DanDruff wrote:I hate to piss on everyone's chips, but the Bow bells are not actually in Bow. They're in a church on Cheapside (near St. Paul's cathedral) called St. Mary Le Bow.
I was born in Rush Green hospital, Romford, so I can't claim to be a cockney either way.
"Hate to piss on anyone's chips?" Definately liking that (even if it makes you a spoil sport). I hope you have got lots more of these pearls! All I can say is "Have chips, will travel"....
dorsetdano wrote:technically a cockney is someone born within the hearing distance of Bow bells, generally this has been thought to be within 3 miles. The thing that throws a spanner in the works is that the Bow bells are those from the rhyme 'orange and lemons' and they're actually the bells of St Mary le Bow church in the city of London. So people born in Wapping, Aldgate, Stepney, Holborn and god forbid Islington qualify. Those born in Bow and all points East do not.
Anyway that's all the technical stuff. In modern day parlance I think personally anyone born in an E post code qualifies if they want to and likewise those born in Barking, Ilford & Dagenham have tenuous, slightly plausible claims
Years ago when noise pollution was at a minimum, it was possible - on a quiet night - to hear the bells at St. Mary Le Bow from Paddington hospital.
I was born at the Mile End hospital and grew up in Bethnal Green, for the reasons stated in the thread about the sound of bow bells, I class myself as an East Ender rather than a Cockney.
Ilford, Barking & Gants Hill and my first job was on a fruit & veg stall in Whitechapel market. Moved to Dorset and now Berkshire . . . . apparently I'm a Toff.
Gonzo wrote:Ilford, Barking & Gants Hill and my first job was on a fruit & veg stall in Whitechapel market. Moved to Dorset and now Berkshire . . . . apparently I'm a Toff.
I was born in St Andrews Hospital, Bow, Bow is the heart of East London so I therefore consider myself a cockney, plus the fact I have been called a cockney cunt more times that I care to remember on my footballing travels so it must be true.
