One of the most colourful sights in London today is the band of pearly kings and queens who turn up at numerous charitable events in their distinctive, glittering outfits.
The tradition of pearly royalty in the capital evolved from the costermongers, or street traders, who first appeared at London’s Cheapside market near the Church of St Mary-le-Bow, in the 10th century. Taking their name from ‘costard’, a variety of apple, the costers in fact sold all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as flowers, meat, fish and a variety of miscellaneous goods. They were known for their playful banter, their noisy street cries and the carts they used for transporting and selling their wares.
The market traders were looked down upon by the upper echelons of society, and all those who eked out a living within the sound of the Bow bells were nicknamed ‘Cockney’ – an insulting term adapted from the 12th-century word ‘cokeney’, meaning a cock’s egg. The costermongers, rather perversely, seized on the name with relish and devised their own secret language to fool the authorities, a ‘back-slang’ that was a precursor of the famous Cockney rhyming slang. Eventually, they also developed their own distinctive dress code, with brass or pearl buttons sewn into the seams of their corduroy trousers, waistcoats, jackets and caps, reputedly after a cargo of pearl buttons arrived from Japan in the 1860s.
In the 1870s Henry Croft, a street sweeper, began wearing a head-to-toe pearly suit, inspired by the local costermongers, to raise money for the orphanage where he grew up, as well as other local workhouses and hospitals. It is estimated that he and the costermongers raised a total of £5,000 before his death in 1930, equivalent to more than £200,000 today.
Soon the costermongers were copying his pearly outfits. Two distinctive types of outfit emerged – the Smother Suit, which was completely covered in buttons, and the Skeleton Suit, which featured buttons arranged in patterns. The costers’ own market districts were incorporated into the designs, along with other symbols: a horseshoe for luck, an anchor for hope, a heart for charity and a flower pot or a donkey cart to represent the costermongers themselves.
Later suits featured the pearly motto, ‘One Never Knows’. Believed to have originated with Bill Davison (1895-1975), the first Pearly King of Wapping, the motto encapsulates the pearlies’ belief in helping others because you never know whether one day you might be the one needing help.
In the early half of the 20th century, there were 400 pearly kings and queens in London. By the 1960s, this number had dwindled due to the ravages of the Second World War, and the pearly monarchy was in danger of dying out.
Croft founded the Original London Pearly Kings and Queens Association, which holds the titles of Pearly King and Queen of City of London, Westminster, Victoria, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Shoreditch, Islington, Dalston and Hoxton. Other groups have also been established over the years. Each group is associated with a church in central London and raises money for London-based charities.
Today they are thriving once again, and pearly kings and queens can be seen at major occasions such as the Lord Mayor’s Parade on New Year’s Day, Derby Day at Epsom and the Remembrance Day Service at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. They also hold their own annual harvest festivals in September and October.
There are currently around 40 pearly families in London, most of whom can trace their ancestry back to the original pearly generation.