St Mary-le-Bow Cheapside Church

Has been described as a Questionable Fortified Ecclesiastical site

There are masonry footings remains

NameSt Mary-le-Bow Cheapside Church
Alternative Names
Historic CountryLondon and Middlesex
Modern AuthorityCity and County of the City of London
1974 AuthorityGreater London
Civil ParishCity Of London

In 1196, William fitzOsbert killed a men sent to arrest him and fled to the church of St Mary-le-Bow. John Stow (1956, 228) said that fitzOsbert had already fortified the church with munitions and victuals. Its tower thus served successive purposes - belfry and fortress. (Renn 2014)

Bow steeple fortified. A false accuser of his elder brother in the end was hanged.

In the yeare 1196. William Fitz Osbert, a seditious traitor, tooke the Steeple of Bow, and fortified it with munitions and victualles, but it was assaulted, and William with his complices were taken, though not without bloodshed, for hee was forced by fire and smoke to forsake the Church, and then by the Iudges condemned, he was by the heeles drawne to the Elmes in Smithfield, and there hanged with nine of his fellowes, where because his fauourers came not to deliuer him, hee forsooke Maries sonne (as hee tearmed Christ our Sauiour) and called vpon the Diuell to helpe and deliuer him. Such was the ende of this deceyuer, a man of an euill life, a secrete murtherer, a filthy fornicator, a polluter of concubines, and (amongest other his detestable facts) a false accuser of his elder brother, who had in his youth brought him vp in learning, and done many things for his preferment. (Stow - Kingsford 1908 edn.)

Gatehouse Comments

The original latin translated by Stow as 'fortified' may have meant provisioned rather than any particular change to the church (although bolting doors and boarding windows may well have been possible). It seems quite unlikely the church tower could have had its architecture significantly altered to make it a 'fortress' in a significant way. It should be noted that the unusual feature of this church was its crypt, not its tower.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceTQ323811
Latitude51.5137901306152
Longitude-0.0935700014233589
Eastings532385
Northings181146
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.

Calculate Print

Books

  • Renn, Derek., 2014, 'The other towers of London' in Hidden histories and records of antiquity; essays on Saxon and medieval London for John Clark, curator emeritus, Museum of London (London and Middlesex Archaeology Society Special Paper 17) p. 32
  • Stow, J. (ed. H. B. Wheatley), 1956, A Survey of London (London and Melbourne) p. 228
  • Stow, J. (ed C.L. Kingsford), 1908, A Survey of London (Oxford) online transcription