What a Pearly King taught me about Cockney rhyming slang and East London history

George Major, known as the Pearly King of Peckham, wears his blinged-out suit in 2024. He died in August at age 88. Tony Kershaw/Getty Images hide caption

LONDON — He was one of my most memorable interviews. Even though we were both speaking English, I could barely understand a word he was saying.

"The costermongers, wheeze used to fly-pitch, on this frog and toad," he said — at least I think, after listening to my tape several times again, none the wiser.

Our interview was back in 2016, on one of my first NPR reporting trips to London. George Major, then 78, was a local celebrity. We walked together through the East End, where the factories and docklands that Major grew up around during World War II have given way to glass skyscrapers. A vendor ran out into the street to slap him high-five. Tourists snapped photos.

Major had turned up in bling: A black suit and flat cap, both festooned with sequins, sparkles and mother-of-pearl buttons. His title — Pearly King of Peckham — was spelled out in shimmering buttons across the back of his jacket.

He was a charming wheeler-dealer. But his language — a mix of what he called "backspeak" and Cockney rhyming slang — was impossible for this hapless American visitor to understand.

At one point in our video interview, I glanced at the camera and exclaimed, "We might need a translator here!"

Ten years later, I chuckle whenever I land at Heathrow Airport, where a portrait of Major covers an entire wall. But this summer, a former colleague alerted me to an item in the local press, which hit me harder than I expected: The Pearly King of Peckham died Aug. 1, aged 88.