One day in 1110, Queen Matilda was on her way to worship at Barking Abbey in Essex. On crossing the River Lea near Stratford, she and her entourage fell foul of floodwater and the queen, as the story goes, almost drowned. Deciding that no queen should ever have to suffer such an indignity again, she paid for a bridge to be built, the arched shape of which gave the name to the area to its west, 'Bow'.
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