George Major and the Legacy of London’s Pearly Kings
George Major, known as the Pearly King of Peckham, passed away on August 1 at the age of 88. Known for his black suit and flat cap, both festooned with sequins, sparkles and mother-of-pearl buttons, Major was a local celebrity who raised money for charities.
Born inside a military barracks in Peckham, southeast London, in 1938, Major experienced a difficult childhood. Abandoned as a child, he grew up in a workhouse before finding odd jobs in the local market as a teenager. His daughter, Janet Major, explained that her father eventually became one of the costermonger kings that used to run market stalls. Major followed the ideals of Henry Croft, dedicating his weekends to leading his seven children door-to-door in matching pearly suits to raise funds for charities like children’s hospitals, women’s shelters and veterans groups.
The History and Evolution of the Pearly Tradition
The tradition traces back to Henry Croft, an orphaned street sweeper who decorated his suit with mother-of-pearl buttons scavenged from the streets outside textile factories in London’s East End. Croft’s pearly garb launched a working-class East London institution: the pearly kings and queens.
According to Modern Cockney Festival co-founder Andy Green—whose annual event celebrates London’s diverse working-class neighborhoods—these outfits function as deep cultural treasures. According to Green, the pearlies included street hawkers, market vendors, unlicensed traders known as fly-pitchers, and immigrants whose slang blended terms from Yiddish or Bengali. Major later trained as a plumber and ran a plumbing supply shop, while a portrait of Major covers an entire wall at Heathrow Airport.
Mourning and Commemoration in Peckham
Major was buried on September 14 in a cemetery not far from the Cockney Museum he founded. A horse-drawn vehicle transported his coffin into a small chapel, where the structure vibrated from attendees loudly belting out boisterous tavern tunes. At the gravesite, four generations of Major’s family—including pearly kings, queens, princes and princesses dressed in matching pearly suits—gathered to pay their respects.
“A real Cockney cheeky chappy!” Janet Major said at the gravesite, reflecting on her father’s enduring legacy.
