Welcome to the Original Pearly Kings and Queens Website

The Pearly Kings and Queens originated in the year of 1875 and have continued up to our present day.

Henry Croft (1862 to 1930) the founder of the organisation was born in 1862 and was raised in a Victorian workhouse orphanage in Charles Street, Somerstown, St, Pancras. At the age of thirteen he left the orphanage and became a road sweeper and rat catcher. Henry soon felt at home in his new position and became akin to the Costermongers (apple sellers) in their “flash boy outfits,” on the stalls in the markets.

The clothes the Costers wore were decorated with a row of pearl buttons each the size of a penny down the outside leg seam of their trousers from the ankle to the  knee, the pocket flaps on their waistcoats and the front of their caps would be decorated in a similar fashion.

The Costermongers were a tough resilient and colourful breed and had a language of their own, hence the cockney rhyming slang, they were also a caring bunch and if a fellow coster was down on his luck they would organise  a” whip round” to help him  get back on his feet. Click here for more

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Pathe News 1963: Pearly Crowning Video