With the 3rd of March, the ‘Fird of the Fird’ or ‘Speak Cockney Day’, rapidly approaching, it is time for Andy Green and Saif Osmani to get ready for the next run of their Cockney Cultures events. Andy and Saif have been organising activities and talks around Cockney dialect and culture for several years withContinue reading “The Modern Cockney Festival 2023”
Category Archives: Cockney culture
Coffee with @TheEastEndPoet
Last week I met with Chris Ross, a.k.a. @TheEastEndPoet on Twitter and Facebook. Chris is a born and bred Cockney, born in Mile End Hospital and raised in Roman Road. He is a retired telephone salesman, dad of one, granddad of six and great granddad of six. And he writes poetry – often about theContinue reading “Coffee with @TheEastEndPoet”
‘Actually quite a cool family tradition’
It’s a sunny October Sunday, when I meet a bunch of Pearly Kings and Queens on the steps of St. Martins-in-the-Field off Trafalgar Square, where the Pearly Association have gathered for their annual Harvest Festival. The Pearly Kings and Queens are traditionally associated with East End Cockneys, so I was interested to hear from youngerContinue reading “‘Actually quite a cool family tradition’”
Pies for old-school Cockneys and people from all over the world
Joe Cooke is the owner of Cooke’s Pie and Mash shop in Hoxton, an East London institution that was founded by his great-grandfather Robert in 1862. According to Joe, his ancestor didn’t just own many pie and mash shops and pubs in the East End, he actually started the pie and mash business by sellingContinue reading “Pies for old-school Cockneys and people from all over the world”
‘DelBoy I.’ at the Cockney Museum
Last week, I finally visited the Cockney Museum, which had been closed for refurbishment over the winter. It’s just outside Southwest London in Stoneleigh, on the trainline from Waterloo to Dorking. George Major, the Pearly King of Peckham, opened it in 2020, having collected exhibits for his dream of a Cockney museum all his life.Continue reading “‘DelBoy I.’ at the Cockney Museum”
Chas’n Dave – the ‘Cockney ambassadors’
I met with Kate Garner at the beautiful Brasserie Zédel off Piccadilly Circus. Kate is not only a composer and musician in the London music hall tradition who often performs at Zédel’s, but also comes from a very musical North London family: she is the daughter of Chas Hodges from Chas’n Dave, the iconic CockneyContinue reading “Chas’n Dave – the ‘Cockney ambassadors’”
Master of the Cockney sing-along
This week, I managed to get hold of Tom Carradine, a professional pianist who stages extremely popular ‘Cockney sing-alongs’ in London and (far) beyond. His shows are advertised as ‘an old-fashioned knees-up – Mr Tom Carradine on the ol’ Joanna’ (Cockney rhyming slang for piano). Tom plays old London music hall and Cockney songs toContinue reading “Master of the Cockney sing-along”
LONDON TALKS 