#cockneys

St Mary-le-Bow church in the City of London

In Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin, in addition to the introduction of a Geordie supervillain to the DCU (King Coal) he also featured Cockney supervillain the Pearly King, a figure that is kind of interesting in his own right.

Real name Charles English, the Pearly King gets his name from his clam to be descended from King Arthur as well as his dressing, somewhat ironically, in the manner of the Pearly Kings and Queens, a working class charitable organisation started in the 1800s.

Founded by an orphan street sweeper by the name of Henry Croft in the late 1870s, Croft was inspired by how street fruit and vegetable vendors would sew buttons onto their clothes to signify their trade, so he sewed dozens and dozens of white buttons onto his clothes in order attract attention to himself as he collected money for London-based charities.

The Pearly Kings and Queens are still around to this day, and have various groups scattered about London collecting for numerous causes, with their work and association with the city leading to their getting a parade in the 2012 London Olympics, among other acknowledgements.

Oddly, many of you may know them from that weird band which shows up in the animated segment of Mary Poppins, in the song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The eels in the tank come from the fact that eels used to be a staple food among London’s working class, due to their being so numerous and dirt cheap. Traditionally they are eaten cold in a kind of spiced jelly, or hot with mashed potato and a meat pie.

Naturally this became the subject of song by one of the UK’s first rock stars, the Cockney Joe Brown.

Free full length zombie movie on YouTube!

Cockneys Vs Zombies (2012)

فيلم Cockneys Vs Zombies 2012 – فزلكا

It might sound like a right bubble, but Cockneys vs Zombies is a sorry parody, with a barking story and unadamandeveably (?) bad comedy, leaving you wanting to spend more time sleeping on the Kermit than in front of the screen.

The legend goes that to be a proppa’ Cockney, you’ve got to be born within earshot of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church in the City. But where did that word describing Londoners come from?

“One of its earliest uses is by Geoffrey Chaucer, in around 1386,” says linguist Dr Susan Fox, formerly of Queen Mary University of London. “He uses the word ‘Cokenay’ to mean ‘a child tenderly brought up, an effeminate fellow’”.

At first, the term was used by country-folk to mock town-dwellers in general. But by the early 1600s, the phrase ‘Bow-Bells cockneys’ made it clear Londoners were the main target. People living near St Mary-Le-Bow (including in what we now call the East End) would have shared a way of speaking.  So anyone with that dialect may have been given the label.