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Ray-Jones & London May Queen – 2005

Ray-Jones & London May Queen: The very first London May Queen event I photographed was on Saturday 14th May 2005. Previously I had thought that such events had died out years earlier. They had been recorded in the late 1960s and 1970s by photographers including the late Tony Ray-Jones whose work in his book ‘A Day Off‘ published posthumously in 1974 (and earlier publications in Creative Camera magazine and elsewhere) had a great influence on myself and other young photographers in the UK.

Ray-Jones had won a scholarship to the USA to study design at Yale in 1961 and there he had been greatly influenced by the work of Robert Frank in his book ‘The Americans’ published in France in 1958 and in the USA the following year as well as the work of a younger generation of American photographers Frank’s work had inspired. After Yale Ray-Jones worked for several years in the USA and attended workshops with the legendary art directory Alexey Brodovitch.

He returned to the UK and as well as taking photographs promoted his US-acquired views on photography with an evangelistic fervour. In this he found an ally in the Bronx-born photographer John Benton-Harris, another ‘Brodovitch Boy’ who had settled in London – who I later became friends and worked with. After Ray-Jones died tragically young from Leukaemia in 1972 it was Benton-Harris who made the prints that were used in ‘A Day Off’, printed very much in the style of the time.

Among the several images in the ‘Summer Carnivals’ section of the book were several from May Queen festivals, including a large group photograph of over twenty young girls all wearing crowns in front a maypole. The caption ‘May Queen gathering, Sittingbourne, still used on the Getty site, 1968′ was incorrect (as were some others as the photographer was no longer alive and they were captioned by others.) Possibly the least characteristic image of the book it was actually from the crowning of the 1968 London May Queen on Hayes Common in the London Borough of Bromley.

From two of my close photographic friends following in the footsteps of Ray-Jones and Benton-Harris photographing English Carnivals with an Arts Council grant I found that these events were still taking place and I decided to find out more. It was hard to find information but I was finally able to find the date and time of the 2005 crowning.

I arrived at Hayes Common with some trepidation. Since Ray-Jones had taken his pictures there had been several decades of warnings from the government and media over “stranger danger” and panic over men pointing cameras at young girls was rife. Although this was a public event, before taking any pictures I went to find the organisers and explained what I hoped to do. I had for some years been part of a group of photographers, London Documentary Photographers, organised by Mike Seaborne at the Museum of London and had ID from them as well as a Press card which, unusually for me, wore visibly on my jacket for the event. This possibly wasn’t a good idea as the organisers were worried that some of the older girls taking part might be embarassed to have their pictures in the local press. They were less worried about me posting them on the web or elsewhere.

The children – many girls but with a few brothers among them – were almost all eager to have their pictures taken, and their mothers (and there were a few fathers too) were also happy to have a record of the day. From this first event I got requests to photograph other events in the London May Queen cycle the following year and for years later, though I was often busy elsewhere and unable to do so.

A few days after the event I put the pictures on-line with a long explanation about the event and an invitation to the mothers to ask me if I had other pictures of their children and for larger files they could use to make prints. I’d also given out copies of my business card to many of thembut made it clear I would be happy to provide digital images without charge.

Here – with minor corrections – is what I wrote in 2005.

Merrie England and London May Queen Festival
Hayes Common and Hayes Village, Kent, 14 May 2005

The ‘Merrie England And London May Queen Festival’ was founded by a master at Dulwich School, Joseph Deedy in 1913, making this year’s festival the 93rd. [Later I was told he was from Whitelands College where John Ruskin had started a May Queen festival in 1881 – still continuing at Roehampton University as a May Monarch.]

The tradition of May Queens is much older, coming from pre-Christian times, as the Goddess Of The Spring, who the Romans called Flora. It was a traditional time for young women to come to the villages from the farms to find a husband, and the maypole is a symbol of virility.

Deedy’s folklorique version is rather different from this with an uplifting script, still read by the participants as a part of the festival. Some of the texts are on the back of the signs carried by the attendants of the London May Queen, the ‘Joy Bells Of Merrie England’ representing ‘Music’, ‘Company’, ‘Beauty’, ‘Light’…

The London May Queen is also attended by ‘The Prince Of Merrie England‘ (also female) along with the Fairy Queen, Bo-Peep and Robin Hood. The event is also attended by a couple of dozen ‘Realm Queens’ each also with her attendants: a Prince, Banner Bearer, Crown Bearer, Pages, Fairies and Flower Girls, from half a dozen to twenty or more girls, all dressed in the particular Realm Colours and with their own Realm Flower. At its peak in the 1920s and 1930s there were 120 realms with well over a thousand children taking part in the event on Hayes Common.

The various positions are decided entirely by seniority in the organisation – children can join when they are three and continue until their sixteenth birthday. Many of the mothers I talked to at this and later May Queen events had been May Queens or taken part in the ceremony in their childhood; one of the organisers was May Queen in 1932 and her grandchildren were taking part in 2005.

As well as the Hayes festival, there is another a week earlier in Beckenham, where most of the realm queens are crowned. The queens and realms also take part in other fêtes and carnivals, take flowers to the elderly and attend flower services in churches in their areas. Almost all the realms come from the surrounding areas in surburban Kent and Surrey (now mainly in Greater London.)

The children process, [in their realms in alphabetical order] from the Common to Hayes village, where there is a short ceremony, ‘Little Sanctum’ outside the village church.

The procession then continues around Hayes, returning to the Common. This is rather a long walk for some of the younger children.

Back at the Common there is a short ceremony using Mr Deedy’s words read by the Fairy Queen, Bo-Peep, Robin Hood and others, before the London May Queen is crowned by the Prince Of Merrie England. The realm queens are then presented to the London May Queen, and have their pictures taken as a group in front of the maypole [as in that Ray-Jones picture.]

The London May Queen then goes around the field with her main attendants as Flora, with baskets of flowers which she throws to the realm children.This is followed (after the rather lengthy raffle draw) by dancing round the maypole in a fairly energetic and undisciplined fashion.

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Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen – 2012

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen: Saturday 12th May 2012 was an unusually busy day for me, rushing from Covent Garden to Westminster and then out to Hayes Common. There were two very different events I was determined not to miss, the Nakba Day protest at Downing Street remembering the anniversary of the eviction of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Israeli forces in 1948 and the crowning of London’s 100th May Queen taking place on Hayes Common on the edge of London, around a hour’s travel away. And a couple of other events I could fit in too.

I wrote all of these up on My London Diary and you can read those accounts there on the links in this post – as well as finding many more pictures, so I won’t repeat myself too much here.

Punch Celebrates 350th Birthday – Covent Garden

Punch, Morris, Nakba & London May Queen - 2012 — ‘*Professors’ had come from around the world including Uncle Shiro the only Japanese Punch*

Punch and Judy professors from around the country and around the world brought their booths to Covent Garden this weekend to celebrate 350 years since Samuel Pepys first recorded a performance there in his diary.

His was the first recorded performance of the “Italian puppet play” and though Punch was then called Pulcinella and has obvious earlier roots in Italy it is regarded as the start of Punch and Judy in England.

The fun was only just starting when I left for more serious matters in Westminster. More about the day and many more pictures at Punch Celebrates 350th Birthday

Morris Men Occupy Westminster

Pavements across Westminster were filled with gaily dressed men with bells on them leaping and dancing as twelve Morris sides performed in around twenty sets over the day in Central London on the Westminster Day of Dance.

The performances were taking place at various locations in the City of Westminster, including the Victoria Embankment, St Margarets Westminster, Westminster Cathedral and Tate Britain, with the various Morris sides rotating between them throughout the day.

I left as the morning sessions ended and the Morris Men had a break for a doubtless mainly liquid lunch (dancing really is thirsty work) before the afternoon sessions which, after a euphemistically named ‘Tea Break’ were to conclude with a mass performance south of the river in Lambeth by the National Theatre.

Nakba Day Protest at Downing St

*This was a family protest – young protesters hold a Palestinian flag and placards*

Nakba Day is generally commemorated on 15 May and remembers the eviction of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Israel forces in 1948. This London protest opposite Downing St was on the nearest Saturday.

At the time of the protest around 2000 Palestinians were on hunger strike in Israeli jails in protest against ‘administrative detention’ which allows them to be detained for consequtive periods of up to six months without any charge or trial.

Israel was still displacing Palestinians from their homes – and is currently in 2025 planning to clear them entirely from Gaza, either killing them through starvation, bombing or military eviction. Back in 2012 they were planning to forcibly displace around 40,000 Palestinian Bedouin from the Naqab desert, threatening to demolish the homes of around 85,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem and to forcibly evict 2,000 from the West Bank.

Unfortunately I had to rush away while people were still arriving for the protest as I had promised to photograph the crowning of London’s 100th May Queen and was only able to take very few pictures to accompany the text.

More at Nakba Day Protest in London.

London Crowns 100th May Queen – Hayes, Kent

*The Merrie England Children Dance around the maypole with the newly crowned Queen at its centre*

The 100th London May Queen was crowned at the Merrie England and London May Queen Festival on Hayes Common, Kent, part of an unbroken tradition stretching back to 1913. 20 other Queens and their realms took part.

The ceremonies at Hayes Common, now a part of the London Borough of Bromley, continued even during both World Wars, though they were then carried out inside the local church as it was feared the procession around the village might attract unwanted attention from the German air force.

I’ve written often here and elsewhere about the London May Queen organisation and events, including a long account in my book London’s May Queens. [You can read a little more about this book – also available much more cheaply as an e-book – on >Re:PHOTO and can read the text and see many of the pictures at the book link.]

But there is one section of my post in 2012 which adds something to the story, so I’ll repeat it here.

“Whitelands College in London started its May Queen festival rather earlier in 1881 at the prompting of John Ruskin, and this still continues at the college (now part of the University of Roehampton) although since the college now admits men, some years they have a May King in place of a queen. Talking to one of the organisers of the event yesterday I learnt that Deedy had worked at Whitelands – contrary to the published information on him.”

Fortunately I arrived at Hayes Common just in time – though rather out of breath having run from Hayes Station – for the start of the procession around the village before the crowning.

Text and many more pictures at London Crowns 100th May Queen.

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May Queen in Chislehurst – 2006

May Queen in Chislehurst – 2006. Chislehurst has maintained the tradition of crowning the Chislehurst May Queen on the first Saturday of May each year since 1923 and last Saturday held its ceremony to crown its 2025 Queen. I was busy elsewhere this year, but spent an enjoyable day photographing the event on Saturday 6th May 2006. Here is the post I wrote back then (with the usual minor corrections) with a few of the pictures – and links to more on My London Diary

Chislehurst May Queen Ceremonies

Chislehurst, 6 May 2006

May Day celebrations were traditionally times (known as Beltane) when the New Year and Spring was celebrated, and young men and women danced together, and a Queen of the May was chosen to lead the event. Cromwell banned them as sinful pagan events, and although they came back with the restoration in 1660, in most places the traditions slowly died out or were made more formal.

There was a revival of interest in old customs in the Victorian era, with various ‘Merrie England‘ events being organised. Some schools had maypoles and learnt the dances and many Sunday Schools had their May Queens who often took a leading part in Whit Walks.

In 2005 I photographed the Hayes Merrie England And London May Queen Festival, which began in 1913 and is probably the largest as well as the oldest continuing event of its type (Brentham had its “gaily dressed maidens” dancing around a maypole in 1906, but it isn’t clear if there were festivals in all of the early years. Certainly there appear to have been none in 1927-30.)

Chislehurst got its first May Queen in 1923, when the organisers of the Merrie England Festival at Hayes, which had been going for around 10 years, asked Agnes Everist to organise a new ‘realm‘ with her daughter Olive as the May Queen. Agnes continued to organise the ceremonies until 1945, when the ceremony was delayed until June to be a part of the World War II Victory Celebrations. Her grand-daughter and Olive’s daughter Beryl was May Queen that year, but sadly Agnes died 2 days later.

The Everist family continued to organise the festival for some years, but others then took over. Any girl five or over who lives or has grandparents who live in Chislehurst can join the retinue. They then work their way up the ranks, with the oldest girl of the year of joining having the choice of being Queen or Prince. Several months of twice-weekly rehearsals are required, and as well as the festival they also perform at other events over the year.

*The retiring May Queen puts the crown on the new May Queen’s head*

The procession is led by a Banner Bearer, and each of the ‘realms’ that takes part in the Hayes festival is also identified by a distinctive colour. The May Queen and Prince walk under a hoop garland held by two of their retinue, while others hold the Queen’s train. Before the crowning, the retiring Queen and Prince are at the head of the procession with the Queen and Prince elect in the middle, but after the crowning they change their places. Also in the procession are three attendants carrying the basket of flowers, the crown on a cushion and the sceptre and scroll. At the rear of the group is a decorated cage or lantern on a pole.

*The new May Queen and Prince take their place under the hoop garland for the return procession*

Chislehurst is one of the few may queen societies that still dance round the maypole properly, and they performed 4 different dances during the event with surprising precision.

*And the May Queen cuts the cake with the Prince*

At the end of the day the various groups marched off down the road for tea and cakes in the Methodist hall, along with a little more ceremony. I stayed until they had cut the cake, then had to run to the station to catch my train home.

You can read more about the May Queen tradition and London May Queen in particular in the preview of my book, London May Queens. The book is available as a PDF or more expensively in print

You can find out more about the Chislehurst May Queen Society at their web site. There are more pictures from the 2006 event, including the other local groups that take part in the event on My London Diary.

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Bromley May Queens Crowning – 2008

Bromley May Queens Crowning – On Saturday 19th April I went to Bromley to photograph the crowning ceremony of the May Queens from Bromley Common and Shortlands in an event also attended by May Queen groups from West Wickham, Hayes, Hayes Village and Hayes Common. This is the largest of the May Queen events before the annual crowning of the London May Queen in May.

Although in recent years my photography has largely been around protests, with the occasional walk thrown in, back in the first decade of this century I was also photographing a wide range of cultural events in London, including a number of religious festivals and other celebrations. And one of the lengthier projects I engaged in was on May Queen festivals in London.

Although I’d grown up in London and lived near it for most of my adult life (and still do) I had never come across May Queen festivals, though perhaps I may have seen some of the old newsreels from pre-war days I thought they were a thing of the past.

In a post written earlier in April 2008 I described how I came to find out more and to start a project which led to me finding out more and starting a project on them in 2005:

It was the work of Tony Ray-Jones that first attracted me to May Queens, with his posthumous ‘A Day Off’, published in 1974 containing half a dozen of his pictures from May Queen festivals (though only four really connected with May Queens.) One of these – certainly the least interesting image – showed around 30 young women in three rows in front of a maypole, all wearing crowns. Despite the misleading caption, ‘May Queen Gathering, Sittingbourne, 1968’, in a later publication it was identified correctly as a picture of the annual London May Queen festival at Hayes, Kent.

Although I didn’t think it one of his better pictures it struck me as an interesting event, and even more so when I went to photograph it in 2005, and started to look up a little of its history.
Crowning of the Hayes Realms

Eventually I had enough pictures to publish a book, and had been promised an exhibition at a major museum – though this never materialised. The book, London May Queens ISBN: 978-1-909363-06-9 is still available from Blurb, either as an expensive print version or as a PDF, and the work has also been featured on other web sites including Lensculture.

Here is the Blurb blurb:
“2012 saw the crowning of the London’s 100th May Queen. The first Merrie England and London May Queen festival was held in 1913 and it has continued every year since. In the 1920s and 30s it was a major event, covered by cinema newsreels and competitions in daily newspapers, but now it is known to few outside the over 20 local realms that take part in the annual event. The 72 pictures in this work give a unique insight into this community event.“

It’s worth going to the Blurb link to see the extensive preview of the work, which includes all of the text of the book as well as many of my favourite images from the project.

Girls generally join their local May Queen group at an early age and progress through the various roles in the group as they get older – and if they stay long enough become their group May Queen, after which they can join the London May Queen group and similarly progress to become London May Queen. As well as practising for the festival events the groups also have other activities – and teas etc.

The Bromley area May Queens Crowning is one of the larger events in the May Queen Season, with a number of local May Queen groups processing through the centre of Bromley to Church House Gardens next to the Churchill Theatre where some of the May Queens were crowned. The previous week I’d been to another event where three of them had previously been crowned and the following week there was another crowning festival in Beckenham a week before the final crowning of the London May Queen at Hayes.

At the end of the ceremony the girls process back to a church hall for a tea, but I was too tired to go with them and felt in need of something stronger.

Many more pictures at Bromley May Queens Crowning.

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London Crowns 100th May Queen

London Crowns 100th May Queen – Hayes, Kent.

On Saturday 12 May 2012 I went by invitation from the family of the 100th May Queen to photograph her crowning on Hayes Common. Earlier I had photographed and written about the festival and other May Queen Festivals. Below is the text from my report on the event in My London Diary, with just a few minor corrections along with a few of the pictures. You can find more pictures on the web site.

The Merrie England and London May Queen Festival was started by Joseph Deedy, usually described as a ‘Dulwich schoolmaster’ in 1913, and moved to its current location on Hayes Common soon after. Surprisingly it continued throughout both world wars, although in a somewhat truncated version, with no procession around the village. It was also felt that holding the ceremony in the open air would present too tempting a target for the enemy, and so it was moved from the common to the parish church. But continue it did, and every year since 1913, one girl has been crowned as the London May Queen, making this year’s Festival and Queen the 100th.

Whitelands College in London started its May Queen festival rather earlier in 1881 at the prompting of John Ruskin, and this still continues at the college (now part of the University of Roehampton) although since the college now admits men, some years they have a May King in place of a queen. Talking to one of the organisers of the event yesterday I learnt that Deedy had worked at Whitelands – contrary to the published information on him, including that I retold in my own book and PDF on the festival. [You can read a little more about this book on >Re:PHOTO which also has has an e-pub link.) Copies of this and my other Blurb books are usually available to UK addresses more cheaply direct from me.

*The London May Queen sits in her carriage*

The ceremonies take place in a large roped off arena on Hayes Common, with the May Queens and their groups from various places on the fringes of south east London taking their places around it in alphabetical order. Each group has its own colour for the dresses and its own flower, and girls who may join as young as three make their way up through the various roles in the group until, if they remain long enough, they become the May Queen of their local realm. After this they can move on to join the London May Queen group, and again take the various roles by seniority until finally – usually when they are around 16 – they become London May Queen. As well as taking part in May Queen activities, May Queens and their groups also appear at various charity events in their local areas.

I arrived just as the procession around Hayes was starting, with the uncrowned queen in a lightweight carriage pulled by Sea Cadets with the Prince of Merrie England walking beside her and preceded by a bagpiper. Behind her were the members of London May Queen, including the Joy Bells celebrating Music, Company, Life, Beauty, Flowers as well as the Fairy Queen, Bo-Peep, Robin Hood and several others.

Behind them came the May Queen realms in alphabetical order – Beckenham, Beddington, Bletchingly, Bromley Common, Caterham, Chislehurst, Coney Hall, Downe, Eden Park, Elmers End, Green St Green, Hayes, Hayes Common, Hayes Village, Orpington, Petts Wood, Shortlands, Wallington, Warlingham and West Wickham. In the heyday of the event in the 1920s and 30s there were as many as 100 groups, and the event made the national newspapers and the cinema newsreels.

Little Sanctum - London Crowns 100th May Queen — *At Hayes Parish Church for Little Sanctum*

At the parish church, the London May Queen group made their way into the churchyard for a short service written by Deedy which he called ‘Little Sanctum’, before joining back on the end of the procession around the village and back to the common.

There the 100th May Queen was crowned and the further pageant witten by Deedy performed, ending with the May Queen being led around the arena by BoPeep and scattering flowers towards the seated May Queen realms.

Many of the younger girls were quite tired by the walk around the village and were busy eating ice cream and sandwiches, which revived them considerably, and after the Chislehurst May Queen group had given a demonstration of ribbon dancing, all of the Merrie England children – including a few young boys who mainly take part as pages – came and took part in a lively circle dance around the large maypole.

All that was left was for the May Queen to draw the tickets for the raffle which helps to cover the expenses.

London Crowns 100th May Queen

You can read more about this and other May Queen ceremonies in London both in reports of the various events on My London Diary and from my book mentioned above. I had hoped that this would be followed by a major exhibition and a more scholarly work illustrated by my pictures but as yet this has not been possible.

8th May

I sat for some time wondering what to write about today. Perhaps the obvious choice would be to point out that this is the 76th anniversary of VE Day – and I did attend some events to mark the 60th anniversary back in 2005, both on Saturday May 7th in Ilford and May 8th in Bromley. Sixty years on from the event itself, this was probably the last occasion when a significant number of actual veterans were still around in their 80s and 90s and able to take part.

But looking at the pictures I found it too depressing – and things now have got even worse when with none left who actually fought in WW2 to provide some realism celebrations related to the war have grown more militaristic and jingoistic, more based more on the propaganda of films and TV series and the claim “two world wars and one world cup” than the reality of a fight against fascism – and where Little Englander views have defeated the vision of a united Europe, particularly in the Brexit campaign.

I needed something to cheer me up a little, so instead some pictures from the London May Queen crowning which takes place around this time of year on the second Saturday in May, which in 2010 was May 8th. It was an unusual year in that the weather was terrible, with cold driving rain making the usual outdoor ceremonies on Hayes Common and the parade around the village impracticable, and the event took place with a smaller number taking part inside the crowded village hall. So I’ve added a couple of pictures from other years which show a more normal view of the day.

I’ve written about the event – with help from some of those involved – in various posts on My London Diary, and also in the book, London May Queens, still available as a reasonably priced download or expensively in print from Blurb. Getting to know some of the organisers and taking an interest in the history of the event enabled me to overcome some of the now inevitable suspicions around a male photographer photographing young girls and I was there in 2008 by invitation of some of the mothers involved.

May Queens have a long history, although the traditional May festivities were rather different and bacchanalian. Like many English traditions, this was revived in a bowdlerised form by the Victorians, largely as a festival for children and young people. The ‘Merrie England And London May Queen Festival’ came a little later, founded in 1913 by Joseph Deedy, a master at Dulwich School, and at its peak, I think in the 1930s, involved 120 ‘realms’ from different areas mainly around south London each with their own May Queen, with well over a thousand children coming together for the crowning of the London May Queen at Hayes.

Deedy wrote some rather quaint texts which are still used in the various stages of the ceremonies around Hayes, as well as setting the general principles and rules for the realms and the event. Girls work their way up through the organisation based on length of service, progressing though various roles, first in the local realms, and then in the London May Queen group. They can join from age three, and can remain involved until they are 18. Organisers see it as a way of encouraging social skills and developing self-confidence in the girls who take part. They often take part in local fetes, visits to care homes, and other activities as well as enjoying tea parties. The crowning of the London May Queen is the culmination of a series of events on previous Saturdays when the different realms crown their own Queens.

Working inside the crowded hall in 2008 was difficult, but I was pleased to have the opportunity, and it provided some variety in my coverage of the event – as did the various crowning events in some of the local realms. Covid will doubtless have prevented the 2010 and 2021 events taking place but I hope it will resume for 2022. It’s a charming survival from an earlier age and one which invokes a community spirit which enriches local life.

There are too many posts on My London Diary featuring May Queen Events between 2005 and 2013 to list them all, but you can find them easily on the web site as they are all on the pages from April and May. Here are just a few of them.

London May Queen 2005
London May Queen 2008
Merrie England & London May Queen 2010
London Crowns 100th May Queen 2012
London’s 101st May Queen 2013
I posted even more pictures than usual from these events as I wanted to share them with those who had taken part and tried to include everyone in the pictures.

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

Merrie England and London May Queen FestivalHayes Common and Hayes Village, Kent, 14 May 2005

Punch Celebrates 350th Birthday – Covent Garden

Morris Men Occupy Westminster

Nakba Day Protest at Downing St

London Crowns 100th May Queen – Hayes, Kent

Chislehurst May Queen Ceremonies

Chislehurst, 6 May 2006

London Crowns 100th May Queen – Hayes, Kent.

Merrie England and London May Queen Festival
Hayes Common and Hayes Village, Kent, 14 May 2005