[1] Rebuilt several times over the ensuing centuries, the present church is the work of Sir Christopher Wren, following the Great Fire of London (1666).

[5] Though archaeological excavations suggest an earlier Saxon building may have stood on the site prior to the Norman Conquest, the first confirmed church dedicated to St Mary on Cheapside was built by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1080.

[6] Lanfranc, who was William the Conqueror's archbishop brought over from Normandy, founded the church as part of the Norman policy of dominating London.

[6] Three major buildings were constructed as part of this policy; St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, and a church on Cheapside.

From 1363 onwards, the tower's principal use was the housing of the city's curfew bell, rung at 9 pm every evening and being able to be heard as far away as Hackney Marshes.

[2] Soon after midnight on Sunday, 2 September 1666, a fire started in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane, 0.7 kilometres (0.43 mi) to the southeast of St. Mary-le-Bow.

[6] In 1850, the church finally ceased to be a 'peculiar', coming under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of London, ending a practice started six hundred years earlier.

[12] Beginning in 1940, the Luftwaffe began bombarding British cities from the air, a campaign known as the Blitz; London was struck especially heavily.

[9][5] The tower survived, mostly as Wren left it, but part of it required rebuilding due to fire damage weakening the walls.

The design of the church is such that the chancel occupies the eastern end of the nave, both with north and south aisles, which are noted to be extremely narrow.

[5] The three principal facades of the building (south, north and east) have gabled walls and pedimented centres, complete with triplets of round-headed windows.

The lowest stage has doorways in the north and west faces of the tower, set in substantial stone recess with added rustication.

The fourth stage, housing the bell chamber, has a large round-headed opening in each wall, divided into three sections by thin mullions and filled with louvre boards.

The parapet comprises an open balustrade between four corner pinnacles, formed of four ogee scrolls topped with small stone vases.

These arches are supported by compound piers with attached demi-columns that feature shorter pilasters for the openings and Corinthian capitals for the nave and aisles.

[5] The tunnel vault above the nave is covered in ornamental panelling that is painted blue and white and is penetrated by the clerestory windows.

[19] The crypt, originally built as the undercroft for the church destroyed in the tornado in 1091, is three bays in length and features Norman-era round arches, some of which contain Roman bricks, and a groined vault.

[4] The earliest record of an organ at the church dates to 1802 when Hugh Russell of London built a small instrument formed of 13 stops and 2 manuals.

[23] This organ lasted unaltered until the Blitz, when following the first strike to hit the church, which only caused minor damage, it was removed for safekeeping by Rushworth and Draper.

The organ was reduced in size by almost half, only 18 of the original 33 stops were reinstated and a new case designed and installed above the west door.

[27] According to legend, Richard (Dick) Whittington heard the bells in 1392 when he left the city, calling him back and leading him to become Lord Mayor.

[29] In 1515, William Copland, one of Henry VIII's merchants, gave money for a "great bell" to be installed, with directions it should be rung to announce the curfew.

[3][27][28][29] Following the Great Fire and Wren's rebuilding of the church, the tenor bell of a proposed ring of eight was cast by Christopher Hodson of St Mary Cray in 1669, placed in a temporary structure in the churchyard until the tower was completed.

[3] In 1762, Lester & Pack recast and rehung the other seven bells and added two more, to make a ring of ten, keeping the Hodson frame.

Much of the cost of restoring the tower and bells was met by the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation and Trinity Church, Wall Street, New York City.

[3][27][28] The bells were dedicated in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh by Robert Stopford, Bishop of London, on 21 December 1961.

With the urbanisation of the City of London in the 20th and 21st centuries, the increasing population, noise pollution and the soundproofing measures installed in the belfry, the range of the Bow bells is significantly smaller than at its peak.

An acoustic study taken in 2012 shows that this range has shrunk substantially, and is now confined to the eastern parts of the Square Mile and Shoreditch.

With no maternity hospitals within this range and only limited residential properties, arguably the modern chance of the birth of a 'true' cockney is now very low.

away shirt for the 2024/25 season features a graphic representation of the St Mary-le-Bow woven into the fabric along with a reference to the church's bells on the back of the neck.