Scenes from the Frost Fair

The lowdown

Set into the stone of the riverside walk under Southwark Bridge are a series of carved panels and verses remembering the frost fairs, the riotous festivals Londoners held on the Thames itself in the centuries when winters were cold enough to freeze the river solid. Stalls, fires, football, dancing and even an elephant once crossed the ice between the banks.

The fairs ended in the 1800s when a new bridge and embankments made the river flow too fast to freeze. The reliefs are free to find on a riverside stroll, a lovely and easily missed reminder of a colder, wilder London where the great river became the city's playground.