Page 57 - All About History - Issue 59-17

London’s Lost Frost Fairs

impermanent, so it was understood to only be a Forever’. At least ten printers were set up and sold
temporary suspension of social etiquette. books with their postcards and poems while a
Despite the behaviour the fairs encouraged, full-blown casino offered roulette and a wheel of
even royalty couldn’t resist. Queen Elizabeth I fortune. The watermen assumed their old position,
walked upon the ice daily in 1564 to “shoot a few charging two- or threepence for safe passage onto
marks” with bow and arrow. King Charles II went the ice. As the Londoners descended onto the
one step further at the Blanket Fair, attending with frozen Thames en masse once more, a group of 70
some of the royal family to see “Great Britain’s people reportedly walked across the frozen water
wonder” on 31 January 1684. He even bought to South Bank all at once.
a memento from one of the printers, stamped Various modern accounts claim an elephant
with the date and their names. A French account walked across the ice at the final fair. While we
claimed the Merry Monarch spent a whole night would like to say this was led by a descendent
at the fair, while others say he joined in a foxhunt of the Blanket Fair’s James William Chipperfield,
on the ice. Perhaps while accompanying the king, whose family’s circus was now a booming success,
the royal army also fired a ceremonial salute with the story may sadly be apocryphal. There are no
several cannons on the ice. known records from 1814 mentioning the animal,
which would surely have been a talking point.
sEE wHaT THings uPOn The fair lasted just four days as so many people
THE icE wErE DOnE and milder temperatures caused cracks to quickly
There were more frost fairs in the 18th century and appear in the ice. More than one person drowned
they offered much the same attractions. In 1715, and booths were carried away on ice flows.
live entertainment was provided by “Will Ellis the Damage to river barges was estimated at some
Poet and his wife Bess” who were “Rhiming [sic] £20,000, caused by giant fast-flowing chunks that
bowling and hoopla, Londoners enjoyed the dizzy on the Hard Frost.” Ox was again roasted by a Mr had broken up. But even then, a large printing
experience of a ‘Dutch whimsie’ — being spun Atkins and Mr Hodginson, who claimed to be the press, hungry for profits, was set up in defiance on
around in a chair or a boat tied to a pole. Every descendents of the gentleman who had done the an ice island near Westminster.
roundabout in modern playgrounds is thought to be same in 1684. The painter William Hogarth bought The Thames did freeze again after 1814 but
a descendent of this “whirling sledge”. a souvenir print for his pet pug, Trump. However, not to the extent that anyone could walk on it.
John Evelyn called the 1684 fair a “bacchanalian these later fairs also saw greater mechanisation, so The Little Ice Age was drawing to a close, ending
triumph, or carnival on the water”, while his the fairground attractions looked more like today’s after 1850, but the frost fairs were also a victim
equally prudish contemporary Roger Morrice with swing sets and — sources claim — some sort of progress. The Old London Bridge was beyond
complained, “All manner of debauchery upon of clockwork car went on display. repair and had to be replaced in 1830 by the
the Thames continued upon the Lord’s Day and The final fair was held in February 1814 and modern London Bridge. This, plus the creation
Monday”. Fair-goers could gamble and likely though it only lasted a few days, it went out in of the Embankment in the 19th century, created
placed wagers on regular attractions like horse style. The ice followed a thick fog that enveloped a narrower, faster-flowing Thames that was less
racing and blood sports. As well as seeing bears the city and the surrounding country, allegedly likely to freeze.
and bulls fight dogs, “throwing at cocks” was lasting from 27 December 1813 to 3 January 1814. London’s lost frost fairs were always a
promoted at the 1684 fair. This involved a rooster Once it cleared, a grand mall was set-up by celebration of impermanence, with participants
being tied to a post and participants taking turns Blackfriars Bridge, dubbed ‘City Street’, boasting never sure when the party would be over or when
to throw weighted sticks at the bird until it died. temporary taverns with names like ‘The City of the floor was going to give way beneath their feet.
Prostitutes also ambled among the attractions, Moscow’, ‘The Free and Easy’ and ‘Wellington We could never expect them to last forever.
soliciting customers. The beleaguered watermen
complained about women plying their trade in the The souvenir Charles II bought at the Blanket
Hackney coaches but it’s likely some of the tents Fair. Hans in Kelder (‘Jack in the Cellar’) is a wry
served as brothels. With the waterman offering the reference to Princess Anne’s pregnancy
only thing close to security, revellers had to watch
out for pickpockets, too.
While Evelyn and Moore bemoaned the frost
fair as a sign of social decay, others praised it for
breaking down hierarchies. An event to rival any
royal extravaganza, high society couldn’t resist the
fun and games and even the poorest could at least
enjoy the spectacle and get warm by a bonfire.
The dramatist Thomas Dekker noted the mixing
“of all ages, of both sexes, of all professions”
on the “common path” of the Thames in 1608.
John Taylor, a part-time poet and possibly the
only waterman to praise the frozen river, wrote
approvingly, “Laws they count no more than Esops
[sic] fables.” Perhaps this was because of the frozen
Thames’ unique position outside of conventional
authority’s jurisdiction, the fair’s overwhelming
carnivalesque atmosphere, or because the ice was

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