Very Famous London Landmark, the Bow Bells

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6864, 21 May 1932, Page 14

Very Famous London Landmark, the Bow Bells

EXTENSIVE REPAIRS ARE PROPOSED. Permission to repair tlio famous "Bow Bells" and to renovate and redecorate the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Choapsidc, was sought by tho church, committee at a consistory court held in March in St. Paul’s Cathedral. During the proceedings reference was made to a gift of nearly £9OO for the ■repair of tho bells, which had been promised by Mr Gordon Selfridge. Tho application stated that the proposed works would cost £2500, and would involve tho repair and restoration of the church tower and steeple. Some of the work, of an urgent character, had already been completed. Mr J. B. Blagden, for tho committee, said the building was one of the Wren churches. Tho remarkable tower and steeple, fronting on Choapsidc, were one of tho city’s architectural features, but last summer it was realised that the structure had become positively dan-o-orous. That morning ho had had an opportunity of seeing some fragments of stono work, which last year wore kept up by sheer "force of providence.” One heavy fragment at the top of the tower was so loose that it could be picked out. Last year certam repairs to the tower became so urgent, said Mr Blagden, that tho work had to be put in hand at once, and the tower stiffened by tho introduction of a "reinforced concrete platform" in the belfry chamber. The Chancellor, Mr F. H. L. Errington: The practice of this court is for an application to be made before the work is begun. If repairs were urgent a license could be readily obtained. This seems to have been overlooked. Mr Blagden said it was necessary for the bells to be cleaned by sand-blasting, and some of them required to be recast. Originally the bells wore cast at a Whitechapel foundry, but a condition of the gift of the donor for their restoration was that this work should bo executed by a Croydon firm. Mr Blagden mentioned that one of the panels of a doorway was damaged during the Gordon Riots, when the Old Bailey prison was burned down. Giving evidence, Sir Louis Newton, chairman of the appeal committee of the church, said that the whole schenle of restoration was estimated to cost from £12,000 to £13,000. The amount received from the appeal so far, with tho exception of the gift for the bells, was £5727. Mr E. S. Underwood, architect and surveyor to the church, said one of the bells, known througn a nursery rhyme as tho "Big Bell of Bow," was the only bell loft of tho original peal. It vims cast in 1735. Asked if the stone chosen for the repairs would stand up to the atmosphere, Mr Underwood replied that London's air was becoming purer every year. In granting the faculty, the chancellor, Mr Errington, said: "The church of St. Mary-le-Bow is probably the best known parish church within the Empire. To bo born within the sound of Bow Bells was in former days considered the hall-mark of that almost extinct species, the genuine Cockney. There can hardly be a subject more worthy of appeal than this church, so familiar a landmark to city workers.” A considerable sum of money is still required, as the bells cannot bo rung until the church has been repaired, owing to the danger from vibration.