The current building was built to the designs of Christopher Wren, 1671-73, steeple completed 1680, after the Great Fire of London burnt the previous church on the site down. The mason-contractor was Thomas Cartwright, one of the leading London mason-contractors and carvers of his generation. The last church had been there since before the Normans arrived, and under that name. Its steeple had been a landmark before the Fire, and Wren fittingly provided it with a unique replacement. The Bow bells were once used to signal a curfew in the City of London. Before modern traffic noise, they could be heard as far away as Hackney Marsh.
Interior
The church is immortalised in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons. It is said that to be a true cockney, you must have been born within earshot of the bells. The bells are also credited with having persuaded Dick Whittington to turn back from Highgate and remain in London to become Lord Mayor (three times in the story but four times in reality).
Much of the current building was destroyed by a German bomb on 10 May1941 and the bells crashed to the ground. Restoration under the direction of L. King was begun in 1956, and the bells only rang again in 1961 to produce a new generation of Cockneys.
Bowbells 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.
However the bells were often not rung because of problems with the tower, the bells, the bell frame or a shortage of ringers.
In 1856 the bells were silenced by the protestations of Mrs Elisabeth Bird, an eccentric neighbour who feared that the noise of the bells might end her life.
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