May Day Revels

The Kennington May Queen poses shyly for a close-up and performs a perfect maypole dance.

The smartly turned-out residents of Kennington are out in force to watch white-frocked local girls perform the traditional May Queen ceremony in this cheerful newsreel item. May Day was once a celebration of springtime fertility, but in the Victorian era it became a charming rustic spectacle, usually involving dancing children. The Walworth girls perform perfectly here - no doubt the result of weeks of rehearsal!