 1677. Thomas Lester began Bow’s long association with the Whitechapel bellfoundry when he recast the tenor bell in 1738. The other seven bells were considered inferior and recast in 1762 when two extra bells were also added. The ten bells were first rung to celebrate George III’s 25th birthday.

However the bells were often not rung because of problems with the tower, the bells, the bell frame or a shortage of ringers. In 1820 some stonework fell from the spire into the bedroom of a local merchant in Bow Lane nearly killing him.

The windows of St Mary-le-Bow are among the most striking features of the building as restored in 1964. They, together with the other furnishings, vestments etc, were designed by John Hayward (1929-2007) who worked in Faithcraft, a firm which sought to bring the principles of the Liturgical Movement to fruition. The windows are signed (1963) by Hayward in the bottom left of the south east (right) window.  

Prior to 1941 the windows depicted scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Hayward’s new scheme for the east windows encompasses a wall throughout; perhaps the wall of the heavenly city of the Book of Revelation or, of the City of London – or both! Above the three large windows can be seen – in some abstraction –  the sun and the moon and, in the centre, the all seeing eye of God, the Eye of Providence, at the apex. Hayward considered this eye to represent God the Father.

Christ in Majesty
The arrangement of the sanctuary before 1941 was a cut down version of an elaborate scheme for a reredos which dated from 1706, combined with an oil painting. This originally included seven gilded candlesticks at an attic level (suggesting the seven golden lampstands representing the seven churches in the Book of Revelation ; Hayward clearly alludes to this in the principal east window of Christ in Majesty in which seven stars are seen to emanate from the right hand of Christ (Revelation 1:20 – ‘the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches’). Hayward adds to this the seven flames around the person of Christ, representing the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; wisdom, understanding, counsel, inward strength, knowledge, true godliness and delight in the fear of the Lord (gifts promised to candidates in the Sacrament of Confirmation). The main figure is of Jesus the Christ, vested as a priest and seated – he is God the Son, and above him hovers the heavenly dove, the symbol of God the Holy Spirit.

The Blessed Virgin Mary
To the north (left) of the sanctuary is depicted the Patron of the parish, the Blessed Virgin Mary, holding (and thus symbolising her care for us) the church built by Wren. She is clothed in blue (the traditional colour for Our Lady) and her feet appear to be resting on the arches of the crypt. Surrounding Our Lady’s image are seventeen Wren churches which survived the Second World War, each held by the patron saint of the parish.

A tradition revived: 2004 to date
The new Boyle Lectures have been given annually at the parish church of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London since 2004. These lectures are designed to address topics which explore the relationship between Christianity and our contemporary understanding of the natural world.

Each year, a distinguished theologian or scientist is invited to address this theme through a topic of his or her own choosing, and a responder is invited to respond to the lecturer’s comments.

History
Robert Boyle (1627-91) was one of the most celebrated natural philosophers of the seventeenth century. A gifted experimentalist and innovative thinker, Boyle was also a devoutly religious man who wrote a number of important books of philosophical theology (principally his Discourse of Things Above Reason (1681), Disquisition About the Final Causes of Things (1688) and The Christian Virtuoso (1690)). In these works Boyle reflected deeply on God’s role in the world and the importance of the new experimental science in adding complementary insights to the truths of revealed Christianity set forth in the Scriptures.

Boyle died in 1691. In his Will he set aside funds to establish a lecture series for the defence of the Christian religion against atheists and other unbelievers. The first Boyle Lectures were delivered in 1692 by Richard Bentley, an important protégé of Sir Isaac Newton and later Master of Trinity College Cambridge. Some of Bentley’s lectures were delivered at St Mary-le-Bow, thus establishing a connection between St Mary’s and the Boyle Lectures, which endured for many years.

One of St Mary-le-Bow’s own rectors, the Rev Samuel Bradford DD, rector from 1693 to 1720, delivered the Boyle Lectures in 1699 in which he spoke about “The Credibility of the Christian Religion”. Bradford’s Boyle Lectureship did his ecclesiastical career no harm: he went on to become successively Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Bishop of Carlisle, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster Abbey!

The most famous of the Boyle Lectures took place in the 40 years from 1692 until 1731. Although the lectures continued after 1731, the later lectures were perhaps less important than those which took place in the early years of the series. An exception was in 1812, however, when another rector of St Mary-le-Bow, William Van Mildert (later the last of the Prince-Bishops of Durham) delivered that year’s Boyle Lectures at his own church.

Publications
A detailed account of the history of the Boyle Lectures will be found in the chapter by Johannes Wienand in St Mary-le-Bow: a history (2007), available here.

A collection of the first ten years of the revived Boyle Lectures at St Mary-le-Bow, Science and religion in the twenty-first century, (2013) edited by Russell Re Manning and Michael Byrne, is available here.

The lecture series has been greatly assisted by generous financial support provided by the Worshipful Company of Grocers, the Worshipful Company of Mercers, and Gresham College. The trustees record their deep gratitude to these institutions for their invaluable support.

The St Mary-le-Bow Young Homeless project is an independent charitable trust (registration number 1103578).

We began this work with young homeless people in 1990, helped by the Council of St Mary-le-Bow, as we still are. The young people are aged from 19 to about 25, and we can take any except those with severe Class A drug, alcohol or mental problems – because we are only two staff, and cannot give the intense support they need.

We began with some fourteen young people, and now have up to six at a time in flats near Elephant and Castle, rented cheaply from The Peabody Trust. They learn to live in flats with each other – something they’ve never done before. This prepares them for independent living in the most practical way. When they are ready, we help them to their own flats. If they fail, they may come back.

We also work with some thirty young ex-prisoners each year, to prevent them from going back to gaol – the rate of recidivism is 75% with young people. One of the few ways of preventing this is a job – a more enjoyable or less risky alternative to crime.

It takes time for them to repair the damage of early years – lack of discipline, great anger and frustration, which often means that at the beginning, they can’t cope with regular hours and work. But they, and we, keep at it.

above Jay Tarrant working in Pret A Manger
Contact the Young Homeless Project here:
020 7588 1885 | email
St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London EC2V 6AU

Founded in or around 1080 as the London headquarters of the archbishops of Canterbury, the medieval church of St Mary-le-Bow survived three devastating collapses before being completely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, it was destroyed once more in 1941 but was again rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1964.

Topics covered in this 300-page volume include:

  + an overview of the church’s 925-year history
  + its status as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s principal ‘London Peculiar’
  + the crypt
  + the medieval church
  + Bow Church: the wider context
  + the Reformation
  + the Court of Arches at St Mary-le-Bow
  + Wren’s rebuilding of St Mary’s in the 1670s
  + Reforming Societies in the early 17th century
  + the church’s silver collection
  + the Boyle Lectures
  + links with Trinity Wall Street in New York City
  + rebuilding the church in the 19th century and after the Second World War
  + St Mary-le-Bow’s eight ‘other parishes’
  + Bow Bells
  + the future.

The Worshipful Company of Grocers has provided very welcome financial assistance for this project.

One thousand years of history

St Mary-le-Bow was built c.1080 by Lanfranc, William the Conqueror’s Archbishop of Canterbury who accompanied him from Bec in Normandy. The Norman church – which may possibly have replaced a building of Saxon origin – was part of a policy of dominating London and was constructed out of the same stone as William’s Tower of London imported from Caen; perhaps by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and architect. The new St Mary-le-Bow may well have been cheerfully disliked by the citizens of Cheapside as an object of oppression.St Mary-le-Bow was built c.1080 by Lanfranc, William the Conqueror’s Archbishop of Canterbury who accompanied him from Bec in Normandy. The Norman church – which may possibly have replaced a building of Saxon origin – was part of a policy of dominating London and was constructed out of the same stone as William’s Tower of London imported from Caen; perhaps by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and architect. The new St Mary-le-Bow may well have been cheerfully disliked by the citizens of Cheapside as an object of oppression.

The present day crypt – although much altered and fragmentary – gives an idea of the structure (two aisles and a nave) , only partially underground which medieval Londoners will have known. The ‘le-Bow’ or ‘de arcubus’ may perhaps refer to the Norman arches which were something of a novelty. But the crypt was really an undercroft, a subsidiary structure upon which the upper church rested. Of that interior no reliable image (before the Great Fire) survives.

We know that the church included an image of Our Lady, painted and crowned by a legacy in 1348 and altars to St Nicholas, St Agnes, St Thomas Becket (a parishioner), St Katherine and the Holy Trinity. From c.1251 St Mary-le-Bow was the home of the final appeal court of the southern province of the Church and would have been alive to the buzz of clergy and canon lawyers. Although that use fell into desuetude, it seems that Wren, rebuilding after the great fire intended his Vestry for the Court room, and the use of the church for such sittings and ceremonies has been revived in recent decades.

Before the Great Fire there were three significant building projects on this site:

+ Lanfranc’s church of c.1080, heavily damaged in a tornado of 1091

+ A substantially new church built after a fire in 1196, which may well have replicated what had been destroyed

+ The reconstruction of the tower (on the south-west corner) after its collapse into the street in 1271; not completed until 1512

St Mary-le-Bow was thrown into great prominence because it possessed the principal curfew bell, rung at 9pm each day from at least 1363 and because it was the Archbishop’s principal ‘peculiar’ (i.e. although in the middle of London it was in fact in the diocese of Canterbury and remained so until 1850) – and hence the Court of Arches. The sound of Bow bell is that which distinguishes an area in which ‘Cockneys’ are said to be born.

The present Rector

The Revd George R. Bush has been Rector of St Mary-le-Bow since 2002.

Born in London, he trained for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon and (briefly) at United Theological College, Bangalore. His academic interests spanned theology, history, canon law and history of art. He was ordained in 1985 to a parish – St Aidan’s – in inner-city Leeds.

He was then student Chaplain of St John’s College, Cambridge, before returning to London, first as Vicar of St Anne’s Hoxton in the East End (but north of the City), and now Rector of St Mary-le-Bow.

He is a Past President of Sion College, and trustee of a number of charities, comprehending his interests in regeneration, FairTrade, mental health and social investment. He has served as Sheriff’s and Lord Mayor’s Chaplain.

He is a Patron of the World Marmalade Festival.

Most of our records were probably lost when the church was destroyed by firebombs in 1941. Any remaining records are held by the London Metropolitan Archives. This is true of many of the City churches.

‘St Mary-le-Bow’ is in the heart of the City of London, not in Bow, which is a couple of miles outside the City. If your research has led you to Bow (formerly a village, now a suburb) the likely church is ‘St Mary, Bow’ 020 8981 7916.

Our church, St Mary-le-Bow (Bow, in this instance referring to an architectural feature of the Crypt), has the famous Bow Bells, which rang curfew in the Middle Ages and called Dick Whittington back to London; St Mary, Bow Road was a country church until the 1860s saw London expand.