{"id":22701,"date":"2022-12-22T11:29:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T11:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=22701"},"modified":"2022-12-22T11:29:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T11:29:28","slug":"todays-winter-wonderlands-have-roots-in-jacobean-and-georgian-frost-fairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/todays-winter-wonderlands-have-roots-in-jacobean-and-georgian-frost-fairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s winter wonderlands have roots in Jacobean and Georgian frost\u00a0fairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Clare Taylor<\/a> is a senior lecturer in art history at the OU – here she gives an insight into the origins of winter wonderlands and tells us how they became so popular.<\/em><\/p>\n

Skating rinks, funfairs and booths serving hot food and drink spring up across many cities in December. But these festivities aren\u2019t a modern phenomenon \u2013 they\u2019re rooted in the frost fairs<\/a> of our past, held on London\u2019s River Thames from the 1600s until 1814.<\/p>\n

Frost fairs are associated with the \u201clittle ice age\u201d<\/a> \u2013 the long periods of bitter European winters between the 14th and 19th centuries. Although climatic conditions enabled the ice to freeze in a certain way, they weren\u2019t the only part of the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"An

London\u2019s modern day Winter Wonderland, held in Hyde Park, attracts 2.5 million visitors every year.\u00a0 \u00a0 Shutterstock<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

Frost fairs presented economic opportunities during times of hardship. Tented encampments sprung up across the River Thames to house the city\u2019s imperative \u2013 trade.<\/p>\n

A printed description of the fair of 1683 noted that visitors could sit by a charcoal fire with \u201ca dish of Coffee, Chocalet, or Tea\u201d<\/a>, suggesting that they enjoyed these hot beverages just as much as we do today.<\/p>\n

Makers and sellers of all manner of goods set up stall on the ice, including weavers with their looms and sellers of lottery tickets and toys.<\/p>\n

Toy sellers\u2019 goods were not meant for children \u2013 they sold luxurious miniature objects to be enjoyed by adults. One such is a tiny glass mug less than six centimetres tall which is now displayed at London\u2019s Victoria and Albert Museum. This is a souvenir not only of drinking ale in a tavern on the ice, but also celebrating the recently established Southwark glass industry. The industry\u2019s smoking chimneys were Thames-side landmarks.<\/p>\n

Entertainment worthy of royalty<\/h2>\n
\"The<\/a>

A leaflet from the 1716 Frost Fair on the Thames showing a skater who has slipped on the ice. \u00a9 The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC<\/p><\/div>\n

Royal endorsement was important for the frost fairs\u2019 success.<\/p>\n

The names of Charles II and the royal family were recorded on a souvenir card<\/a> printed during the final days of the 1683 fair. The list of names includes Hans in Kelder<\/em> (Jack-in-the-Box) \u2013 the unborn child of the pregnant princess (later Queen) Anne.<\/p>\n

However, the fairs were not just about royal visitors. Everyone and anyone seemed to want to link their name to the ice.<\/p>\n

In an era before the selfie, printers\u2019 booths produced cards with a person\u2019s name, sometimes attached to a view of the fair or a portrait of a well known figure.<\/p>\n

The crucial function of this card was verifying the location. They featured messages such as \u201cPrinted upon the ice on the Thames\u201d, followed by the day, month and year.<\/p>\n

Picturing the icebound river<\/h2>\n

Painters and printers produced views of the fairs, often taken from the bank or from a midway point in the river looking towards Old London Bridge.<\/p>\n

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\"Newspaper

Printed page of Great Britain\u2019s Wonder. \u00a9 The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

Print titles such as Great Britain\u2019s Wonder reflected contemporary fascination with the transformation of the river.<\/p>\n

Some activities, such as bear baiting, are repugnant to us today. Others have endured, including football \u2013 which was popular, even though players risked \u201cbroken shins\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some sports specific to the ice likely originated elsewhere, reflecting London\u2019s diverse population. These included skating, which was associated with \u201cDutch-men\u201d<\/a> who \u201cin their skates did swiftly slide\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prints also showed sledges loaded with wood, corn and coal being hauled across the ice \u2013 supplies which hugely increased in price during frost fairs.<\/p>\n

What these artworks rarely show are the dangers of the ice and the economic hardship it brought, particularly to those who could not afford the inflated prices of food and fuel as a result of the freeze.<\/p>\n

Danger on the ice<\/h2>\n

Frost Fairs also created opportunities for unregulated behaviour. One print of the 1739 fair warned that it was frequented by \u201cGamesters, and Thieves\u201d<\/a> while another showed<\/a> a young woman trying to break up a fight between two men.<\/p>\n

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\"View

An etching depicting some of the entertainments and dangers of the Frost Fairs. \u00a9 The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1684 a ballad was written about the \u201cmerry Pranks plaid on the River Thames during the great Frost\u201d<\/a>. It warned of being there under \u201cmoonshine\u201d, when \u201cslippery things have bin done on the ice\u201d.<\/figure>\n

This is likely a reference to unregulated sexual behaviour and the presence of pickpockets.<\/p>\n

The evolution of the frost fair<\/h2>\n
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\"A<\/a>

Advertisement leaflet for the Glaciarum. \u00a9 The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t just warmer winters that brought an end to the fairs. The demolition and rebuilding of London Bridge meant the River Thames no longer trapped the ice and tide.<\/p>\n

By the 1840s, new technologies were producing artificial ice. A \u201cglaciarium\u201d opened in London in 1843 and was pictured as an altogether more refined event<\/a>, with a viewing gallery and Alpine inspired scenery around the rink.<\/p>\n

Winter wonderlands are nothing new. Today\u2019s cities are adapting the frost fairs of old to recreate the experience of being in a frozen environment in winter \u2013 a reality which is becoming increasingly rare.<\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main picture credit: Everett Collection for Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Clare Taylor is a senior lecturer in art history at the OU – here she gives an insight into the origins of winter wonderlands and tells us how they became so popular. Skating rinks, funfairs and booths serving hot food and drink spring up across many cities in December. But these festivities aren\u2019t a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":22702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[858,869,1525,1643],"class_list":["post-22701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-social-sciences","tag-faculty-of-arts-and-social-sciences","tag-fass","tag-news-home","tag-ou-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}