FAMOUS BOW CHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 219, 16 September 1938, Page 19

FAMOUS BOW CHURCH.

The saying that a Cockney is one born •.vithin the sound of Bow Bells is wellknown and many thousands of visitors to London have seen and admired the famous church built by Christopher Wren, in Cheapside, on the site of a much earlier building. Wren found that the Xorinan Crypt beneath the old church had not suffered greatly In the Fire of London, which had destroyed the former church, and he determined to allow it to remain under his new building. We are able to view it to-day, cleaned and made accessible to visitors. Traces were discovered of a still earlier church, and Wren claimed that beneath its foundations he found the remains of a Roman road and pavement. The name "Bow" Church is derived from its rounded arches, its full name in Latin being "St. Mary de Arcubus"—or St. Mary of the Bows or Arches. The church is a "peculiar," independent of the Bishop of London, and has the Archbishop of Canterbury as its overlord. The Archbishop's Court held here is called "The Court of Arches." The confirmation of the appointment of bishops is etill held in this church,-