7 December, 2007 | Leave a Comment

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1. Gregory Says:

   December 16th, 2007 at 4:33 am

   Music Hall Song

   Let’s All Go Down The Strand”

   One night a half ‘a dozen tourists

   Spent the night together in Trafalgar Square.

   A fortnight’s tour on the Continent was planned,

   And each had his portmanteau in his hand.

   Down the Rhine they meant to have a picnic

   Til’ Jones said, “I must decline–”

   “Boys you’ll be advised by me

   to stay away from Germany–

   What’s the good a’ going down the Rhine.”

   “Let’s All Go…..cont.

   Let’s all go down the Strand — Have a banana!

   Let’s all go down the Strand!

   I’ll be the leader, you can march behind.

   Come with me and see what we can find!

   Let’s all go down the Strand — Have a banana!

   Oh! What a happy land.

   That’s the place fer fun and noise,

   All among the girls and boys.

   So let’s all go down to the Strand.

2. Gregory Says:

   December 18th, 2007 at 12:20 am

   The photo is better than the MH Song.

   I ended up with an office in Covent Garden, I couldn’t afford what I really wanted, which was the Strand.

   Ireland is ( I think) one of the few places to have retained the widespread use of ‘Strand’ as a geographic designator.

   Originally ‘the’ Strand in London would have been like Short Strand in Belfast, with the river in full view.

   Dropping the ‘the’ is common across the British Isles. So it is not really ‘the’ Strand.

   I was actually looking for the address of Napoleon Bonaparte’s London lawyers when I found those appallingly naff lyrics.

   Apparently Bonaparte’s briefs are still in business on the Strand.

   When I was a kid I looked at photos of Philly, South Boston, Baltimore, NYC, and Chicago, and wondered where I would end up living.

   We had maps as well, relatives who went to America before us sent things like that back, so we would hit the new world running etc.

   I also collected biscuit tins of London, and matched them to a map, I would interrogate ‘the empties’ when they came back from Merka.

   Gone to America was a euphemism for ‘killed in action’ during the tan war.

   I liked London, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Strand.

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