The church's website [vist
link
] tells
us:
"The first references to a church on the site of St
Mary-le-Bow seem to date from 1087 by which time a Norman church had been
erected there. From earliest times it was closely associated with the See of
Canterbury - as one of the archbishop’s 'London Peculiars' - and may in fact
have served as Archbishop Lanfranc’s London headquarters.
In 1091 the roof of the church was blown off in a
huge storm which battered the south of England during the winter of that year.
The roof became embedded by its rafters in the street of Chepe, now Cheapside,
Old London’s main thoroughfare which runs east-to-west just to the north of St
Mary-le-Bow. A famous siege took place at St Mary’s in 1196 and in 1271 the
tower collapsed into the street outside.
By 1512 the tower had been reconstructed and the
church was able to enjoy over 150 years of structural peace. But in the Great
Fire which raged through London in 1666, the whole of the medieval church apart
from the crypt beneath was utterly destroyed. Between 1670 and 1683 St Mary’s
was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. In the 1750s a new peal of ten 'Bow Bells'
was installed, with all ten bells being rung together for the first time on 4th
June 1762 to mark the 25th birthday of King George III.
In 1820 the church was extensively restored by
George Gwilt the Younger. From 1905 to 1907 the famous bells were restored, the
peal having increased from 10 to 12 in 1881. (Wren had made room for 12 bells
but only 8 were installed in 1680). But disaster struck again during the War
when the church was destroyed by enemy bombing. A programme of reconstruction
was implemented in the 1950s and 60s and St Mary’s acquired a number of its
now-dormant neighbouring parishes by an Act of Parliament of 1952 which reduced
the number of City parishes from 46 to 24."
The church is Grade I listed. The entry at the English
Heritage website [visit
link] reads:
"1670-83 by Wren. Crypt C12. Interior
destroyed in World War II and reconstructed in near facsimile. Square body of
churoch has arcades of 3 bays separating wide central aisle from very narrow
aisles at either side. Exterior faced in red brick with dressings of Portland
stone. East and west elevations have pedimented or gabled centres with 3 arched
windows, flanked by narrower windows with circular openings above. Pedimented
west door. The central south door is disused and there is an arched window to
either side of it. The interior has a plaster vault supported by an order of
engaged Corinthian columns. Clerestorey lighting. No old fittings. Large, plain,
groin-vaulted lobby joins church to tower fronting Cheapside. One of Wren's
largest and finest designs, this has an open ground storey and above a balconied
window to the street is a bracketed clock. The pilastered belfry stage supports
a balustrade with scrolled finials at the corners and a steeple with 2 orders of
columns, the upper order renewed in granite in the C19. To the north of the
church is a vestry and beneath this and the main building is a good but altered
C12 crypt."