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easthammer 7:33 Wed Jun 19
Part of our heritage?

Just seen this https://www.hammers.news/news/new-west-ham-away-shirt-with-holy-feature-and-fresh-sponsor-is-leaked/

Is the St Mary le Bow Church to be part of West Ham Utd's heritage?

I know it represents Cockney London but I was born and lived within 0.8 miles of the Boleyn Ground and I never heard the Bells and despite happily singing One Nil to the Cockney Boys I am not convinced putting this on the shirt is no more than a marketing gimmick

Oh dear 2:49 Thu Jun 20
Re: Part of our heritage?

Arsenal are the closest stadium to St Mary le Bow Church.

Now we have have moved to Stratford we are next, then Spurs, then Chelsea.

Prior to moving to Stratford we were after Spurs

1964 11:17 Thu Jun 20
Re: Part of our heritage?

Born in Plaistow in 1950 so I'm probably not a cockney and Plaistow was in Essex then so I'm not sure whether I'm a Londoner or an Essex boy.!

Mike Oxsaw 10:54 Thu Jun 20
Re: Part of our heritage?

Ah! '64 beat me to it, but I've started so I'll finish...

The Bow Bells of fame (& nursery rhyme) are actually hung in the tower of a church on Cheapside (not a traditional West Ham area) and before the city/square mile was built up and the arrival of mechanised transport, may have been heard as far east as Shoreditch (same nursery rhyme) and with a good westerly perhaps as far as Stratford. Equally, a northerly wind would carry the sound of the peels southwards across the river, perhaps as far as Southwark.

An east wind, likewise would carry the sound possibly as far as Marylebone/Paddington (before they had railway stations and a southerly breeze may well have taken the sound into what is now Arsenal/Tottenham homeland.

The original "Cockney Central" is probably centred around what were once the slums of Holborn and the Fleet Docks.

London would have been a far too noisy place for the peels to reach the Boleyn Ground when and after it was built.

1964 10:41 Thu Jun 20
Re: Part of our heritage?

St Mary-le-Bow is a Church of England parish church in the City of London, England. Located on Cheapside

The bells, often considered amongst the most famous in the world, have typically been used to define whether or not one is a true Londoner or Cockney; anyone born within their earshot is considered such. 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.

In 1851, the bells could be heard across north and east London, as far as Hackney Marshes, Stratford and Limehouse, with reports they could also be heard south of the Thames in Southwark. An acoustic study taken in 2012 shows this range has shrunk substantially, 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.[

Manuel 10:16 Thu Jun 20
Re: Part of our heritage?

Isn't this church is St Paul's?

Wils 8:22 Wed Jun 19
Re: Part of our heritage?

"Is the St Mary le Bow Church to be part of West Ham Utd's heritage?"

I agree the church itself isn't, but the reference is clearly that the club is a "cockney" club. East London. It would be good if they went the whole way and added the word "East" to the badge.