Henry Croft

 

I love folk history and costumes and have had a long interest in the Pearly Kings and Queens of London, with their amazing intricate and wild button decorated clothing.  Folk traditions are hard to find documentation for, but it seems the thrust of this tradition was Henry Croft (1861-1930) above. 

Henry Croft  was an orphaned 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. In the late 1870s, Croft adapted this to create a button suit to draw attention to himself and assist his fund-raising activities. 

In 1911 an organised pearly society was formed in Finchley, north London.

Henry Croft's funeral in January 1930 was attended by 400 followers and received national media coverage. In 1934, a memorial referring to Croft 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 a vast sum in those days, for those suffering in London's hospitals.

"As autumn is the time when the Coster royal families of London overhaul the pearly suits after the summer season .Mr H G Tabram, of Holborn, the original Pearly King of London, and his family are having a visit. Pearly suits have from 20,000 to 50,000 buttons and each member of the Tabram family has an outfit address as an indication of rank. Mr Tabram can also a makes repairs on the suits of the Coaster Kings. Mr Tabramhas resigned since 1899, his father having been a Pearly King in 1870." 

 

Two photographs of children with bread for the harvest festival. 

In other lifetimes I would have loved to have been a pearly king or queen, creating these decorated clothes. I would in yet another lifetime like to have had a sporran and merkin shop on the royal mile in Edinburgh . . . but you have one life and this is busy enough with its madness.