A FROZEN THAMES

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 March 1934, Page 9

A FROZEN THAMES

THRILLS FOR LONDON

This is the time of the year when, according to the meteorological records, we must expect the greatest cold, and, true to tradition, it has put in an appearance, wrote , a correspondent recently in the London “Observer.” Perhaps it has come to stay, and, if so, we may experience a real old-fashioned winter, of the type last witnessed in this country in 1894-95, when the frost lasted from January till March, and most of the rivers were frozen over, including the Thames —up to Richmond, where a four-in-hand was driven across the ice without mishap. But even. that winter was by no means a record for extreme cold; there have been Several occasions when the Thames has been frozen over at London Bridge, and it is always possible that that magnificent spectacle may occur again and give present-day Londoners the thrill of their lives—in being able to cross the Thames on foot! Just before" the itme of the Norman Conquest the Thames was frozen over a period of fourteen weeks, and nearly four hundred years later, in 1434, it was frozen from Gravesend to London Bridge. This seems to have been the most severe frost, in this respect, of which.there is any record. The old chronicler, Hollinshed, relates that in 1564 people went .over and along the ice on the Thames from London Bridge to Westminster, and he adds that “some played at the football there as boldly as if it had been on dry land.” In Pcpys’ Diary we find the following entry in the January of 1667: “Lay long, being a bitter cold, frosty morning, and the frost being now grown old, and the Thames covered with ice.” As Pepys was then living in Seething Lane, in all probability he meant that the Thames near there was frozen over from shore to shore.

ICE FAIR A few years later in 1681, another diarist. John Evelyn, tells us that there was a seven weeks’ frost, which caused the Thames to freeze over with ice a foot and a-half thick. Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple and there was a regular fair on the ice. whore all sorts of commodities were sold in booths, and there were such amusements as puppet, shows, bull baiting, horse and coach racing, and “sliding with skates.” Actually a printing press was set up on the frozen river, and the enterprising printer, who owned it, reaped a rich harvest while the frost lasted by printing people’s names, at sixpence a line, on strips of paper, to which he added the address of “Thames Frost Fair”! It is on record that King Charles visited the Frost Fair on one occasion, with h'is brother, the Duke of York, and tlie Queen, and the whole of his family, and all of them had their names printed, from which we learn that this was done “by George Croomc, on the Ice, on the River of Thames, January 31. 1681.”

A fair similar to that already described was held on the frozen Thames in 1716, when the cold spell lasted from November 24 until February 5, .and an ox was roasted whole on the ice, and in 1740 a number of people lived in tents on the frozen Thames for several 'weeks! Again, in 1789, the Thames was frozen over,

and in 1814, in which year a fail was once more held on the river. But this was the last occasion on which the river afforded such an exciting spectacle, for although in 1838, the year after Queen Victoria’s accession, the Thames was blocked with ice from January 7 Until February, no fair was held upon it.