FOLK TRADITIONS

See Also: CAKES & PASTRIES Buns, The Widow's Bun; CAKES & PASTRIES Twelfth Night Cake; THE CEREMONY OF THE ROSE; CHRISTMAS; CHRISTMAS Twelfth Night; FAIRS; FOLK MUSIC; GHOSTS; THE GUNPOWDER PLOT The Celebration of November 5^th; HORROR FICTION Vampires, Dracula, Blood-Suckers By Appointment; ICE CREAM Van Fleets; LOCAL GOVERNMENT Beating The Bounds; MILITARY CUSTOMS; MURDERS The Common Law's Influence; PRINTING Banging Out; RAILWAYS Sport; ROYAL STATUES King Charles I Charing Cross; STREET MARKETS Costermongers, Pearly Kings & Queens; THEATRE RELATED Whistling; UMBRELLAS James Smith & Sons; WEDDINGS

Buildings

Bush House has an incomplete capitol. This was because the developer Mr Bush had a superstitious streak and believed that buildings should never be finished.

Location: Bush House, Aldwych, WC2B 4PH (blue, purple)

Chimney Sweeps

Sweeps Day Parade

A Jack In The Green is a large leaf-covered framework that is decorated with flowers that is paraded through the streets on May Day. Chimney Sweeps paraded on May Day. The first recorded instance of a Jack-in-the-Green occurred in one of their marches during the Industrial Revolution. It probably derived from the practice that sweeps who did not have a full set of brushes using greenery as a substitute.

The custom of the Deptford Jack In The Green was abandoned at the end of the 19^thC. It was revived in the early 1980s.

Folk Customs

See Also: CHRISTMAS Boxing Day, Plum Pudding Hill

The Butterworth Dole

An outdoors sermon is delivered. 6d. pieces presented to 21 poor widows of the parish. Each one placed on a gravestone to be peaked up, hot cross buns distributed and then a church service.

The Butterworth Dole is distributed at Easter in the churchyard of St Bart's the Great.

Earliest 1686 church wardens accounts mention it. In 1666

In 1888 G.W. Butterworth furnished 22 15s. for an endowment.

A lack of widows in the 1960s led to the tradition falling into abeyance. Subsequently, it was revived.

Location: Cloth Fair, EC1A 7JQ (purple, brown)

Website www.greatstbarts.com

The Mayor of Garret

The election of the Mayor of Garret was a mock that took place in late May in the hamlet of Garrat, which lay between Tooting and Wandsworth. It grew out of a genuine electoral process, that of choosing a president to help preserve the local common from encroachment. The first recorded contest took place in 1747. The local innkeepers sensed an opportunity and began to invest money so that the day should be more of an occasion Soon the event was attracting tens of thousands of Londoners. The candidates, who adopted aliases foir the day, delivered speeches in which they made absurdist promises. Some of them, such as Jeffrey Dunstan (c.1759-1797), were physically deformed. Samuel Foote used it as the subject for his play The Mayor of Garret (1763).

Pre-1760 aristocrats attended it as a quaint - if in fact subversive - custom. Post-1760 they tried to take it over for Wilkite and Foxite political ends.

In 1796 Harry Dimsdale (d.1810), a muffin seller, became the last person who is known to have been elected Mayor.

Location: Altab Ali Park, E1 1FD. The site of St Mary's Whitechapel. Dunstan's corpse was buried there. (blue, purple)

Garratt Lane, SW18 4BN

See Also: PUBS The Harp Tavern, The City of Lushington

Valentine Cards

In the 15^thC some people began to exchange valentine cards.

In 1415, while the Duke of Orleans was imprisoned in the Tower of London, he wrote a valentine for his wife.

Location: The Tower of London, EC3N 4AB (purple, orange)

See Also: CHRISTMAS Christmas Cards

The Folklore Society

The Folklore Society studies folk song, dance, language, practices, and tales. The organisation was founded in 1878.

Location: Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, NW1 7AY (blue, turquoise)

Website: www.efdss.org/cecil-sharp-house https://folklore-society.com

Legends

See Also: STREET FURNITURE The London Stone

Battlebridge

There was once something of an obsession amongst antiquarians to identify the site of a supposed major battle between the Celts and the Romans. Prior to the early-19^thC the district that is now known as King's Cross was called Battlebridge after the presumed encounter.

See Also: RAILWAY STATIONS King's Cross Railway Station; ROMAN REMAINS Boudicca

Gog & Magog

The Guildhall contains carved wooden figures of Gog and Magog.¹ They were giants of legend. The former was a native Briton while the latter was a Trojan invader. Their battling ended with their founding Albion, the new Troy, in 1000 B.C.. The pair are held to be the guardians of the City of London. Images of them have been featured in the Lord Mayor's Procession since at least the 15^thC.

Location: The Guildhall, Gresham Street, EC2V 7HH (purple, white)

See Also: CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHURCHES St George; THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON The Lord Mayor's Procession; PEOPLES & CULTURES The Museum of Immigration & Diversity

Website: https://lordmayorsshow.london/history/gog-and-magog

¹. The pair were also known as Gogmagog and Corineus.

King Lud

The City of London's Ludgate gateway was supposed to have been built by King Lud in 66 B.C.. Statues of his majesty and his sons were features of the gate. The gateway was demolished in 1760. The figures were moved to the Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West.

Location: Ludgate Circus, EC4M 7LQ (orange, brown)

St Dunstan-in-the-West, 186a Fleet Street, EC4A 2HR (blue, red)

See Also: WALLS & GATEWAYS The Gateways

Website: www.stdunstaninthewest.org

May Day

May Day had been an earthy folk festival. In 1881 the critic John Ruskin was invited by Whitelands to devise a May Day ritual for the students to stage. He got rid of the May King and focussed the event on the May Queen. She was dressed in white and would act as the attendant of her successor the following year. There was dancing around a ribboned maypole.

As the students graduated, they recreated the Whitelands May Day across Britain and abroad.

Location: Whitelands House, Cheltenham Terrace, SW3 4QY (red, yellow)

Maypoles

In the late Middle Ages maypoles sometimes acted as the flashpoints that led riots occurring. In 1339 there was a m l e between the members of the Fishmongers and the Skinners Companies. The riots were often xenophobic in character. The Evil May-Day riot of 1517 was a particularly notorious one.

The first known instance of a braided maypole dates from a theatrical production that was mounted in 1836.

See Also: COUNTRYSIDE Greens; FAIRS The May Fair

St Andrew Undershaft

During the course of the year the shaft of the St Andrew Undershaft maypole was stored in the eaves of a row of houses in Shaft Alley near to the church. The maypole was erected near to the corner of St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street. In 1549 the shaft was declared to be a heathen idol, it was chopped up, and the pieces were burned.

Location: St Andrew Undershaft, St Mary Axe, EC3A 8BN (orange, grey)

See Also: CITY OF LONDON CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHURCHES St Andrew Undershaft

The Strand Maypole

The Strand Maypole stood in front of the Church of St Mary-le-Strand. In 1644 Parliament passed an Act that called for the removal of all maypoles in England and Wales as a heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickedness . In 1661 a 134 ft.-tall maypole was erected in the Strand as a symbol of how the era of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans had ended. In 1718 this was dismasted. It ended its days as a support for a large telescope in Wanstead that was used for astronomical observations - an instance of superstitious practice giving way to scientific observation.

Location: St Mary-le-Strand, Strand, WC2B 1ES (orange, brown)

See Also: MEMORIALS Charing Cross; ROYAL STATUES Queen Anne Queen Anne's Gate; THE TOWER OF LONDON The Ravens

Website: https://stmarylestrand.com

Teddington

At Easter 1710 some Twickenham youths tried to Teddington's maypole. In ensuing m l e John Rolt, a Teddington youth was killed. Two of the Twickenham youths were apprehended and secured in Newgate. The wealthy financier Sir Charles Duncombe, a former Lord Mayor of London, made it known that he wanted them to hang. However, one of them became ill. Duncombe offered to pay his bail. The youth died of smallpox. The other one was tried at the Old Bailey. The jury acquitted him.

Morris Dancing

The Joint Morris Organisations

Website: www.morrisfed.org.uk/about/jmo

The Morris Federation

Website: www.morrisfed.org.uk

The Morris Ring

Website: www.themorrisring.org

The Open Morris

The Open Morris

Website: https://open-morris.org

Mourning

The scale of fatalities during the First World War rendered the 19^thC culture of mourning inappropriate.

New Year's Day Parade

London first New Year's Day Parade was held in 1987. It was founded by Bob Bone, who helped overseas music al acts work in the UK. Inspired by having seen the Orange Bowl Parade, he set up in partnership with Roger Bramble the then Lord Mayor of Westminster.

About half a million people watch the parade.

The Ritz to Parliament Square

Website: https://lnydp.com

The Pendragon Society

The Pendragon Society (Arthuriana)

Website: https://thependragonsociety.com

Toasting

The Society of London Toastmasters

Website: www.societyoflondontoastmasters.co.uk

Urban Legends

The Folklore Society term urban myths contemporary legends so that they included rural ones.

See Also: FRUSTRATION'S FRUIT Bob Holness; SMALL ITEMS Buttons, Urban Myths; DICK WHITTINGTON Dick Whittington's Cat

Shape-Shifting Rat

There is a tale of a giant shape-shifting rat who could take the form of a beautiful woman. If she took a liking to you in the pub, you would have a lucky day subsequently. It is the only tale that is unique to London.

See Also: ANIMALS Rats

Sweeney Todd

The story of Sweeney Todd may be based upon an older tale.

George Dibden Pitt's play Sweeney Todd: The Barber of Fleet Street: Or The String of Pearls (1847).

This was first performed at Hoxton Hall music hall in 1865.

See Also: THE CANNIBAL DEAN; HAIR Barbers; MURDERS

David Backhouse 2024