Pearly Kings and Queens of London
If you go down the frog and toad in the East End of London this October you may want to have a butchers hook at the Pearly Kings and Queens.
If that sentence makes sense to you, you’ll realise it’s Cockney Rhyming Slang; frog and toad - road, butchers hook - look and this month in London sees the annual Harvest Festival of the Pearly Kings and Queens. These doyens of cockney culture form the Pearly Society, an East End London tradition that dates back to the Victorian era. Each October the Pearly Kings and Queens bedecked in elaborate outfits decorated with silver mother of pearl buttons gather in London for a harvest thanksgiving festival.
The Harvest Festival is the flagship event in the Pearly Society’s social calendar. On October 12th , the Pearlies will gather at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden for a thanksgiving service before taking a procession to St Martins in the Fields Church near Trafalgar Square to present fruit and vegetables to the church to be distributed to the poor and homeless.
This flamboyant procession will see the Pearly King and Queens march through the streets dressed in traditional suits, dresses and hats. These costumes can have as many as 30,000 buttons sewn onto them and can weigh as much as 30kg or more.
The Pearly Society stems from the costermongers or barrow boys of old London town who sold their fruit and vegetables from wheeled carts. These street traders would elect a representative, or King and their role was to keep the peace and defend them against competitors and sometimes even the police.
The tradition of sewing pearls onto the clothing originates from Henry Croft in 1875. Croft was an orphan barrow boy growing up in Dickensian London who would gather alms for the poor. To draw attention to his charitable work he sewn his suit with pearls and became the first of London‘s Pearly Kings. According to pearly legend, Croft had salvaged his pearls from a Japanese ship with a cargo of pearl buttons that had foundered in the River Thames. Croft died in 1930 and a statue of him now stands in the Crypt at St Martin in the Fields Church. After his death Croft’s comrades carried on the tradition of embroidering their outfits with pearls and these are handed down from generation to generation of Pearly Kings and Queens.
These outfits feature many pearly patterns that like Cockney Rhyming Slang form a local code, a horseshoe for luck, doves for peace, a heart for charity, an anchor for hope, a cross for faith, and a wheel for the costermongers.
Today the Pearly Society is a registered charity and contributes to fund raising work for various London based charities focusing on the poor, homeless and destitute. There’s a Pearly King and Queen for each London Borough as well as the City of London and Westminster. There’s Pearly Princes and Princesses too, these Kings and Queens in waiting can only take on their regal title once they have proved their worth and commitment to charity raising among the elders of the Society.
In Popular culture, Pearly Kings and Queens have featured in a number of films from Mary Poppins to Moulin Rouge and even an episode of The Muppet Show.
The Pearlies are involved in a great many events, parades and bank holiday fairs in and around London. As well as the Harvest Festival, they play a prominent role in the parade for the Lord Mayor’s show, which this year takes place on 8th November.
These parades weave their way through London’s streets past many of this great city’s iconic landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament , Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral and taking you through 800 years of London’s rich history.
One of the most popular city destinations in the world, London has it all and then a whole lot more. Visitors to this great city can enjoy several of the world’s most famous World Heritage Sites with Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, Big Ben and the Tower of London . As well as London’s world class cultural attractions with the Tate Gallery and its sister art gallery the Tate Modern, not to mention The V& A Museum, the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery. If you’re interested in fashion then Knightsbridge and Chelsea, Regent Street or the cutting edge styles of Carnaby Street may be more your style. For those with an eye for a bargain there’s London’s markets like Portobello Road, Camden and Spittalfields or if you want to splash the cash try London‘s stately shopping malls of Harrods or Harvey Nichols. Or if you want to relax and enjoy London’s autumn colours head to one of its many parks such as Hyde Park, Regent Park and Kensington Park. Or like many you can enjoy London’s historic royal connections with a trip to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard .
What ever you’re looking for you’ll find it in London, but for a unique London experience check out the Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festival this October.. .
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