Folklore of London

1 May

Folklore from the old calendars

A show of ladies in Hyde Park on May Day No longer kept LondonThe London season was reckoned to begin on the first of May, when fashionable society crowded into Hyde Park, the Mall and Spring Garden.
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.
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.
May Fair in Piccadilly No longer kept LondonThe fair that gave Mayfair its name was held near Piccadilly through the month of May.
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 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.
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 milkmaids’ cow with gilded horns No longer kept LondonSome London milkmaids went round their customers on May Day with a cow instead of the usual pyramid of borrowed silver plate.
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 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 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.
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 Strand maypole No longer kept LondonParliament ordered every maypole in England and Wales taken down in 1644.
The sweeps’ garland and Jack-in-the-green Still kept LondonMay Day was the great festival of London's chimney sweeps.

Folklore of London

1 May

1 May, not tied to the day

8 May, not tied to the day

Ascension Day

14 May

18 May, not tied to the day

Whit Monday, not tied to the day

Whit Monday

26 May, not tied to the day

Image credits