Pearly Kings and Queens, known as pearlies, are an organised charitable tradition of working-class culture in London, England. [1] [2]
The practice of wearing clothes decorated with mother-of-pearl buttons [1] is first associated with Henry Croft (1861–1930), an orphan street sweeper who collected money for charity. At the time, London costermongers (street traders) were in the habit of wearing trousers decorated at the seams with pearl buttons that had been found by market traders. In the late 1870s, Croft adapted this to create a sequin suit to draw attention to himself and aid his fund-raising activities. [3] [4] In 1911 an organised pearly society was formed in Finchley, north London. [1]
Croft's funeral in January 1930 was attended by 400 followers [1] and received national media coverage. [5] In 1934 a memorial, referring to him as "The original Pearly King", was unveiled in St Pancras Cemetery, and in a speech to mark the occasion he was said to have raised £5,000 for those suffering in London's hospitals. [6]
The pearlies are now divided into several active groups. Croft's founding organisation is called the Original London Pearly Kings and Queens Association. It was reformed in 1975 [1] [3] and holds the majority of the original pearly titles which are City of London, Westminster, Victoria, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Shoreditch, Islington, Dalston and Hoxton. Other groups have also been established over the years. The oldest is the Pearly Guild, which began in 1902. [1] [7] Modern additions include the London Pearly Kings and Queens Society, which started in 2001 [1] [4] and the Pearly Kings and Queens Guild. [8] Despite the rivalries, each group is associated with a church in central London and is committed to raising money for London-based charities. [1] A parade of real-life Pearly Kings and Queens was featured at the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony. [9]
King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kingdom and the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line to Yorkshire and the Humber, North East England and Scotland. Adjacent to King's Cross station is St Pancras International, the London terminus for Eurostar services to continental Europe. Beneath both main line stations is King's Cross St Pancras tube station on the London Underground; combined, they form one of the country's largest and busiest transport hubs.
Kings Cross is a district on either side of Euston Road, in north London, England, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Charing Cross. It is bordered by Barnsbury to the north, Clerkenwell and Islington to the east, Holborn to the south and Euston to the west. It is served by two major rail termini, St Pancras and King's Cross. King's Cross station is the terminus of one of the major rail routes between London and the North.
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King's Cross St Pancras is a London Underground station on Euston Road in the Borough of Camden, Central London. It serves King's Cross and St Pancras main line stations in fare zone 1, and is an interchange between six Underground lines. The station was one of the first to open on the network. As of 2021, it is the most used station on the network for passenger entrances and exits combined.
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Pearl Binder, Baroness Elwyn-Jones was a British writer, illustrator, stained-glass artist, lithographer, sculptor and a champion of the Pearly Kings and Queens.
St Pancras and Islington Cemetery is a cemetery in East Finchley, North London. Although it is situated in the London Borough of Barnet, it is run as two cemeteries, owned by two other London Boroughs, Camden and Islington. The fence along the boundary which runs west to east between the two parts of the cemetery has been removed, although the line of it is still marked.
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Henry Croft was a road sweeper in London and founder of the working class tradition of Pearly Kings and Queens.
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Kitab al Kanuz, sometimes called The Book of Hidden Pearls, is a lost medieval Arabic manuscript from the 15th century. The manuscript is a hunter's guide noted for its mention of the Zerzura oasis. The author and exact dating of the manuscript are unknown.
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London Pearly Kings and Queens Society established.