On May 24th 2019 a plaque was unveiled to Henry Croft, the first Pearly King, not in the East End, as is commonly supposed – but in Somers Town, where he was born in 1861 May 24th and lived.
A well-known local character, Henry was said to be the first who covered his clothes with mother of pearl buttons, after a music hall entertainer of the time.
Pearlies reflect a tradition of mutual aid and self-help in working class communities, raising money for causes to this day. Henry, a diminutive streetsweeper at 5 foot, he managed to raise by his death £5000 for charity, in pennies and farthings, a huge sum.
He got to know several costermongers and became fascinated by their ‘flash boy’ outfits. They had a row of pearl buttons, each the size of a penny, sewn to their outside trouser seams from the ankle to the knee, with more pearl buttons on the flaps of their waistcoat and coat pockets and the front of their caps. Well suited Henry decided to go one better and made a suit totally covered in pearl buttons, and he used to wear this to collect pennies and halfpennies to help out the children in the orphanage where he had been raised. He and his suit became a great attraction, and he was approached by hospitals, churches and other organizations to collect for the poor, deaf, dumb or blind. Eventually he had more requests for help than he could cope with single-handed’ – Pearly Society Website
At his funeral, in 1930, Seymour (Eversholt) street was at a standstill as a long procession of 400 Pearly Kings and Queens passed by, on donkeys, ponies and carriages, as a Pathe newsreel shows.
Locals remember the Pearlies living among them. Today’s Pearlies descended on the local Cock Tavern for an evening of song and celebration at the unveiling in 2019.
Diana Foster captured the mood in photographs.
Further information
Pearly Society Website