Bow Bells and Cockneys

There lies to the east of the City of London an area called Bow, out near Stratford, but this isn't the place referred to by Cockneys when they say that, to qualify to be one of them, you have to be born within the sound of Bow Bells. Those Bow Bells belong to the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside.
The earliest written mention of the name "Cockney" is from 1521. It comes from cockeney - a word for an egg. Country folk used to think that their city-dwelling cousins were all weak and deformed from living in the metropolis, away from all that fresh air and proper hard work. They therefore called city folk cock's eggs - an egg which is small or misshapen, so useless that it must have been laid by the cockerel rather than the hen. It was, in other words, a derogatory term.

The first church on this site was built around 1080. The land was very marshy, and so it had to be constructed on bowed, or arched, foundations - hence the name. In 1196 a preacher named William Longbeard sought sanctuary in the church after speaking out against new taxation intended to pay the ransom for Richard I (locked up in Germany on his way home from the Third Crusade). The authorities threatened to burn down the church to force him out. When he did emerge he was killed, and his body hung up at Smithfield to deter further protestations.
The church as we see it today has the shell and tower as built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire. The interior was destroyed in the Blitz. The famous bells were damaged, but were melted down and recast from the same metal.
The statue of the Elizabethan fellow in the little square opposite the main doors is of Captain John Smith - he of Pocahontas fame. Looks nothing like Colin Farrell, does he.

Statue of Dick Whittington (and cat) outside the Guildhall Art Gallery.

Bow Bells are associated with another of London's legends - namely thrice-time Mayor Richard Whittington (1350 - 1423). Young Dick had come to London to make his fortune - believing the streets were paved with gold. After a number of menial jobs, he decided to pack it in and head back home to Gloucester. Resting on Highgate Hill, he heard Bow Bells apparently summoning him back and promising he would be mayor three times. Which indeed he was - twice in his own right and once when he had to step in to replace someone else mid-term. The whole story of his impoverished background is made up, however. And he probably didn't have a cat - at least not on his journey.
An experiment was conducted in the 1990's which proved that you could have heard Bow Bells as far away as Highgate - so most Londoners were true Cockneys, not just Eastenders. That was at least up until noise pollution levels increased with the advent of the combustion engine.

You might be interested to see this rare piece of archive material - an anthropological study of the Cockneys...