Event   

Bow Fair

Categories: Commerce

Event

Known as the Green Goose fair, it was held on the Thursday after Pentecost. A green goose was a young or mid-summer goose, and also a slang term for a cuckold or a low woman. In 1630, John Taylor, a poet wrote 'At Bow, the Thursday after Pentecost, there is a fair of green geese ready rost, where, as a goose is ever dog cheap there, the sauce is over somewhat sharp and deare', which used the double entendre to describe the drunken and rowdy behaviour of the crowds. By the mid-19th century, the authorities had had enough and the fair was suppressed.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Bow Fair

Commemorated ati

Bow Fair Field

Bow Fair Field Site of the annual Whitsun fair stopped in 1823 due to rowdyis...

Read More

Other Subjects

Tom Thornton

Tom Thornton

Newspaper proprietor and campaigner. Born in Norwood. He became owner and editor of the Beckenham Journal, and used his influence in helping to establish the Croydon Road Recreation Ground. His pre...

Person, Commerce, Community / Clubs

1 memorial
Barber Beaumont

Barber Beaumont

Army officer, painter, philanthropist. Born John Thomas Barber and in 1812 for no known reason, he added the name of Beaumont. He specialised in historical and portrait miniatures, and displayed at...

Person, Armed Forces, Art, Commerce

3 memorials
J. T. Pedder

J. T. Pedder

John Thomas Pedder was born in 1823 in Romford, Essex, the second of the eighteen children of Daniel Pedder (1799-1876) and Mary Ann Pedder née Dunnings (1801-1869). His father was a leather currie...

Person, Commerce

2 memorials
Vintners' Company

Vintners' Company

One of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London. Its origins steeped in the history of the City of London, and the import, regulation and sale of wine.

Group, Commerce, Food & Drink, Liveries & Guilds

3 memorials
Coppice Row turnpike

Coppice Row turnpike

We can't see this turnpike on a map of 1790.  View from the Mirror has a good general post on London turnpikes.

Building, Commerce

1 memorial