A Future King?

A pearly lad with tons of confidence.

Pearlies

The other royalty of London.  Dating from 1875 the costermongers sewed shiny buttons down the side of their trousers to stand out in the busy market streets.  A young orphan street sweeper named Henry Croft went one step further and sewed the buttons on his hat.  From there it grew until now the entire cloth of their garments are covered in buttons.  Don't be filled into thinking anyone can become a Pearly by donning a shining coat, no to be a real Pearly your title is handed down from generation to generation.  There are 28 distinguished Pearly families, one for each of the London boroughs.
Twenty first century Pearlies spend their time raising money for charities.

Pearly Bag

And the perfect handbag for a pearly queen.

Pearlies Harvest Festival

Tomorrow the Pearly community celebrates their annual harvest festival.  A very colourful event steeped in tradition. Expect colourful costumes and maybe a Morris dance or two. 
 Details of the event are on their website.

Hats Galore

The Pearlie's originated in 1875 (or thereabouts) and where costersmongers, (the name given to fruit and vegetable vendors). They decorated their suits with a row of pearl buttons, said to have arrived on a ship from Japan. As time has gone by the costumes have become more elaborate each with a story to tell.
A costume today can have as many as 30,000 buttons sewn on to and weigh 30kg.

At the moment it is the harvest festival time with several festivals if you want to catch a glimpse of the glamour. Next festival is at St Paul's on 10 October.

Now for another hat. The red hat where prize winners are selected for competitions on aglimpseoflondon.

The winner of Luke's album

and then some
is Angie.

Thanks everyone who entered. If you're in London tonight remember you can catch Luke at the legendary Catweazle club's performance space at the North London Tavern

Pearly Royalty

The harvest festival celebrated by Pearly royalty and the various mayors of the East London boroughs was celebrated at guild hall yesterday.
These three look very fine in their 'whistle and flutes'.

Their what? Aha an introduction to Cockney rhyming slang, the language of east enders originating in the 19th century.
So what is whistle and flute? Suit.