Pasted inside this book, a Bible, are souvenir cards from two memorable events – the “frost fairs” of 1683 and 1715. Seventeenth-century winters were so cold that the River Thames in central London froze solid. The ice was thick enough for horse-drawn carriages to race across it.

A street of shops grew up on the ice, called “Freezeland Street”, where visitors gathered to watch puppet shows and circus acts. The cards in this Bible were produced on a printing press set up on the ice, where visitors could buy personalised souvenirs to remind them of a memorable day.

BSS.201.D06.2.