Horn Fair

A three-day fair was held at Charlton on St Luke’s Day, where visitors wore horns in their hats and rams’ horns, horn toys and even horned gingerbread were sold. Crowds used to march from Cuckold’s Point near Deptford through Greenwich to Charlton, many of the men dressed in women’s clothes, and the saying went that all was fair at Horn Fair. Hone suggested the horns came from the horned ox that stands for St Luke, which could still be seen in the church windows. By 1825 the procession had stopped but the masks and horns carried on.