Terry F on 13 Jun 2007  •  Link

A pleasure-garden at Rotherhithe or Redriffe accessed by the Cherry Garden Stairs still in 1746 in the lower right corner of this map: http://www.motco.com/map/81002/Se…

Terry F on 13 Jun 2007  •  Link

Cherry Garden Pier south of The Pool on the Thames at the left side of this 2003 map is where Cherry Garden Stairs were in Stuart times. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap…

Terry F on 13 Jun 2007  •  Link

"A [1914] view of Platform Wharf and Cherry Garden Pier....In Stuart times Rotherhithe was famous for the Cherry Gardens, a recreational area where Londoners often went to relax on Saturday afternoons. Samuel Pepys records visiting the area to buy cherries for his wife in his famous diary. While the Cherry Gardens are gone, a recent initiative has seen cherry trees replanted in the area." http://www.portcities.org.uk/lond…

Cumsalisgrano on 14 Jun 2007  •  Link

Cherry OED: Pliney mentions them, a village [1576 Cherry Hinton] be named after them games be played with the pips. Girls be likened to have lips cherried, a song in 1648 by
[ HERRICK Hesper., Cherrie-ripe (1869) 17 Cherrie-ripe, ripe, ripe, I cry, Full and faire ones; come and buy.][oed philched or scrumpped]
used for excuse for healthy look;

1633 Gerarde's Herbal II. lxxxii. 391 [It] maketh young wenches to look faire and *cherrie like. {OED}

CGS on 27 Jun 2008  •  Link

see ref cherries
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
note june be cherrie time for all sorts of games.
Including Bob cherry

Samuel Pepys diary's entry predates the OED Ref,
showing there be many things existed for long periods of times before be deemed worthy of noting, especially childish events.
OED:4. Comb., as bob-a-cherry transf. attrib. (cf. bob-cherry); bob-apple, a game in which children bob for apples, either floating in water, or suspended; bob-cherry, a game in which the player tries to catch with his teeth a cherry suspended at the end of a string; bob-chin, one who bobs his chin; bob-fly, in angling, a second artificial fly that bobs on the surface of the water, to indicate the position of the end-fly; bob-up attrib., that bobs up; bob-wood, a bob or float used with a harpoon.

1681 Reply Mischief of Imposit. 2 To see their Children play at *Bob-apple.

1614 B. JONSON Barth. Fair, Keepe it during the Fayre, *Bobchin.

1697 W. DAMPIER New Voy. (1699) I. 35 At the other end of his staff [for a Harpoon] there is a light piece of wood called *Bob~wood, with a hole in it, through which the small end of the staff comes.

1899 T. S. MOORE Vinedresser, etc. 19 ‘Kisses sadly blown across the sea..*Bob-a-cherry kisses 'neath a tree{em}'O, give me one.’

Bill on 28 Apr 2017  •  Link

Cherry Garden, Rotherhithe, a place of entertainment in the reign of Charles II., long since built over. The site is marked by Cherry Garden Stairs, where is a landing pier for Thames steamers as well as small boats.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.