St Mary Bow
St Mary Bow
Bow Church, the parish church of St Mary and Holy Trinity, Stratford Bow, is a Grade II* church on an island site in Bow Road, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Diocese of London.
- Location
- Bow, Greater London
- Country
- England
- County
- Greater London
- City / town
- Bow
- Address
- Bow Road, Bow, Greater London, E3 3AH
- Postcode
- E3 3AH
- Built
- Possible C14 core; C15 tower; further rebuilding 1794, 1829, 1882, 1895 and the 1950s
- Architect
- Osborn C Hills (late C19); H S Goodhart-Rendel (post-war tower)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- London
- Parish
- St Mary and Holy Trinity Stratford Bow
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Perpendicular
- Materials
- Kentish rag stone with brick additions and tiled roofs
- Grid reference
- TQ 376 829
- Opening hours
- Covid19 : The church is currently open to visitors 10am to 1pm each Saturday, or you are welcome to visit outside of these times by prior arrangement, please email. All visits are subject to current health and safety regulations and guidance. [Normally open : The church is open to visitors each Saturday between May and September from 11am to 1pm. You are welcome to visit outside of these times by prior arrangement, please email.]
- Access
- Ramp or level access available on request. Non-accessible toilets in church. Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a parish church with a possible fourteenth-century core, a fifteenth-century west tower, and further rebuilding and restoration in the early eighteenth century, 1829, 1882, 1895 and the 1950s. The fabric is Kentish rag with brick additions and tiled roofs. The listing notes a Perpendicular west door, a rubble-stone north aisle that may be fourteenth-century, and aisles, clerestory and chancel with straight-headed late Perpendicular windows renewed in the late nineteenth century. The south aisle was refaced in 1794. The upper tower, damaged in the Blitz, was rebuilt with a timber clock turret by H. S. Goodhart-Rendel.
The church began as a chapel of ease to Stepney under a licence of 1311 and became a parish church in 1711. After the chancel roof collapsed in 1896, restoration was supervised by a SPAB committee and undertaken by Osborn C. Hills. Queen Elizabeth visited in 1951 at the start of the post-war campaign. Monuments include those to Grace Amcottes (d. 1551) and Alice and Prisca Coborn. The church gives its name to Bow Church DLR station.