St Mary-le-Bow is a historic church in the City of London (London, England). There has been a church on the site since Saxon Times, and the current church was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London of 1666 by Sir Christopher Wren. It is considered to be the second most important church in the City of London after St Paul's Cathedral. By tradition, people living within earshot of the Bow Bells of the church are considered to be "Cockney," and the sound of the bells have featured in stories and nursey rhymes.

In London Labour and the London Poor edition: 

Phase 1

Of the Street-Sellers of Rhubarb and Spice. (Volume 1) – [as “Bow Shursh”]: "Dere was one very old Arabian in de streets wen I first come; dey call him Sole; he been forty year at de same business. He wear de long beard and Turkish dress. He used to stand by Bow Shursh, Sheapside. Everybody in de street know him. He was de old establish one. He been dead now, let me see—how long he been dead—oh, dis six or seven and twenty year."

London Considered as a Great World. (The Great World of London) [as Bow-bells]: "True, the characteristic dialect of Bow-bells has almost become obsolete; and aldermen, now-a-days, rarely transpose the v's and w's, or "exasperate" the h's, and no longer speak of some humble residence as "an 'ouse, an 'ut, or an 'ovel," nor style it, with like orthoepy, a "Hightalian willer," or a "French cottage horny (ornée)." But though this form has passed away, there are many other modes of speech still peculiar to the Metropolitan people."

Phase 2

MEETING OF TICKET-OF-LEAVE MEN (Volume 3)