The historic Frost Fair will return to Bankside in January for a long weekend of winter festivities, including horse and carriage rides, old street games and music.
Back for the second year, the modern-day Frost Fair is a reimagining and celebration of an extraordinary period in London’s history which saw the River Thames freeze over 24 times between 1605 and 1814.
It will run for three days from Friday 26 – Sunday 28 January 2024 on Sumner Street, behind the Tate Modern.
Ride alongside the Thames in a horse and carriage, watch an outdoor screening of Dr Who while enjoying an ‘Old Tom Gin’ and get absorbed in a craft workshop.
The event will be free, but the BID is encouraging donations to help ‘freeze out homelessness’ for the Manna Society, a local day centre working with the homeless and vulnerable.
When the Thames froze over all those years ago, out-of-work sailors, bargemen and the local community responded by creating a unique ‘on ice’ fair where Banksiders hosted markets, played traditional games, gambled, and indulged in various entertaining pursuits on the frozen river.
During the last Frost Fair in 1814, an elephant famously walked across the ice alongside Blackfriars Bridge.
A myriad of entertainment and a diverse range of activities can be expected at the 2024 Bankside Frost Fair, including an elephant parade (with a life-size puppet elephant), historic street games, music and entertainment.
If you get peckish, there is the Frost Fair Fringe, where local Bankside businesses will recreate food, drink, and activities reminiscent of its past – think hot apples, gingerbread, mulled wine and hot chocolate.
To find out more about 2024’s Frost Fair, go to banksidelondon.co.uk/frost-fair/