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Simon Meyer, the St Mary-le-Bow Tower Master.
Photo: PA / The Telegraph
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There are many people who claim to be a Cockney but, are they speaking the truth? According to London tradition, Cockneys are born within earshot of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, a church situated in Cheapside and built after the Great Fire of 1666.
There has been many debates and studies about how to delimit the bell-hearing range. The areas reached were Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Stepney, Hackney, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Bow, Mile End, Poplar, Wapping, Limehouse and Millwall. Other investigations, less exaggerated, limited the area only to Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Stepney, Hackney and Hoxton.
But nowadays the Cockneys are endangered. Due to the noise pollution, the development of the city and the construction of high buildings, every day is more difficult to heard the chimes of St Mary-le-Bow.
Also, maybe a true Cockney may never be born again, because the only hospital inside the audible area has not a maternity ward.
