Place    To 1547

Maypole - St Mary Axe/Leadenhall

Categories: Tourism / Traditions

The maypole, comparable in height to that of the adjacent tower of St Andrew Undershaft, was used each Spring in a celebratory May Day festival. But at the festival on 1 May 1517 the City apprentices, angry against foreigners (presumably coming over here and taking their jobs) rioted and the authorities decided that 'Evil May Day' would be the last year of the festival. The shaft was kept, hanging on houses in Shaft Alley, but in 1549 some fiery preaching against the "idol" caused the Shaft Alley people to cut it into sections and each took the length that had hung on his house, as fire wood.

2016: Spitalfield's Life published a list of London riots in association with 'Adam Dent's London Riot Map', but the Maypole Riot is not included. But, 2017, IanVisits provides details.

2025: Other London maypoles: Until 1717 there was a maypole at St Mary le Strand - purchased by Isaac Newton for use in a telescope in Wanstead (see James Bradley). And in 1907 the celebrations for the start of the Hampstead Garden Suburb development included children dancing around a maypole.

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:
Maypole - St Mary Axe/Leadenhall

Commemorated ati

maypole

Google Street View history shows that this replica was erected sometime 2012-...

Read More

maypole riot

The only reference we can find to "Shaft's Stairs" concerns a 1970 Civic Trus...

Read More

Other Subjects

London Stone

London Stone

Elizabeth I's occultist, John Dee, believed this stone had magic powers. Elsewhere you may read that it is connected to the Roman Brutus but that story was fabricated in 1862. The Museum of London ...

Building, Romans, Tourism / Traditions

2 memorials
Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn

Hotel chain. Founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by Kemmons Wilson. There are currently (2018) about 2,500 hotels worldwide.

Group, Tourism / Traditions, USA

1 memorial
Coronation of King George VI

Coronation of King George VI

George VI's coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for the coronation of his brother King Edward VIII who had abdicated on 10 December 1936.

Event, Royalty, Tourism / Traditions

2 memorials
Harry Chi-Cheung Lee

Harry Chi-Cheung Lee

President of the China Town Chinese Association (London).

Person, Commerce, Politics & Administration, Tourism / Traditions, China/Hong Kong

1 memorial
Guy, Earl of Warwick

Guy, Earl of Warwick

We were disappointed to find that Wikipedia considers Guy to be "a legendary English hero". Or he may be the very real Richard Neville, the king-making earl of Warwick.

Person, Tourism / Traditions

1 memorial

Previously viewed

British Plaque Trust

British Plaque Trust

A charity with: "The key objective of the British Plaque Trust (BPT) is to resurrect this national scheme {of English Heritage} which commemorates the lives and successes of notable figures by reco...

Group, History

9 memorials
William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt

Painter and co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His intended middle name was ‘Hobman’ (his mother’s maiden name) which he disliked. Discovering that it had been misspelled as ‘Holman’ at ...

Person, Art

2 memorials
Judy Garland

Judy Garland

born Frances Ethel Gumm in Minnesota, USA. She came to London in 1951, and in 1957 for a season at the Dominion, and again in 1960. Her last visit was in 1968 to appear at the Talk of the Town (now...

Person, Cinema, Music / songs, Seriously Famous, USA

1 memorial
J. Hill
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Thomas Lennox French
War dead, WW2
1 memorial