My Father Was A Real Cockney
My father was born in Islington and although he had all the rhyming slang and other knowledge, he never called himself a real Cockney, who was born within the sound of Bow Bells. Today, he wouldn’t have been, but when he was born in 1904, he would probably have been born inside the area, as indicated by this map.
I went past the church of St. Mary-le-Bow today and took some pictures.
According to the map, I think that both my maternal grandparents and possibly my paternal grandfather, were all born in the required area. So I could be three-quarter Cockney.
The Anonymous Widower 
That’s interesting that you have to be born within the hearing of the Bow bells to be Cockney…it’s like being a geordie, where you have to be born on the North side of the river and close to it as well – within a mile of the Tyne bridge is what I once heard but there are a lot of variations!
Comment by studentlondon3 | February 2, 2013 |