Postman during the London Blitz, 1940.
Photo by Fox Photos on Getty Images.
Illustration: PINTEREST
"London Pride".
Sung by Noel Coward.
Available on YouTube at
Noel Coward wrote "London Pride" in The Spring of 1941, during the Blitz. According to his own account, he was sitting on a seat on a platform of a damaged Railway Station in London, and was "overwhelmed by a wave of sentimental pride".
The song started in his head there and then and was finished in a few days. The song compares the pride of wartime Londoners to the flower "London Pride", which can grow anywhere and was often found growing on Bomb Sites.
Coward gave many morale boosting broadcasts to people in War-Time London, via The BBC.
The tune is partly based on "Won't You Buy My Sweet Smelling Lavender" and partly on
the German War-Time national anthem "Deutschland über alles".
"London Pride".
Illustration: RHS
