Frost Fairs

The location of public, English playhouses were built outside of the city of London, specifically in Southwark, due to many civic officials beings hostile to drama performances. Evading city jurisdiction was one of the varying draws to homes and playhouses being located outside city walls. While the theatre certainly brought early moderners to Southwark, other attractions concerning commerce such as the Frost Fairs on the Thames River also did as well.

With that said, I very much enjoyed our tour guide, David, who led us through the Southwark Cathedral today (and I can definitely see why Dr. Orvis would like a miniature version to answer London-related questions at all times). A piece of information from David that stuck with me from the tour was the mentioning of the Frost Fairs.

According to David, the only means of crossing the Thames in London was by use of the London Bridge. However, the current bridge is not the one David referred to while the present five-arch bridge is not located far from the original. The original bridge contained nineteen arches, and according to the plaques at the Globe Exhibition, “The arches through which the water flowed were so low and constrained that the tides were backed up and the water slowed, which in the coldest winters helped to make the river freeze”. Climatologists would call this the ‘little Ice Age of the early 17^th Century’. As David noted as well, this freezing caused immense shipping problems and many harbors went unused.

However, the climate led to the first Frost Fair occurring in 1621, with the Thames freezing several more times in the next two centuries. According to the Globe Exhibition, the most spectacular instance occurred in the winter of 1684, “when it was visited by King Charles II and his family—this fair included a street of booths stretching from one bank to the other, and a whole ox roasted on the ice”.

According to the article “Climate Over the Past Millennia, “River Thames freeze-overs (and sometimes frost fairs) only occurred 22 times between 1408 and 1814. After the bridge was replaced in the 1830s, the tide came farther upstream, and freezes no longer occurred, despite a number of exceptionally cold winters” (Climate). Despite the replacement of the bridge in the 1830’s, the final frost fair would be held on the Thames in 1814.

The freezing of the Thames appealed to some for fun and leisure through the celebration of the Frost Fair; however, according to Joseph P. Ward, “At the same time, London was taking on a more prominent role in international trade and international trade was becoming more influential in metropolitan life” (Thames). This evolution prompted water-borne exchange both on the north and south banks of the river, thus made residing outside the city walls highly plausible. With this, living and venturing outside of the city walls proved as a means of entertainment while being economically feasible.