In its heyday, Bartholomew Fair was one of the four great fairs of England, and for centuries it was famous nationwide as a major place for entertainment of all kinds, high and low. Mainly low!In Charles II's time it was so popular that it was known to last fourteen days.
All the major travelling play companies visited the fair every year, and it was famous for puppet plays and religious mystery plays as well as regular drama. There were numerous music and dance shows, acrobats, tightrope walkers, gingerbread sellers, ballad-singers, bearded ladies, fat men, giants, dwarves, fortune-telling horses, mermaids, and , of course, pick-pockets, prostitutes, pimps and vagabonds.
The fair finally ceased in 1855. Much to great opposition!
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