Visual Narratives: Interview with Lorraine Sadler- Pearly Queen of Tower Hamlets

I have had the privilege of speaking with Lorraine Sadler, Pearly Queen of Tower Hamlets, for over an hour on the phone today on New Year's Day. It was such a pleasure to speak to someone so selfless, knowledgable and humble! I had originally recorded our conversation so I could type up a transcript and have the audio recording embedded in my blog post - but technology wasn't on my side today, much to my annoyance and despair, so I have had to paste some of the notes I made instead.

• Hi Lorraine! Thank you for giving me your phone number and allowing me to take some of your time on New Year's Day! May I ask how long you have been the Pearly Queen of Tower Hamlets?

"It's absolutely no problem, Kimberley. I'm so glad that you want to learn more about me, my family and our traditions! We are the Official Pearlies and Charity and I always have to make that clear so that people know they are dealing with the real deal. Since I was a little girl I have been involved with being a Pearly. I originate from the original costermongers during Henry Croft's time of 1875, who was the Father of the Pearly tradition as we know it today. It's always been in my family. My Granddad was a London costermonger, or market trader, in the late 1800s and joined with Croft when he decorated his outfit entirely in pearl buttons. They collected money to help the needy and the tradition has passed down since. A big part of being a Pearly is being proud of being a Cockney. You can't be a Pearly if you're not a Cockney... They go hand-in-hand."

• Can I ask about your outfit? Where have the buttons come from and who designs them? Do you design them yourself?
"The pearl buttons are imported from Japan and are very hard to find nowadays. The tradition of having buttons as a Pearly comes from Henry Croft and the costermongers. Costermongers, or market traders, wore buttons from ankle to knee on the outside of their trousers, as well as along the top of their caps and along the pocket flaps. Henry croft saw this and decorated his entire outfit with buttons, which took him 5 years to do, in buttons from the ships that would dock at London from Japan. Many of the buttons I have, have been reused from my mum’s and grandma’s Pearly outfits. Buttons usually are passed on, unless a Pearly chooses to be buried in their outfit instead as my Old Man did. I love sewing so I design my family's outfits - my husband and two girls'. Traditionally a King is supposed sew the buttons onto the outfits but a lot of them don’t! The wives tend to do it for the family. But i love sewing so I don't mind."

• How do you come up with your designs?
"Each family has their own emblem like a dove, heart, horseshoe or anchor, and my family have the flowers. I start each outfit by sewing the name on first 'Pearly Queen / King of Tower Hamlets' which I don't enjoy doing much! I always feel a lot of pressure to get the lettering straight and exact but after that I have fun. I remember when I was ill after my aneurysm and was up late at night sewing buttons - it was a real comfort to me to have something to work towards and keep going. Being partially sighted now has made it harder but I still design everything myself."

• Do you know how many buttons are on your outfit?
"It has to be well over 8,000 on each of the ones I have. I do try to start to count but can never quite get past 1,000! The numbers are always increasing as people give me brooches and buttons to add to my outfits... and I do. I feel like I'm wearing part of them and including them in my charity work. I have various parts to my full outfit - multiple skirts, blouses, jackets and dresses. This is for two reasons: spillages and the fact that the outfits are so delicate and hard to wash. My friend owns a pub and washes his Pearly King clothes in an industrial dish washer! To clean my clothes I have to turn them inside out, gently wash them in the machine and wait for warmer weather to hang them out to dry. A fellow Pearly Queen, and good friend of mine, had a newborn wee on her once! So we quickly learned to have multiple pieces to out clothes. The outfits weigh a tonne. When Dad died he was buried in one of his suits. His coffin was already heavy as he was around 20 stone, but the buttons on his outfit made it even heavier!"

• Do you meet a lot of interesting people?
"The first person who comes to mind, who has stayed with me for many years, is a little boy I visited regularly at Richard House, a children’s hospice, who knew he was going to die. But his spirit was strong and he always showed me the little houses he was carving. There was a certain house he had seen in London and he said, 'I'm going to live in that house one day!' so he carved his own version of it. He was such a character and was always happy to see me. I think about him a lot. Another boy I remember fundraising for so he could go to America to have an operation to help with his Leukemia. It was successful and he lived a good life for about a year or so. We raised thousands and thousand for his operations and it was such an achievement. His family were so grateful. I remember one lady from Nigeria wanted my outfit, then when I explained what I do she wanted me to make her something! I see the same few faces who love following what we do at various events. An American family were in London on their holiday during my Granddaughter’s Christening, and they wanted to take pictures outside of all of us in our Pearly clothes. I sad, “why don’t you come inside and take some better photos?" Every harvest festival a lady from Birmingham comes to see me and it's a delight to catch up with her!"

• Do you get to meet lots of celebrities?

"The first famous person I remember meeting, was when I was my Old Man - he was so well known all over London, I asked him, “Why am I bowing for this lady?” as I didn’t understand. I found out it was the Queen! I thought it was going to be off with my head! My daughter and I have met princess Anne who was a wonderful lady. Truly wonderful. Collectively we've met many celebrities over the years including Tom Jones, David Tennant, Martin Freeman, Lenny Henry, David Hasselhoff, Victoria Wood, Ade Edmonson, and Jools Holland."

• What is the best thing about being a Pearly?

"Helping others, most definitely. That's what it's all about. Our saying is 'One Never Knows', because you never know what's around the corner. Being a Pearly is being a symbol for charity. My family has a purpose and does a lot of good in the community and I'm really proud of the difference we've made. We all have bad days and sometimes I can get really down, but when I’m in my Pearly clothes I put a big smile on my face knowing I’m making other people happy when I’m out and about singing and dancing, raising money for those who need it. One of my fondest memories was being invited to the poppy memorial at the Tower of London, planting a ceramic poppy for those we lost. We raised over £1,000 for the poppy appeal without even setting out to do that. Us Pearlies just showed up in our outfits and people donated very kindly to us. We go to a lot of care homes and it always puts a smile on the old folk's faces when they see in us - it brings back memories of when they were younger and they sing along to the songs. It reminds them of the past. Some even get up to dance to the Lambeth Walk! We were also kindly invited to the London 2012 Olympic Games. We get recognised for our efforts by being awarded in the Queen's Honour List with OBE's and MBE's. My cousin has just been awarded a BEM award for her charitable services in London! We are so proud."

• Are there any downsides to being a Pearly?

"The outfits, as I mentioned, are so heavy and we can only work for a few hours at a time because of the weight of them! People also try to pinch the buttons from my outfit when they're having a photo taken with me - but they should just ask. I would give them one if they want to have one. stealing is against everything we stand for and is so disrespectful. We deal with a lot of imitators who are not Official Pearlies but try to take the Pearly name and image to make money for themselves. I tell them, "You can’t do that! That’s my family’s tradition. We help others, not ourselves." They claim to be the real thing and that they collected with so and so just last week - but it turns out that official Pearly has been dead for some time. It's a shame they try to take something that does a lot of good to meet their own needs. We have an official badge so the public can know who we are. If the Pearly isn't wearing the badge then they aren't official. You can also tell between the real pearlies and the imitators because of our buttons. You can see the difference straight away."

• Have you ever come across anyone with a button phobia?
"Oddly, yes! I've met around 10 people during my time as Pearly Queen of Tower Hamlets. You can see the look of fear in their eyes! I find it a little bit funny, it's an odd phobia to have as buttons are all around us, but I can understand it in a way. They are transfixed by the amount of buttons we wear!"

• What sort of events do you do to raise money?
"We mainly sing and dance in pubs, collecting the money at the end of the evening to give to a specific charity, street collecting, functions and parties with meet and greets, and our biggest event each year is the annual Harvest Festival. On the first Sunday of October we collect on the steps for St. Martin in the Fields where all funds go towards the up-keep of the Church. This is known as our Pearly Church, where we have weddings, christenings and funerals. We come together for Harvest festival and Pearly Remembrance Day - the third Sunday of May, to raise funds. Recently I took part in supporting the Marsden March where people took selfies on marathon days when we were collecting."

• Do you find not many people know who Pearlies are anymore?
"Yes. A lot of Londoners may know the name, or that we have suits of buttons, or the Lambeth Walk and Cockney rhyming slang - but don't know that we are charity workers. American and Chinese tourists, especially, know who we are and always want to take pictures with us. The Costers had a language all of their own, hence the Cockney Rhyming Slang. It was created by crooks of the time so the Police didn’t know what they were referring to. Pearlies are known as Working Class royalty. You may never get to meet royalty itself but we are royalty in the people's eyes because of what we do."

• Do you find it quite fantastic how this whole tradition and culture emerged just because of Henry Croft being inspired by the buttons worn by Costermongers?

"I truly do and it shows the true power and magic of a button! They are not costumes but part of who we are."