Notes on the Restoration of King Charles and the Flashing Whores of St James's Fair

It is easy to look at history as a set of dates with events chalked up next to them, but in a city as vibrant and organic as London, nothing happens out of the blue, as a commonplace book of the 1660s recently revealed, giving a tiny snapshot of the streets of Restoration London.
Charles's return to England would come in late May, 1660, when he was sure of his welcome, but the signs were on the streets much earlier. In March, an odd event occurred on the Royal Exchange, when a 'kind of painter' appeared in broad daylight with a ladder, which he erected next to the statue of Charles Ist. The writing on the statue was thus: Exit Tyrannus, Regnum Ultimus Anno Libertatis Anglicae Anno Domini 1648, Jan 30. With a pot and brush, the painter 'washed the writing quit out, threw down his pot and brush, and said he should never do him any more service in regard it had the honour to put out rebell's hand wrightinge out of the wall'. The painter then came down, took down his ladder and went away, 'not a word said to him'. Imagine everyone stopping to stare on the busy Royal Exchange, with someone defacing a public monument: quite a thing. Later that month, the Thames watermen were seen wearing their large arm badges bearing the coat of arms of Charles Ist, a united act of defiance. From the 13th of April, members of the aristocracy who had been living abroad were seen on the streets in London. I love the fact that they were recognized, and also knew they would be recognized. On the 8th of May, with Charles not not even in the country, he was 'proclaimed in Westminster', and 'Bow Bells could not be heard for the noise of the people'.Charles returned to England on the 29th of May, on what became known as Oak Apple Day. The following night, one John Adler puts on such a display of fireworks over London that he is knighted. Aubrey recorded maypoles being erected all over London as a mark of celebration. The largest was in the Strand, near St Mary-in-le-Strand church, where is remained for over a decade as a reminder, before being felled by the high winds of 1672. The theatres re-opened and by November, playwrights could not keep up with demand for new material.By the following year, London was back into the heady swing of things, and Charles's fun-loving reign was underway. St James's Fair, which had suffered during the Interregnum, was returned to its appointed place in the summer calendar and ran for the full fortnight. The London fairs were boisterous places, with everyone across the classes clustered together, but this particular fair went down in the book as one to remember, with arrests for lewdness and infamy. My absolute favourite are the whores Charles ordered the Lord Chamberlain, who in turn ordered a Robert Nelson Esq., to detain: Tory Rory, Mrs Winter, Jane Chapman, Rebecca Baker, Anne Browne, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Rachel Brinley, Mrs Munday, Alice Wiggins, Nell Yates and Betty Marshall were arrested for 'impudence' and 'discovering their nakedness' to the crowd, including the King and his party when drunk, 'which they often were'. There is no record of the subsequent fate of these ladies, but knowing Charles they were probably let off with a stiff warning, after he'd stopped laughing.



