Oranges and Lemons

You might assume that this nursery rhyme is about fruit, but it's actually about some of London's famous churches.

In medieval London, most people were Christian and there was a church on almost every street. Religion had an impact on most aspects of people’s lives, since schools and hospitals were run by the Church.

Most of London’s churches have huge bells which are rung on special occasions. Throughout the rhyme, we hear the bells of each church "speaking" to one another as they chime.

They aren't actually speaking, of course. The words they 'say' in the rhyme are meant to sound like the unique melody made by each church's bells as they ring.

Historians found a song called Oranges and Lemons that dates all the way back to 1665, but we don’t know if the lyrics were the same as the ones in the song we know today.

Since then, children singing the rhyme have changed it and made up their own parts. Some versions were much longer, mentioning as many as 15 churches. Can you imagine how long that would make the rhyme?

We also don’t know why the rhyme was written. Perhaps it was a way for Londoners to remember the names of some of the many churches in the city.

"St Clement’s" in the rhyme is likely St Clement’s church on Eastcheap in the City of London.

"St Martin’s" is probably St Martin's Orgar, a medieval church also in the City. Its bell chimes "you owe me five farthings". This probably relates to the money lenders who worked around the church, loaning money to the poor and demanding repayment.

"Stepney" is St Dunstan’s of Stepney, which is one of the oldest churches in London and was once an important church for sailors to visit.

"Bow" is most likely St Mary le Bow. It's said that only people who are born within the sound of the Bow bells are true east London cockneys. The "great bells of Bow" might refer to the church bell which rang at 9pm every night.

The Old Bailey in the rhyme was a famous medieval courthouse and it certainly didn’t have any bells. In the rhyme, the bells sing "when will you pay me".

This refers to some of the people locked up in Newgate prison, the most notorious prison in medieval London. Many of the prisoners were debtors, meaning they didn’t pay back money they had borrowed.

The bells of the Old Bailey in the rhyme would have been the bells of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, which stood opposite the courthouse at the time.

The medieval courthouse was yet another building destroyed by the Great Fire. It was rebuilt in 1674 and the Old Bailey is still used as a courthouse today.