please empty your brain below
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I had no idea that this was the etymology of “Goose Fair”.
dg writes: It isn't.
Nottingham still has an annual Goose Fair and the Wikipedia page claims it is named after... geese.
Dan | 01.05.18 - 7:15 a.m. | #
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Behaviour at the Notting Hill carnival must earn it a dishonourable mention.
Christopher Bellew | Homepage | 01.05.18 - 7:23 a.m. | #
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Some beautiful prose today DG, plus I am all for tales of historical drinking and wenching
MO | 01.05.18 - 7:28 a.m. | #
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Ass racing: has to be worth a 21st century reboot.
Waterhouse | 01.05.18 - 7:51 a.m. | #
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Fascinating, thanks. Several other historic London fairs disappeared (suppressed due to disorder) in the 18th and 19th centuries, including Bartholomew Fair in Smithfield in August, and Southwark Fair in September.
Andrew | 01.05.18 - 7:51 a.m. | #
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Rowdyism and vice never disappeared, it moved to the seaside when the railways opened, and is readily available Friday and Saturday nights in many areas with student populations.
Remember the fights between mods and rockers on Bank Holidays back in the so called 'good old days'?
Still Anon | 01.05.18 - 7:53 a.m. | #
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saying that Shepherd Market has "never quite shaken off its reputation as a haunt for shady backhand deals and prostitutes" ... maybe the open doorways with red lights around the market suggests that it's not just a "reputation" !
ADS | Homepage | 01.05.18 - 9:04 a.m. | #
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As well as the writing, I love the map of 'the village of Charing'.
Pedantic of Purley | 01.05.18 - 9:32 a.m. | #
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So how is sausage-table a sport? Eat as much as you can?
Greg S | 01.05.18 - 9:46 a.m. | #
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I'm going to agitate for grinning for a hat to be included in the next Olympics.
Jonathan Wadman | 01.05.18 - 9:57 a.m. | #
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When I was a kid growing up in Stepney (late 60s/early70s) the woman who lived in the flat opposite to ours had special needs. A bus would pick her up most days to take her to Kitcat Terrace to do some sort of work/occupational therapy. So, in those less enlightened days, Kitcat Terrace was in our childhood eyes a place to be slightly frightened of, much in the way that we were frightened - and often threatened with - St Clements. Some things have certainly changed for the better.
Joan | 01.05.18 - 10:55 a.m. | #
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"..grinning for a hat.."
Has anyone any idea what this would have actually entailed?
Frank F | 01.05.18 - 1:33 p.m. | #
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Great post. I suppose the original name of the Bow fair must be commemorated by the Green Goose pub (formerly the Lord Cardigan), just around the corner off Tredegar Road. I had been wondering for some time where the pub's new name came from...
andrew4 | 01.05.18 - 2:22 p.m. | #
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eel-divers???
Leuconoe | 01.05.18 - 5:42 p.m. | #
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Those of you enquiring about sausage-tables, grinning for a hat and eel-divers... have you ever considered using Google?
(Google is no help whatsoever in these three cases, alas)
diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.05.18 - 6:02 p.m. | #
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Thank you DG. An interesting, beautifully written an educational post. I'd never really thought why Mayfair is called that, and now I know.
Jon Combe | 01.05.18 - 8:17 p.m. | #
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Grinning for a hat: The Oxford English Dictionary defines 'grinning-match' as 'a competition in grinning or grimacing' and illustrates it with an 1801 quotation: 'The Grinning Match is performed by two or more persons ... each of them having his head thrust through a horse's collar'. I presume a hat was the prize for winning.
Nothing, however, for sausage-tables or eel-divers.
M | 01.05.18 - 11:24 p.m. | #
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No cock-throwing or fox-tossing?
Google can help with grinning for a hat, if you are careful with your search terms. Seems to be a a sort of gurning competition, where the prize was ... a hat. Similarly, running for a shift was a widespread, popular and very competitive running race for young women in their underclothes, where the prize was more underwear. The hasty pudding eaters competed to be the first to consume a scalding hot dessert made from grains and milk.
At a guess, eel-diving was either an alternative name for eel-pulling (where the slimy fish is strung up, and people would compete to jump up and pull it free) or a fishy form of apple-bobbing.
Was the sausage table just a vendor of hot minced meat in handy packages, or something more exciting?
Andrew | 01.05.18 - 11:25 p.m. | #
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