The Museum of London hosted cockney royalty, celebrating the ‘non posh-Londoners’.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I'm the Pearly King of Woolwich and you are?
00:02 Pearly Queen of Bexley.
00:04 We are here today at the Museum of London in Docklands
00:07 just going to talk about pearly kings and queens.
00:09 All a part of a massive thing that's blown up over the last couple of years
00:14 all surrounding Cockney.
00:16 Anything to do with Cockney, the language, the ethos, the camaraderie,
00:21 who could be called Cockneys.
00:23 There's a whole festival going on from the third of the third to the fourth of the fourth.
00:28 I absolutely love it. I love talking to people, love meeting people
00:32 and love raising lots of money from wearing the suit.
00:35 It attracts attention and raising lots of money
00:37 and just giving back to the community all the time.
00:40 For those that don't know what the pearly kings and queens do
00:42 it is about raising money for charities.
00:44 Indeed. Bill and Endel, yeah, from 1875 when the first young man, Henry Croft,
00:50 came out in Somers Town which is up in Kings Crossway
00:53 started raising money for his orphanage.
00:55 That's how it all started really.
00:58 It's all about fundraising so the buttons attract attention, it's as simple as that.
01:02 We raise money. We keep a lovely tradition going as well.
01:06 We've launched a month-long modern Cockney festival
01:10 to celebrate the culture, heritage and future of the non-posh Londoner.
01:15 So the whole idea of the festival is really to
01:18 a) engage with people who identify already as Cockney
01:21 and that might be, we say that to be Cockney it's an affinity with a non-posh Londoner
01:26 that you hear bow bells through the heart.
01:29 And so you witness Cockney people both in the traditional inner London areas
01:33 but also what we call the Cockney diaspora across Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and beyond.
01:39 And also people who relate to being Cockney maybe from generations
01:42 like their parents, grandparents and so on.
01:44 And even, let's say, people from overseas
01:47 coming to experience about London life and culture
01:50 and really getting to understand, visit and appreciate the true London character and spirit.
01:56 And what's your favourite thing about Cockney culture? Do you have a favourite?
01:59 I've got to confess it's about pie mash.
02:01 The Cockney cuisine, the ambrosia of gods.
02:05 And when I'm away from London, boy do I miss my pie mash.
02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]