“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
(Dr Samuel Johnson, 1777)

In this Programme of poems, songs and music, we spend a full day in London, from early morning to late at night. Travelling the capital, we meet numerous people on the way

POEMS read and MUSIC played

1. ‘The London Breed’, Benjamin Zephaniah (1998)
2. Nursery rhymes: ‘London Bridge is falling down…’ and ‘Oranges and Lemons’
3. Josef Haydn: Symphony no. 104 in D Major (the ‘London Symphony’): Andante, London Festival Orchestra, under Sidney Lark
4. ‘London’, William Blake (1795)
5. ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802’, William Wordsworth
6. Edward Elgar: Overture ‘Cockaigne – In London Town’ (1901)
7. ‘Impression du Matin’, Oscar Wilde
8. Gustav Holst: St. Paul’s Suite: Finale – Allegro, Scottish Ensemble, under Jonathan Rees
9. ‘Symphony in Yellow’, Oscar Wilde
10. Fred Astaire: ‘A Foggy Day in London Town’
11. The Kinks: ‘Waterloo Sunset’ (1967)
12. ‘Miss Hamilton in London’, Fleur Adcock
13. Ralph Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony – Nocturne: Scherzo, London Philharmonic Orchestra, under Sir Adrian Boult
14. Nat King Cole: ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’
15. ‘In the Tube’, Richard Aldington
16. Ralph McTell: ‘The Streets of London’
17. ‘The People of London’, Clifford Dyment
18. Charles Williams: ‘Heart O’ London’, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under Barry Wordsworth
19. Robert Farnon: ‘Westminster Waltz’, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under Barry Wordsworth