When I moved to London a few years ago, from Switzerland, I was told the winters were relatively mild here, in comparison.
I reckon it’s true, but it has not always been the case.
The Little Ice Age
From the 14th to the early 19th Century, Europe and North America were affected by what is now known as the “little ice age”, with very bitter winters and only mild summers.
Those formidable winters had consequences that shaped History:
- famine and malnutrition, weakening the immune systems and paving the way for
- diseases (Think the Black Death and such), which became far more prevalent than they should have been.
- Storms: In 1588, the Spanish Armada was almost entirely wiped out by a hurricane, formed in the Arctic due to the harsh conditions of the Little Ice Age
- Finding culprits: the favourite scapegoats were witches of course, accused of tampering with the weather to make crops fail. Between 1560 and 1630, over 45,000 people in Europe were tried and executed for witchcraft, the vast majority of whom were women
- Fun fact : Scientists suggest the little ice age might also be responsible for the divine sound quality of the Stradivarius violins. They claim that the freezing winters and cool summers caused a slowdown in the growth of trees which created denser wood. This denser wood was used by Antonio Stradivari in the 17th century to make his unique violins, for which people pay several million today.
One of the worst winters in England was that of 1683-84, and this year even the sea froze on the beaches of Brighton (on all the south coast of England really).
If the sea was frozen, you can imagine the Thames in London was too : there was about 30 cm (11 inches) of ice around London bridge.
It is true that the Thames in London was nothing like what we know now: it had not yet been “channelled” by the embankments and quays on which we walk today, so it was much wider and much less deep, making the flow slower, and that meant it would freeze more easily.
And most importantly, at that time there was only one bridge crossing the river, but what a bridge!
London bridge was built on nineteen arches, quite narrow and close to each other, and that too reduced the flow of the river.
In winter, when these arches began to be blocked by floating ice chunks and debris, London Bridge sort of acted like a dam, further slowing down the river, thus helping it freeze quicker.
The problem is that when it happened, all trade on the Thames was put to a halt, and that had consequences on the daily life of Londoners.
The river was the main artery of London, almost everything that needed to travel or be transported used the river.
With the Thames immobilized, London found itself with hundreds of technically unemployed sailors, fishermen, mariners and dockers, who to earn a few coins started guiding the curious on the ice, installing some kinds of skates under small boats to make sleds, to offer tours on the frozen river.
The First Frost Fair
The first officially documented Frost Fair took place in 1608, with the Thames that year remaining frozen for 6 weeks.
Of course such terrible frosts didn’t happen every year in London, and there were ‘only’ 7 major frost fairs in London, in 1608, 1683–84, 1716, 1739–40, 1789, and 1814.
And in time they developed into very large fairs that were looking like a village of tents on the river, with market stalls, pubs and taverns, shows, gambling, races, bull baiting(!), games of nine pin bowling, skating rinks of course but even ice football!
They even roasted whole oxen on the frozen Thames; I mean why not, the ice was so thick (30 cm remember?), it must hold up, but a whole ox does not cook in 5 minutes either.
It intrigues me, I wonder wether one or two ended up at the bottom of the river… any Scientists among you with an opinion?
Printers also set up booths during the frost fairs.
In 1684, a printer was selling a souvenir card for sixpence, with the customer’s name printed on it, the date, and the fact that the card was printed on the frozen Thames.
He made a fortune with it, everyone wanted one! During the fair he could make £5 a day, which is about 10 times the salary of a worker for a whole week!
King Charles II bought one when he came to visit the fair with his court on January 31, 1684.
And we still have it, this ticket, it has survived through the centuries and is now part of the collections of the Museum of London:
Printers were also producing commemorative poems of the event, like that one, in 1715 :
Behold the Liquid Thames frozen o’re,
That lately Ships of mighty Burthen bore
The Watermen for want of Rowing Boats
Make use of Booths to get their Pence & Groats
Here you may see beef roasted on the spit
And for your money you may taste a bit
There you may print your name, tho cannot write
Cause num’d with cold: tis done with great delight
And lay it by that ages yet to come
May see what things upon the ice were done
You can see these lines in the pedestrian tunnel under the southern end of Southwark bridge, where there is an engraving by the sculptor Richard Kindersley, made of five slabs of grey slate, and depicting the frost fair:
The Last Frost Fair, February 1814.
The last frost fair took place in February 1814.
Every night since Christmas 1813 the temperature had dropped well below zero.
On February 1, people began to gather and set up stands and stalls on the ice, between London Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge (this new bridge has been here since 1769), marking the beginning of the fair.
Of course no one knew that it would be the last, but this one was the apotheosis, with even an elephant crossing the frozen Thames that year.
Quiz:
Health and safety concerns were probably not a thing at that time.
How many people in the engraving below are going to :
- Break a limb ?
- Drown in ice cold water?
- Catch pneumonia ?
The idea behind frost fairs was to have a blast of a time, to have the wildest time as possible before the thaw, really, and then run and scramble to save what could be saved before the murky waters of the Thames swallow the tents and market stalls, and sometimes the most careless or foolish customers.
Or drunkest maybe? Notice In the background there is a tent flagged “Good Gin”, and in the foreground the two tents called “Wellington,” and “Moscow” are also drinking tents…
However, the thaw arrived very quickly in 1814 and the last frost fair ever* Only lasted for 8 days.
(*To this day)
Helene
