Georgians

On Christmas Day 1718, curate Henry Lamb presented a handsome silver flagon engraved ‘for the Parish Church of Bow.’ After four hundred years, Bow Chapel was to celebrate independence from St Dunstan’s at last, becoming a parish and a church in its own right. When an Act of Parliament was passed in 1711 to enable the construction of fifty new churches in London, it was proposed that Bow Chapel be enlarged, repaired and given parochial status. Architects John James and Nicholas Hawksmoor came to undertake a survey, recommending repairs and widening of the aisles.

Yet there was no rectory as required of a parish church and no funds to build or acquire one, which meant that the link with St Dunstan’s continued until 1730 when an Act of Parliament granted £3,500 from public funds. In spite of this obstacle, the Bishop of London proceeded to consecrate Bow Chapel as the Parish Church of Bow on 26th March 1719 and Robert Warren became the first Rector.

The rectory was built on the north side of Bow Road at a cost of £1,035 and the Act of Parliament provided the Rector with £40 a year and freedom ‘to enjoy all surplice fees and perquisites, over and above the house for the habitation of the said Rector, and over and above all gifts, bequests and profits whatsoever.’ For example, in 1727 the Rector was paid £5 for ‘pulpit mourning for George I.’

The church accounts for 1719 are the earliest that survive and include some curious entries - ‘May 7th, Paid £1, four shillings and sixpence for wanns, bunns and ale on Ascension Day - June 23rd, Paid fourpence for a hedghog -  July 23rd, Relieved a man with twelve children who lost £500 at sea with two shillings and sixpence.’

The beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and the growth in international trade brought entrepreneurs to Bow and the River Lea. In 1720, Daniel Defoe commented on the steep rise in property prices as a result of these newly successful businessmen with money to spend on large handsome dwellings, ‘being chiefly the habitations of the richest citizens such as are able to keep two houses, one in the country and one in the city.’

Johannes Silbertus Kuffler, a Dutch chemist discovered that tin would better extract scarlet from cochineal and set up a dye house in Bow, producing a red dye that became famous and in great demand by the luxury market for military uniforms and robes for judges. The colour became universally known as ‘Bow-dye’ or ‘Bow-Scarlet.’ 

Thomas Frye and Edward Heylyn took out the patent for producing artificial soft paste porcelain and opened Britain’s first porcelain factory in Bow in 1749 with support from the Directors of the East India Company who unloaded cargo in Bow Creek. The ‘New Canton’ works close to the River Lea produced what came to be known as Bow China, using bone ash to create porcelain of brilliant whiteness and luminosity to rival that produced in the Far East at a fraction of the price. 

George Hodgson opened a brewery next to Bow Bridge in 1752, producing 11,200 barrels of beer a year which he transported directly by river to the docks thus stealing a march in exports on larger breweries like Charringtons. He developed a trade with India, creating India Pale Ale - known as ‘IPA’ - exclusively for this market. 

A fire in the tower in 1747 destroyed parish records and a clock which projected on the south side. This accident became a catalyst for improvements funded by local residents. John Cook ‘collar maker to George III’ donated five bells to the repaired tower in 1760 in memory of his father and churchwarden Alexander Hill presented a new church organ in 1762 with £20 a year for Benjamin Wayne to play it. 

From the seventeen-seventies a Turnpike extended from Whitechapel through Bow to Stratford which was illuminated by artificial lights at night in winter, linking it to the metropolis. But before long, a reward was offered by the Turnpike trustees for the capture of ‘some evil person lately attempting to break or wring off several of the lamp irons near Bow Town.’ 

As a measure of the increasing urbanisation of Bow, this complaint about traffic congestion appeared in the local press in 1789, ‘Everyone who travels into Essex through Bow and Stratford cannot avoid observing how great an obstacle in a much frequented thoroughfare the church at Bow is… in consequence the carriages are obliged to separate, some going on one side and some on the other side of said church, and frequent stoppages are occasioned in both passages.’ 

It was an early intimation of a question that would be raised repeatedly as road traffic increased, becoming a challenge to the very existence of the church by the end of nineteenth century.