Why the Thames Frost Fairs ended, 1814

Frost on the Thames, Samuel Collings, 1788-9.
Credit: Sharon Lathan

Using the ice for public leisure activities must have had a long and happy history for many Londoners. The River Thames has frozen over many times in the last 700 years, and a number of festivals known as the Thames Frost Fairs sprang up on the river. The first recorded time people took to the frozen riv­er for organised entertainments was 1309, but a frozen river was irregular and unpredictable. It only froze c1 year in 10, except for 4 winters during 1649-66.

The Frost Fair of 1683
The History Press

Until removing the medieval London Bridge in 1831, there were 24 winters in which the Thames in London had frozen over. The river froze more often upstream, beyond the reach of the tide, especially over the weirs. The last big freeze of the upper Thames was 1962–3.

In any case, the Thames did not totally freeze over in the London area for centuries. Clearly the river was wider and shallower pre-1831 AND it had not yet been embanked. But mostly the river had been impeded by the Old London Bridge structure. When chunks of ice got caught between the 20 arches, it slowed the water flow, making it more likely to freeze over (for up to two months at a time).

The first big Frost Fair was in winter 1607-8. Once the Thames froze, Fair traders grabbed their chance; dozens of shops popped up overnight. Unlicensed gambling, games, drinking and dancing were held at the fairs, along with stalls selling food and drink, skittle alleys and fair-ground rides. Cheap souvenirs were available and printers setting up their presses, making cards & popular sheet-music. Vendors sold a very hot, very alcohol made of wormwood wine and gin: purl. People enjoyed bull-baiting, puppet shows, bowling and ox-roasting. Boys played ice football games.

It was not until January that people started setting up camp on it. Pubs located on both banks of the river made a fortune during Frost Fairs. The most famous frost fair, Blanket Fair, was held in 1683-4. Diariest John Evelyn wrote that whole streets of booths were set out on the Thames. He crossed the ice to dine with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, and again in his coach, from Lambeth to the Horseferry at Millbank. The ice had now become so thick as to bear streets of booths in which they roasted meat, and diverse shops of wares (eg fruit, shoes, books and toys). Hackney coaches carried fares from Somerset House and the Temple to Southwark. Gallant men in fashionable dresses promenaded with wigs and swords; while ladies shopped briskly. The drink­ing tents were filled by female companions, dancing reels to the sound of fiddles, while others sat round large fires. Tea, coffee and edibles aplenty!

Londoners might have been rugged citizens back then, but even so, the Frost Fairs sometimes lasted only a few weeks, and only in cold wint­ers. People had to be aware of rapid thawing, and the potential loss of life and property eg in the fair of 1739 a whole band of ice sank and swallowed up tents, businesses and people. In 1789 a ship was anchored to a riverside pub in Rotherhithe, steadily tied until the ship swung in the melting night ice. The rigid cables carried away the beam, levelled the house & killed 5 people asleep.

Most were held between the C17th-early C19th in the Little Ice Age (C16th-19th), when the river most froze over, though still rarely. At that time, the British winter was more severe than it is now and the river was wider and slower, further impeded by 19 piers of the medieval Old London Bridge which were removed some years later.

Frost Fair on the River Thames London, 

print, 1814

The British Museum

The 1814 Fair, the worst winter in living memory, ended when the ice began to break Feb 5th, after only 4 days, resulting in deaths. Even though one of the highlights in 1814 had been an elephant being led across the ice to show the river was safe!! Nonetheless this was the last ever London Frost Fair! The Fairs stopped because A] the climate grew milder in 1815. And because of two other important events! B] Old London Bridge was demolished in 1831 and replaced with a new bridge with wider arches, allowing the tide to flow more freely; and C} the river was incrementally embanked later. All of this made the river less likely to freeze. When the new London Bridge opened in 1831, it only had 5 arches. So the Thames never froze over in London again, despite it reaching -20C in very cold winters.

As Europe began to emerge from the Little Ice Age, and globally temperatures began to rise, ice became an ever-rarer sight on the Thames. There was nearly a fair during the severe winter of 1881, when it was expected by many that a Frost Fair would again be held on the Thames. But no.

People on the frozen River Thames, Twickenham, 1881 but there was no Fair.

The National Archives,

The last time that the river fully froze over was in 1963, and although some Londoners took the opportunity to skate on the river, it could no longer host a Frost Fair on its surface.

Newly authenticated Rembrandt painting!!!

Rijksmuseum researchers recently analysed the Vision of Zacharias in the Temple 1633 and reported it's a Rembrandt van Rijn, painted when he'd moved from Leiden to Amsterdam. The work once rejected as a Rembrandt has now been authenticated, after 2 years of rugged scrutiny.

His vision of Zacharias depicted an account in the Gospel of Luke of the High Priest Zachariah  learning his barren elderly wife Elizabeth would bear a son, the future John the Baptist. Zachariah was captured while performing his Temple duties, reading scripture in front of burning incense, caught unawares. His expression conveyed his surprise as the Archangel Gabriel's news struck him dumb. Zachariah remained mute through the conception and pregnancy, regaining his speech after he agreed their son would be named John. Gabriel was not visible in the painting which only suggested his presence; the angel was unusually represented as radiant light in the upper right corner of the panel. This was an unusual approach at a time when angels were normally depicted as humans with wings. But remember Rembrandt at that time was primarily producing lucrative portraits, not Biblical scenes.

Vision of Zacharias in the Temple 

 by Rembrandt, 1633

Rijksmuseum

In the distant past it was attributed to Rembrandt, and appeared in the first major Dutch exhibition dedicated to him at the Stedelijk Museum in 1898. A 1898 label behind the panel noted the work was exhibited in Sept-Oct as an authentic Rembrandt. But after 1960, specialists decided the work might have been painted by one of Rembrandt’s collaborators such as Jan Lievens, according to Dutch news outlet Het Parool. Without being able to view the work, these claims could not be verified until two years ago.

In 1960, Rembrandt specialists rejected the attribution and the work disappeared. Scholars weren’t permitted to study it until 2 years ago when the owner contacted the museum. The Rijksmuseum unveiled the work and said painstaking analysis and hightech scans had confirmed it was painted by Rembrandt after the young artist moved to Amsterdam. The painting hasn’t been on public display in decades after being bought by a private collector in 1961, a year after it was not called a Rembrandt. Vision of Zacharias was last studied in 1960 when scholars ruled out the possibility that it could be by the Dutch master. Why was the painting excluded from a list of the Dutch master's works in 1960 and why did it disappear after being sold to a private collector in 1961. Although it hasn’t seen publicly since 1961, specialists have recently access to a much wider range of advanced modern analysis techniques.

The work was handed to the museum’s Conservation Dept, which was recently responsible for Operation Night Watch, the museum’s ambitious research & conservation project. As well as traditional stylistic comparisons and signature analysis, the 2-year research project centred around a macro X-ray fluorescence scans. It found traces revealing the composition had been altered, typical of the Dutch Old Master’s painting technique. This deep study of the work, including a scan and comparisons with his other works, confirmed young Rembrandt painted it.

Evidence

The recent 2-year study revealed that all the paints used for the Vision of Zacharias were found in other Rembrandts from the early 1630s. The museum confirmed the authenticity after studying the paints, which fit with those used by Rembrandt during that period. The painting technique and the build-up of paint layers were similar to other early works by Rembrandt, compositional changes that supported the work’s authenticity. The changes made to details while Rembrandt was still painting were analysed; the artist’s signature was applied while the painting was still wet, so it was original. Material analysis, stylistic and thematic similarities, alterations made by Rembrandt, and the overall quality of the painting all support the conclusion that this painting is a genuine work. The very high quality painting had all the hall marks of Rembrandt at the peak of his early career. Rijksmuseum’s director unveiled the painting, on show to the public among their other masterpieces, where it is on long-term loan.

 

Dating analysis of the wooden panel confirmed the wood that was used for the panel on which it was painted was definitely from a tree that was cut down before 1633. The work’s oak panel was dated to c1625-40 by tree-ring dating. A material analysis showed that the paints used were the same as those used in other Rembrandt works from the era. Other factors that support the authentication of this painting include its overall high quality and its thematic parallels with the rest of Rembrandt’s early oeuvre, including Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem 1630 and Daniel and Cyrus Before the Idol Bel 1633 

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem 

by Rembrandt 1630 

ArtWay

Zacharias' surprised look was emphasised by light marking the arrival of Gabriel. An in-depth study of the work, including macro X-ray fluorescence scans and comparisons with other works by the artist, confirmed Rembrandt painted it, said the museum’s curator of C17th Dutch paintings, Jonathan Bikker. All the pigments in the painting were used by Rembrandt in other paintings. 

Daniel and Cyrus Before the Idol Bel, 

by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633 

Getty Museum

The work joined c350 known Rembrandt paintings. See March 2026 issue of the Burlington Magazine. Thanks to Rijksmuseum identifies new Rembrandt painting, 2026

Operation Pied Piper, London bombs

 In 1939, a year before the Blitz started, the government knew Greater London would become an air-raid target. The media pred­ic­ted 4 million people could die in Lon­don, so the gov­ern­ment collected coffins and plan­ned a mass evac­uat­ion. The evacuation early in WW2 was the most concentrated mass movement in British history. Just in early Sept 1939, 3 mill people were transported from endangered urban areas.

Still in London, all school children were fitted with gas masks and ran raid drills. 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons. 

Parents lined up waving to their children packed on the trains in Paddington Station.

Credit: The Daily Mail. 

Children wait for the next trains in Paddington Station.

Credit: Imperial War Museum 

 
Sin­ce many par­ents had to continue working, only their children could be sent away. The military beg­an Operation Pied Piper when 100,000+ tea­chers gath­ered millions of child­ren in/near Lon­d­on, putting them on trains. It was a huge, logistical issue of co-ordination and control, backed by the government order of late Aug 1939.

BBC announced the school children were aged 3-13. Each child car­ried a gas mask, food, clothing and neck tags with nam­e and addres­s. There were far too many children to leave in the same evacuation day, so police and LCC school off­icials saw that an avenue to their plat­form was kept free for the children. 10,000 children left New Cross Gate Southern Station, Aldgate Metrop­olitan or Paddington.

Middle-class families had already arr­an­g­­ed to send their chil­dren to live in their summer cottages, with friends and family. Or to boarding schools. But nearly everyone else had very sad memories when they left! To avoid pan­ic, parents were ord­ered not to tell the young child­ren the truth, so the kids thought that they were just going on a short school trip. Music teach­ers lightened the mood when the child­ren sang cheer­ful tra­v­el songs eg Doing The Lambeth Walk, Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye.

This was followed by evacuation of toddlers and their mums, expect­ant mums, blind and any physically handicapped peop­le who’d rec­eived their evacuation instructions. Hospital evacuat­ions also went smoothly. Along St Thomas' Hospital corridors, medical st­ud­ents wheeled 70 patients who were not seriously ill in their beds to two centres on stretchers. And many babies were among the first batch of patients removed from Guy's and Charing Cross Hospitals.

Evacuation of London schoolchildren went quite well. They cheerfully left their parents and jumped aboard for unknown but adventurous dest­inations. Once they arrived in their new towns, bill­eting officers lined the children up against a wall in the vill­age hall while local women walked around, until the children were all chosen to stay with foster parents.

Children arriving at their destination, carrying their belongings in suitcases. 

Credit: Defence Media Network. 

When children first arrived in the new town, they were fed in community centres 

Credit: The History Vault 

With such a massive operation, naturally not ev­ery­thing was perf­ect. Parents assumed that the government had already arranged foster homes, but they really had no idea where their children would be liv­ing. Thus the children were urged to write letters as soon as poss­ib­le. And even though all the chil­dren eventually learned that their parents had sent them away for their own safety, they still had to live with the fear that the family left behind in London might die.

Some of the local women sent to select foster children were apathetic, doing it only as their duty. Some foster child­ren were given food to eat and a place to sleep separate from their new families. Some families physically ab­used foster children or stole their ration-cards. Thankfully research suggested only a small min­or­ity (12%) was ill-treated.

Many of these children spent 6 years of their young lives, living away from home with strang­ers. As it happened, many Lon­don children settled happily and maintained those links long after the war ended. Going to the cinema, learning to bake bread and camping.. remained fond memor­ies. For many it was a life-enhancing, mind-broadening experience.

The first bombs to drop on London landed in Aug 1940, affecting Har­r­ow etc within the London Civil Defence Area. London’s docks suff­er­ed from Day 1 of the Blitz, when German planes drop­ped 337 tons of bombs. Throughout the Blitz, ending in May 1941, the poorest families of the East End suffered the worst, from bombs and from fires. 448 civ­il­­ians were killed that last day.

Towards the end of the war, during 1944/45, London came under heavy attack again by pilotless rockets, fired from Nazi occup­ied Europe. V1-2 flying bomb-drones landed in Mile End in June 1944 and continued for months. Thousands of Londoners were killed.

By Oct 1944 the government were planning for the Oper­ation Pied Pip­er children to return home to London and their own parents. Had the danger had passed yet? It took months to create the Op­er­ate Lon­don Return Plan when the Ministry of Health had to arrange free tran­s­p­or­t­­at­ion in trains. They were given health check-ups and food ration cards. Some of the children had grown into teenagers, and they needed to be set up with jobs when they returned home. Bec­ause of all this planning, the return of evacuees was only approved in June 1945, officially ending March 1946.

Some toddlers were only 2-3 years old when they had left their own par­ents, so they had grown up feeling as if their rural foster fam­ily was their real home, and they did not want to leave. For these child­ren, the government put an emphasis on programmes like the Boy and Girl Scouts to help them re-adjust back to big-city life.

Children running towards their parents as they returned home to London. 

Credit: Getty Images 

Post WW2, the government failed to locate the par­ents of 13,250 evacuees in London, most likely because they died during the war. And sadly, for the 15% of children who were abused by their foster famil­ies, there was no plan to get them professional help. Only later did ther­apists realise just how traumatic the experiences had been.

Conclusion
Casualties estimates in 1939 were over-exaggerated, so Government propaganda caused panic, not controlled move­ment. But Oper­at­ion Pied Piper was very successful, saving thous­ands of lives. And while the children who escaped had to endure their own traumas, mostly they enjoyed a better education and quality of life com­pared to what they would have enjoyed in London in the war. Credit: Operation Pied Piper: Mass Evacuation of Children in London in WW2 by Shannon Quinn for the history and photos 

Great Emu War Australia 1932 - not a joke!

A flock of 20,000 hungry emus

WA, 1932

photo credit: Footnoting History

 

In the years following WW1, the Australian Government struggled to find work for their ex-servicemen to do on returning home. From 1915 a Soldier Settlement Scheme began to be rolled out across all states, and event­ual­ly it saw c5,030 ex-soldiers given plots of land to con­vert into working farms, primarily to cultivate wheat and sheep. By Sep 1920, the government had purchased 90,000 hectares for the ex-servicemen but still needed more. So they started placing returning soldiers in marginal areas of Perth in W.A, even though setting up a successful farm with little experience in a good area would not have been easy. Plus the ex-servicemen struggled even more when the Great Depression hit in 1929, as wheat prices plunged. Alas the government’s promised subsidies for wheat never came.

Aust­ralian emus had been a protected native spec­ies up until 1922 when they started to destroyed the fences around wheat farms and ate or trampled the wheat. Thus they were officially reclas­sified as vermin. In summer 1932, a flock of 20,000 6’, hungry birds migrated from the coastal regions to inland regions, looking for food and to breed. By late 1932, they were wreaking havoc on the marginal wheat farms owned by the ex-servicemen.

A group of local ex-soldiers were sent to speak with the Minister of Defence. These farmers had no access to the nec­essary ammunition, so they called on the Aust­ralian military to act and soldiers were sent to the region with mach­ine guns!! Being ex-mil­it­ary, the farm­ers were very aware of how eff­ect­ive mac­hine guns would be.

Led by Major GPW Meredith, 7th Battery of Royal Austr­al­ian Artillery, the army set out in Nov 1932, certain to gun down birds in one district. The soldiers moved in formation behind the birds, and the birds immediately scattered in all di­r­ect­ions - emus cannot fly but they can run VERY quickly. 2 days lat­er, hidden gunners sighted 1,000 emus nearby and waited patiently for them to arrive. The soldiers open fired at short range, killing 10-12 emus, while the others re-scatt­ered. The media noted: Each emu mob has its lead­er, always an en­or­mous black-plumed bird standing fully 6’ high, who kept watch while his fellows busied them­selves with the wheat. As soon as he gave the signal, the leader always remained until his followers reach­ed safety.

WW1 Lewis machine gun

used against the emus in W.A

credit: Wikimedia Commons

On 8th Nov 1932, it was reported that Maj Mered­ith’s party had used 2,500 rounds of ammunition (25% of the all­otted total) to destroy 200 emus. The Australian House of Repres­entatives discussed the military operat­ion and following the humiliating negative coverage of the Emu War in the local media, the army withdrew the military personnel and machine guns! Instead the government decided to prov­ide the ammunition that the locals need­ed to take care of the problem th­emselves, and 57,034 emus were killed over six months. The Journal of Aus­tr­al­ian Studies suggested it could have been a pro­p­a­ganda exercise to show that the government was supp­orting its strugg­ling war heroes. But I would have been more worried about physically and psychiatrically damaged WW1 soldiers being given machine guns again ☹

Australian coat of arms

starring the kangaroo and the emu

 

The emu still takes its place of pride on the Australian coat of arms with our other native, the kangaroo, having had its status as a protected animal reinstated. The emu population across Australia is c600,000-700,000+, not in danger of dying out. But conservation­ists are working to save several specific populations greatly at risk, especially in NSW.

Emus are very large, flightless birds and the massive number of emus was causing concern to local farmers. I have no doubt that the West­ern Australian farmers were facing hard times with their crops foll­owing the Great Depres­sion, and their difficulties greatly in­creased with the arrival of c20,000 emus migrating inland in their breeding season. But these birds are in­digenous to Australia, prot­ected and importantly symbolic. So the Great Emu War of Australia was both underst­and­able and unforgivable! At least they could have given the emu meat, which is both healthy and tasty, to families starving during the Depression.

The birds still remain plentiful in the areas outside Perth, so in some sense the War was also futile. Conservationists were clearly unhappy and hoped that problematic wildlife management would never involve machine guns again! So I am pleased to note that, although in the following years farmers requested assistance from the army again, the government did refuse!

Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria, 2010

Wikimedia Commons