It was Bowen who, as President-Elect of the Oxford Union during the summer vacation of 1857, responded with enthusiasm to the plan of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris to paint the upper walls of the new debating chamber with scenes from the legends of King Arthur.

'Bowen,' said Edward Burne-Jones, ‘was beloved by all’, ‘A courteous and delightful fellow … whom Rossetti loved at once.’[4] From Oxford, Bowen went to London, where he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1861, and while studying law he wrote regularly for the Saturday Review, and also later for The Spectator.

In 1879 his acceptance of a position as a High Court judge in the Queen's Bench division, on the retirement of Mr Justice John Mellor, gave him the opportunity of comparative rest.

[7] The character of Charles Bowen's intellect hardly qualified him for some of the duties of a puisne judge; but it was otherwise when, in 1882, in succession to Lord Justice Holker, he was raised to the Court of Appeal.

Lord Bowen's judicial reputation will rest upon the series of judgments delivered by him in the court of appeal, which are remarkable for their lucid interpretation of legal principles as applied to the facts and business of life.

He is credited with coining the phrase "the man on the Clapham omnibus", which was quoted by Sir Richard Henn Collins MR many years after his death in the case of McQuire v. Western Morning News ([1903] 2 KB 100).