Folklore of London

The year ahead

Tuesday 29 September 2026

Thursday 1 October 2026

Sunday 4 October 2026

Sunday 1 November 2026

Monday 9 November 2026

Thursday 12 November 2026

Monday 16 November 2026

Tuesday 17 November 2026

Sunday 22 November 2026

Monday 23 November 2026

Monday 30 November 2026

Saturday 5 December 2026

Thursday 24 December 2026

Saturday 26 December 2026

Monday 28 December 2026

Wednesday 6 January 2027

Sunday 17 January 2027

Monday 25 January 2027

Saturday 30 January 2027

Tuesday 9 February 2027

Wednesday 10 February 2027

Monday 1 March 2027

Sunday 21 March 2027

Friday 26 March 2027

Sunday 28 March 2027

Monday 29 March 2027

Thursday 1 April 2027

Friday 23 April 2027

Saturday 1 May 2027

Folklore from the old calendars

The milkmaids’ garland No longer kept LondonOn May Day the London milkmaids went round their customers' houses in their best clothes, dancing to a fiddle or pipe and tabor for the annual present.
The Raine’s school bride No longer kept LondonA correspondent told Hone that every May Day a girl from Raine's charity school at St George in the East, near London, was chosen to be married.
The printers’ May feast at Stationers’ Hall No longer kept LondonRandle Holme wrote in 1688 that the journeymen printers, with the letter founders and ink makers, held a general feast every year at Stationers' Hall on or about May Day, paid for by half a crown from each guest.
Dining with Duke Humphrey No longer kept LondonIn old St Paul's stood the tomb of Sir John Beauchamp, which the ignorant called the tomb of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester, though he lay at St Albans.
The master sweeps’ May-day dinner No longer kept LondonOn 1 May 1826 the new United Society of Master Chimney Sweepers gave its apprentices a dinner at the Eyre Arms in St John's Wood instead of letting them go about the streets for money, and handbills warned householders not to give to the sweeps' May-day collections.
The Paddington May-dance No longer kept London, MiddlesexHone remembered Jack-o'-the-Greens, figures dressed out in ribbons and flowers from the village May games, coming into the London suburbs to dance.
The Strand maypole No longer kept LondonParliament ordered every maypole in England and Wales taken down in 1644.
The great shaft of Cornhill No longer kept LondonSt Andrew Undershaft takes its name from the great maypole that was set up every May morning in the street outside its south door, taller than the church steeple.
May Fair in Piccadilly No longer kept LondonThe fair that gave Mayfair its name was held near Piccadilly through the month of May.
Henry VIII goes a-Maying on Shooter’s Hill No longer kept Kent, LondonStow wrote that on May morning every Londoner who could walked out into the meadows and woods to enjoy the flowers and the birdsong.
Mrs Montagu’s dinner for the sweeps No longer kept LondonEvery May Day Elizabeth Montagu, the bluestocking hostess, gave a dinner for the chimney sweeps of London at her house in Portman Square.
The sweeps’ garland and Jack-in-the-green Still kept LondonMay Day was the great festival of London's chimney sweeps.

Thursday 27 May 2027

Saturday 29 May 2027

Wednesday 9 June 2027

Friday 11 June 2027

Wednesday 23 June 2027

Sunday 27 June 2027

Monday 12 July 2027

Sunday 25 July 2027

Sunday 1 August 2027

Thursday 5 August 2027

Sunday 15 August 2027

Wednesday 18 August 2027

Tuesday 24 August 2027

Folklore from the old calendars

Shooting at the Standard in Finsbury Fields No longer kept LondonStow wrote that before his time the lord mayor, sheriffs and aldermen of London used to go out at Bartholomew-tide into the fields at Finsbury, where the citizens had gathered, and shoot at the standard with broad and flight arrows for games.
Bartholomew Pig and Fairings No longer kept LondonBy the time of Ben Jonson's comedy of 1614 Bartholomew Fair had lost nearly all its trading character and was given over to eating, drinking and amusement, and it had become an established custom to eat roast pig there.
Rabbits for the Boys at Bartholomew-tide No longer kept LondonThe German traveller Hentzner, in England in 1598, wrote that every year on St Bartholomew's Day, when the fair was held, the mayor with the twelve principal aldermen walked in a neighbouring field, in his scarlet gown with a gold chain about his neck.
The Scholars’ Disputation on Bartholomew Eve No longer kept London, YorkshireA correspondent from Morley, near Leeds, reminded Hone of a custom little noticed by antiquaries: on the eve of St Bartholomew scholars from different schools met for disputation, to try their proficiency in learning, as Stow and the astrologer Lilly both mention.

Thursday 2 September 2027

Friday 3 September 2027

Tuesday 21 September 2027

Not tied to a day

Told of London, but not tied to a day of the year.

Folklore from the old calendars

A Horseshoe on the Threshold Lore and belief England, LondonAubrey said it was very common to nail horseshoes on thresholds to keep out the power of witches, that most houses at the west end of London had one, and that it should be a horseshoe one had found.
An hour-glass in the coffin No longer kept LondonA writer in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1746 recalled stopping in Clerkenwell churchyard in June 1718 to watch a gravedigger who had come upon a long-rotted coffin.
Bells for Benighted Travellers No longer kept Berkshire, Lincolnshire, London, OxfordshireChambers gathers old bequests made for travellers lost at night.
Bone Skates in Moorfields No longer kept LondonFitzStephen's description of London in the twelfth century tells how, when the marshes of Moorfields froze, the young men tied the leg-bones of animals under their feet with thongs and slid over the ice, pushing themselves along with iron-shod poles.
Frost Fair on the Thames No longer kept LondonWhen the Thames froze hard at London, a fair grew up on the ice with booths, skittles, swings, dancing and gaming tables.
Frozen-out Gardeners No longer kept LondonIn a hard frost, when no work could be done on the land, bands of men went through London and the market towns as frozen-out gardeners.
Gerard the Giant’s staff No longer kept LondonIn the high hall of an old inn in Basing Lane, called Gerard's Hall, stood a great fir pole reaching to the roof, with a ladder of the same length beside it.
Hertfordshire morris men in Clerkenwell No longer kept Hertfordshire, LondonIn June 1826 a correspondent watched a company of morris dancers from a Hertfordshire village in Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell.
Irish football at Copenhagen House No longer kept LondonA correspondent told Hone in 1826 that in fine weather Irishmen played football every Sunday afternoon in the fields between Oldfield's dairy and Copenhagen House near Islington, from three o'clock until dusk.
Lord Craven’s horse could smell a fire Lore and belief LondonWilliam, Earl of Craven, soldier and devoted servant of the Queen of Bohemia, stayed in London through the great plague of 1665 to help the sick and keep order.
Marrowbones and cleavers No longer kept LondonAmong the London poor it was an old institution for butchers' men to serenade a wedding with marrowbones and cleavers, as Hogarth showed in his picture of the Industrious Apprentice's marriage.
Rue and Wormwood against the Plague Lore and belief LondonOn 29 July 1760 a rumour ran round London, nobody could later say how, that the plague had broken out in St Thomas's Hospital.
Spur money No longer kept Herefordshire, London, NorthamptonshireAnyone who walked into a cathedral choir wearing spurs could be made to pay a small fine, called spur money, to the choristers.
St Chad’s Well at Battle Bridge No longer kept LondonAt the bottom of Gray's Inn Lane, near Battle Bridge, was a spring named after St Chad whose water was drunk as a purge, and crowds of the bilious once came to take it.
St Sepulchre’s bell for the condemned No longer kept LondonOn 8 May 1705 Robert Dowe gave fifty pounds to St Sepulchre's, the church beside Newgate prison, so that a bell would be tolled and an exhortation made to condemned prisoners the night before they were hanged.
Sworn at Highgate Still kept London, MiddlesexTravellers passing through Highgate for the first time were made to swear a mock oath on a pair of horns in one of the village taverns, with the landlord as priest and a waiter or ostler singing out Amen.
The bellman’s verses No longer kept LondonIn seventeenth-century London the bellman was the night watchman, named for the handbell he carried to raise the alarm in case of fire.
The Clerk of Bow Bell Still kept LondonA cockney is said to be anyone born within the sound of Bow bells, though Chambers notes that Stow never mentions the saying.
The Dragon and the Grasshopper Lore and belief LondonThe vane on Bow Church in Cheapside is a gilt copper dragon, and the Royal Exchange carries the grasshopper crest of Sir Thomas Gresham.
The King and the Tower Lion Lore and belief LondonThe lions kept in the Tower menagerie were named after the reigning kings, and people believed each king's life was bound up with his lion's.
The May game at St Martin’s in the Fields No longer kept LondonHone noted from Strype that on 26 May 1555, in the reign of Mary, a gay May game was held at St Martin's in the Fields.
The Panyer Boy Still kept LondonIn the wall of Panyer Alley, off Paternoster Row, is an old carved stone of a boy sitting on a pannier and pressing a bunch of grapes between his hand and his foot, with an inscription and the date 1688.
The Pig-faced Lady Lore and belief Leinster, LondonThe story of a lady born with a pig's face, told in several languages, usually said a beggar woman cursed a new bride who called her squalling child a pig.
The Scald Miserable Masons No longer kept LondonIn the 1740s London humourists and a crowd of followers held a mock procession every spring to make fun of the Freemasons and their grand parade.
The St Giles Bowl No longer kept LondonWriting of St Ouen, whose shrine at Rouen could win the pardon of one condemned criminal each year, Hone notes how the pains of the condemned were softened in many places, as with the wine and myrrh of the Jews and the dainties given to the condemned in Italian cities.
Touching for the King’s Evil No longer kept LondonOn 6 July 1660 John Evelyn watched Charles II begin to touch for the King's Evil, the scrofula that the royal touch was believed to cure.
Touching for the King’s Evil in May No longer kept England, LondonScrofula, the King's Evil, was believed to be cured by the touch of the sovereign.
Turn again, Whittington Lore and belief LondonEveryone knew, a Year Book writer said, how the bells of London had encouraged the young Dick Whittington as he left the city in despair, ringing out that he should turn again and be Lord Mayor of London.
Whitsun weddings at May Fair Chapel No longer kept LondonBefore the Marriage Act, Whitsuntide was one of the favourite seasons for marrying.

The year ahead

Tuesday 29 September 2026

Thursday 1 October 2026

Sunday 4 October 2026

Sunday 1 November 2026

Monday 9 November 2026

Thursday 12 November 2026

Monday 16 November 2026

Tuesday 17 November 2026

Sunday 22 November 2026

Monday 23 November 2026

Monday 30 November 2026

Saturday 5 December 2026

Thursday 24 December 2026

Saturday 26 December 2026

Monday 28 December 2026

Wednesday 6 January 2027

Sunday 17 January 2027

Monday 25 January 2027

Saturday 30 January 2027

Tuesday 9 February 2027

Wednesday 10 February 2027

Monday 1 March 2027

Sunday 21 March 2027

Friday 26 March 2027

Sunday 28 March 2027

Monday 29 March 2027

Thursday 1 April 2027

Friday 23 April 2027

Saturday 1 May 2027

Thursday 27 May 2027

Saturday 29 May 2027

Wednesday 9 June 2027

Friday 11 June 2027

Wednesday 23 June 2027

Sunday 27 June 2027

Monday 12 July 2027

Sunday 25 July 2027

Sunday 1 August 2027

Thursday 5 August 2027

Sunday 15 August 2027

Wednesday 18 August 2027

Tuesday 24 August 2027

Thursday 2 September 2027

Friday 3 September 2027

Tuesday 21 September 2027

Not tied to a day

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