'Oranges and Lemons' - The Nursery Rhyme

'Oranges and Lemons' - The Nursery Rhyme

Oranges and lemons
Say the bells of St Clements
You owe me five farthings
Say the bells of St Martins
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich
Say the bells of Shoreditch
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney
I'm sure I don't know
Says the great bell at Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
Chop chop chop chop the last man's head!


Bells of Old Bailey

St Sepulchre-without-Newgate is the largest church in the city of London. Built around 1450, it was badly damaged in the Great Fire and was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1670-1. The historic tower holds the 12 bells of Old Bailey that were restored in 1985. They had been there since 1739, having replaced bells bought from the Priory Church of St Bartholomew in 1537.

Saint Sepulchre was not a person. The original Saxon church on this site was dedicated to the King of East Anglia - St Edmund the Martyr - and was called St Edmund-without-Newgate. At the time of the Crusades, the church became known as 'St Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre', and eventually became 'St Sepulchre' after the Holy Sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem.
The church's tenor bell in the bell tower was rung on mornings when there was an execution in Newgate Prison (now the site of the more well-known Old Bailey - the Central Criminal Court). The church still has the 'Execution Bell' in a glass case. This is the hand bell that was rung for other services concerning condemned prisoners, including ringing it outside the condemned cell at midnight. Newgate Prison acquired its own bell in 1783, and the tenor bell was no longer used on execution mornings.