An Afternoon at the Frost Fair in 1683

On a freezing winter's day in London, part of the River Thames has frozen solid, attracting people from all over the city for festive fun and games.

What's happening

It is a freezing winter’s day in London. So cold, in fact, that part of the River Thames has frozen solid, becoming a destination for festive fun and games for people from all over London.

The Cookesbury family spent hours at the Thames Frost Fair today. While the children, Oliver and Mary, skated and played football on the ice, their parents, Paul and Louise, treated themselves to some of the many trinkets, prints and souvenirs on offer from the market stalls. Now they have come home to warm up by the fire with a glass of brandy.

Thames Frost Fairs  

From the 1300s to the mid-1800s Europe was in the grip of a mini ice-age. The River Thames froze over many times aided by the design of the old London Bridge, with its many stone arches slowing the flow of water and making freezing more likely to occur.

The winter of 1683, known as the Great Frost, saw one of the largest Frost Fairs, with rows of stalls and booths, food and sports on the frozen river. On the other side of this occasion, prices of fuel and food soared, with rhymesters of the time documenting the contrast between poor and rich peoples’ experience of that winter.