Street cries on the frozen Thames

Between 1092 and 1814 the River Thames froze solid at least 25 times. On some of these occasions ‘frost fairs’ were held on the ice, creating lucrative commercial opportunities for street vendors and other casual traders. As a result of a series of particularly cold winters between 1550 and 1850, a phenomenon sometimes described as the little Ice Age, the river frequently remained frozen for months. ¹ In 1608, 1683, 1715, 1739, 1789 and 1814, the fairs were extensive and are particularly well illustrated and described in contemporary printed broadsides and ballad sheets. Some of these publications were produced on presses that enterprising city printers moved from their shops into booths on the frozen river itself, therefore serving as potent mementoes of these unusual occasions. Sold to a public who were only too keen to own a permanent representation of a rare moment when normal city life had been suspended, these often crudely illustrated sheets possessed little literary merit, but the fact that they were ‘printed on the River of Thames’ made them well worth owning. The survival of large numbers in both public and private collections is probably due to the unusual conditions of their production, giving them an added value which resulted in a longevity not enjoyed by other classes of printed ephemera. Some of these broadsides could even be made up into packs of playing cards. One surviving in the Guildhall Library from the fair of 1683–4 is printed with instructions to play a particular game called Frost Fair Cards. ² Another published at the same fair provides musical notation to allow the rhyming couplets describing the occasion to be sung to a catchy melody. ³