Ah London you're a lady

Laid out before my eyes

Your heart of gold it pulses

Between your scarred up thighs

Your eyes are full of sadness

Red busses skirt your hem

Your head-dress is a ring of lights

But I would not follow them

Your architects were madmen

Your builders sane but drunk

Among your faded jewels

Shine acid house and punk



You are a scarlet lady

Your streets run red with blood

Oh my darling they have used you

And covered you with mud

It was deep down in your womb my love

I drank my quart of sin

While chinamen played cards and draughts

And knocked back mickey finns



Your piss is like a river

Its scent is beer and gin

Your hell is in the summer

And you blossom in the spring


September is your purgatory

Christmas is your heaven

And when the stinking streets of summer

Are washed away by rain

At the dark end of a lonely street

That's where you lose your pain

'Tis then your eyes light up my love

And sparkle once again