“London Pride”.
Sung by: Noël Coward
Available on YouTube
English: “London Pride” (Saxifraga x urbium).
Nederlands: Fragiele bloemetjes van Saxifraga x urbium.
Photo: 6 June 2913,
Source: Own work.
Author: Dominicus Johannes Bergsma
(Wikimedia Commons)
unless stated otherwise.
“London Pride” is a patriotic song, written and composed by Noël Coward during The Blitz in World War II.
According to his own account, he was sitting on a seat on a platform in Paddington Railway Station, watching Londoners going about their business, quite unfazed by the broken glass scattered around from the station’s roof damaged by the previous night’s bombing.
In a moment of patriotic pride, he said that suddenly he recalled an old English folk song which had been apparently appropriated by the Germans for their national anthem, and it occurred to him that he could reclaim the melody in a new song.[1]
The song started in his head there and then and was finished in a few days. In fact, the tune of the German national anthem was composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797 in a different context.
The song has six verses. The opening lines, repeated three times within the song, are:[2]
The song has six verses. The opening lines, repeated three times within the song, are:[2]
“London Pride has been handed down to us,
London Pride is a flower that’s free.
London Pride means our own dear Town to us,
And our pride it forever will be . . . ”
The flower mentioned is Saxifraga × urbium, a perennial garden flowering plant historically known as London Pride,[3] which was said to have rapidly colonised the bombed sites of The Blitz.
The song was intended to raise Londoners’ spirits during that time, and was also circulated after the July 2005 bombings.
