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Have you ever been to a fair? Maybe it had yummy food, crafts, and games. Maybe it even had live animals or roller coaster rides. From the 1600s to the early 1800s, people in London, England went to fairs. But these fairs weren't always on land. They were also on ice! Known as Frost Fairs, these celebrations happened during the winter on a frozen river.
If you were in London during this time, you could go to a Frost Fair on the River Thames. The Thames is the main river that runs through the city. Frost fairs were often held on the area of the river near the London Bridge. The bridge slowed the water down, which made it easier for the water to freeze. Ice would then get stuck in between the bridge's narrow arches. The frozen river became a place where many people came to gather and played.
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Frost Fair on the Thames, with Old London Bridge in the distance, unknown artist, c. 1684.
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.
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What Would You Find on the Ice?
There were a lot of activities to choose from! Fiddlers played music. Puppet shows were performed on stages set up on boats that were frozen solid in the ice. People enjoyed skating and playing games like bowling. The ice was often snow-covered so it was easy to walk on. It was also solid enough for horses and carriages to drive on. There was entertainment with bears and even elephants!
Many booths were set up on the ice selling fun things. You could buy a yummy piece of gingerbread or order a meal from a sit-down restaurant set up under a huge tent. Many of the booths were like small stores and sold things like shoes or books.
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Frost Fair Souvenirs
Printers would move their large, heavy printing presses onto the ice to print special pieces of paper with the date of the Frost Fair. People could buy these and take them home to remember the fun they had on the ice. Sometimes, these pages would also have a short poem or the name of the king or queen. These keepsakes were often saved, and some are now collected in museums.
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Hereâs an example of a Frost Fair souvenir. It would have been printed on the ice.
Names of Royalty printed on the Thames at an Ice Fair, unknown artist, seventeenth century.
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.
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The Little Ice Age
The Frost Fairs in London took place during what is known as the âLittle Ice Age.â During the 1300s to 1800s, there were long periods when it was very cold. Scientists are still learning more about what caused these big changes in weather. The first record of people gathering on the River Thames for a Frost Fair was in the early 1600s. The last one was in 1814. Why did these wintertime fairs end? The milder climate meant the river was less likely to freeze. A new London Bridge was also built in 1831. This bridge allowed the water to flow faster underneath, and chunks of ice were less likely to get stuck under the bridge. The new bridge and the warmer weather put an end to Frost Fairs.
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How to Learn More about Frost Fairs
We can study primary sources that give us clues about what took place at Frost Fairs. Paintings and engravings of Frost Fairs show details. Magazine and newspaper articles published in the 1700s and 1800s in places like the London Chronicle tell us what it was like to attend the fairs. Several museums have collections related to Frost Fairs that we can look at online, such as The London Museum and the British Library.
Why is it valuable to learn about Frost Fairs? They tell us about what people did for fun centuries ago. They tell us about commerce and what people did to make money. And they help us learn more about climate.
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A View of Frost Fair, on the Thames, February 1814, unknown artist.
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.
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Create Your Own Fair!
Looking for a fun winter activity? Get the whole family involved and create a "frost fair." Set the fair up inside your home, backyard, or park. Make some yummy food and souvenirs to hand out to your guests. Maybe you can even put on a puppet show! Frost fairs were a time for people to have some fun on a cold winter's day.Â
Looking for some more wintertime activities? Don't forget to check out our kids magazine. Each issue is filled with stories and activities to guide kids on their adventures into the past.
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Photo by Stefan Pasch on Unsplash
Further Reading
Andrews, William. Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs in Great Britain. Chronicled from the earliest to the present time. London: George Redway, 1887.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55375/55375-h/55375-h.htm
Bowen, James P. 2018. âA Provincial Frost Fair: Urban Space, Sociability and Spectacle in Shrewsbury During the Great Frost of 1739.â Midland History 43 (1): 43â61. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047729X.2018.1461748.
Hufnagel, Silvia, SigurĂ°ardĂłttir, ĂĂłrunn, and Ălafsson, DavĂĂ°, eds. Paper Stories - Paper and Book History in Early Modern Europe. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2023. Accessed November 13, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.
London Museum. Frost Fairs: Festivities on a Frozen Winter Thames. Accessed November 13, 2024. https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/frost-fairs-festivities-frozen-river-thames/
Srigley, Michael. âThe Great Frost Fair of 1683-4.â History Today. December 1960. Accessed November 15, 2024. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/great-frost-fair-1683-4
Wohl, Ellen, Gerald Delahunty, Mark Fiege, Ana Maria Spagna, SueEllen Campbell, Alex Hunt, Richard Kerridge, and Tom Lynch. âClimate and Ice.â In The Face of the Earth: Natural Landscapes, Science, and Culture, 1st ed., 57â119. University of California Press, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pn6d6.5.