Did you know there's a museum dedicated to all things cockney, including plenty of pearly razzle-dazzle?
Each pearly jacket is covered in thousands of buttons, and is properly heavy to wear. Image: iStock/Casarsa
Dust off your best button-smothered jacket — the London Pearly Kings and Queens Costermongers Harvest Festival is back.
Pearly kings and queens have been a fixture of London since road sweeper Henry Croft decided to pimp up his threads in the 1870s for a charitable cause. The fundraising annual harvest festival — held on a Sunday in late September — is the most famous pearly fixture on the calendar.
From 1.30pm on Sunday 20 September 2026, pearly kings and queens from across London and beyond — wearing their iconic hand-sewn pearl-embroidered costumes — will assemble in Guildhall Yard, in the City of London.
