{"id":545,"date":"2015-12-01T10:59:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T10:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=545"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:04","slug":"frost-fairs-on-the-thames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2015\/12\/01\/frost-fairs-on-the-thames\/","title":{"rendered":"Frost Fairs on the Thames"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Engraved<\/a>

Engraved portrait of John Evelyn by Francesco Bartolozzi. From the Fairclough Collection, EP 36, Box 7, p. 590.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018The weather continuing intolerably severe,\u2019 John Evelyn wrote on 1 January 1684, \u2018streetes of booths were set upon the Thames; the aire was so very cold and thick\u2019.*\u00a0 This was by no means the first time the Thames had frozen over.\u00a0 The bed of the river was much wider than today, so ice tended to form near the banks.\u00a0 The narrow arches and huge piers of Old London Bridge encouraged ice to mass and form a barrier.\u00a0 With continuing cold weather, gaps between the ice would fill in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By 9 January, the ice was \u2018now become so thick as to beare not onely streets of booths, in which they roasted meate, and had divers shops of wares, quite acrosse as in a towne, but coaches, carts, and horses, passed over\u2019.*\u00a0 So Evelyn walked across the Thames from Westminster Stairs to Lambeth, on his way to dine with the Archbishop, and back from Lambeth Stairs to the horse ferry afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"'Southwark<\/a>

‘Southwark and London Bridge, as they appeared about 1546’, showing the narrow arches and massive pillars of the bridge. From: SCT 01440, Sir Walter Armstrong, ‘The Thames: from its Rise to the Nore’, (London, c. 1906).<\/p><\/div>\n

The first recorded Frost Fair on the Thames was in 1564-5, although we have evidence that large stretches<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

View from the North West of the Frost Fair on the River Thames in 1684. From: SCD 00164, ‘Londina Illustrata’, Vol. 1, (London, 1819).<\/p><\/div>\n

of the river were frozen over on several occasions before that \u2013 in 1515 the ice was strong enough to bear carriages between Lambeth and Westminster.\u00a0 Raphael Holinshed describes the festivities of 1564:<\/p>\n

\u2018On New Year\u2019s even, people went over and alongst the Thames on the ise, from London Bridge to Westminster.\u00a0 Some plaied at the football as boldlie there as if it had been on the drie land \u2026 and the people, both men and women, went on the Thames in greater numbers than in anie street of the Citie of London.\u2019+<\/sup><\/p>\n

Frost Fairs were not confined to the Thames.\u00a0 In November 1607, the River Ouse at York was \u2018wholly frozen<\/p>\n

\"Ouse<\/a>

Ouse Bridge at York, where the Frost Fair of 1607 took place. From SCT 00991, Francis Drake, ‘Eboracum, or, The History and Antiquities of the City of York …’, (London, 1736).<\/p><\/div>\n

up, so hard that you might have passed with cart and carriage as well as upon firm ground\u2019.\u00a0 Francis Drake tells us that, \u2018Many sports were practised on the ice; as shooting at eleven score \u2026 bowling, playing at football, cudgels &c.\u00a0 And a horse-race was run \u2026 under the great arch of the bridge \u2026\u2019**<\/p>\n

With his passion for horticulture, and most especially for trees, one of Evelyn\u2019s first concerns in 1684 was for the effects of the severe cold both on the countryside and on his own gardens at Sayes Court:<\/p>\n

\u2018The fowles, fish and birds, and all our exotiq plants and greenes universally perishing \u2026 many parkes of deer were destroyed, and all sorts of fuell so deare that there were greate contributions to preserve the poore alive \u2026 I went to Says Court to see how the frost had dealt with my garden, where I found many of the greenes and rare plantes utterly destroyed.\u00a0 The oranges and mirtills very sick, the rosemary and laurels dead to all appearance, but ye cypress likely to indure it.\u2019**<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Cawthorpe Oak, near Wetherby, an object of wonder in the 1770s, ‘compared to [which], all other trees are but Children of the Forest’, drawn by William Burgh. From John Evelyn, ‘Silva’, (York, 1776), pl. opp. p. 500.<\/p><\/div>Twenty years earlier, Evelyn had published Sylva<\/em>, a \u2018Discourse Concerning Forest Trees\u2019, his most successful book.\u00a0 Our current exhibition in the basement of the Library salutes his contribution to the science and practice of arboriculture \u2013 and to his other many and varied achievements.\u00a0 The exhibition runs until 29 January 2016. Entry to the library is free but controlled, so if you are not a student or member of University staff, please ask to be let through the barrier. Details of staffed opening hours are available on the library website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The weather continuing intolerably severe,\u2019 John Evelyn wrote on 1 January 1684, \u2018streetes of booths were set upon the Thames; the aire was so very cold and thick\u2019.*\u00a0 This was by no means the first time the Thames had frozen over.\u00a0 The bed of the river was much wider than today, so ice tended to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}