Subway Songs Of Freedom

We were so pleased to receive an email recently from Peter G. Scott, who used to work in the Quarter in the ’60s.

He’d dug through his paperwork and unearthed a poem about the Marylebone Road Subway that he’d written in the summer of ’66. We’re currently transforming the subway into a ‘Wonderpass’ which will open this winter so whilst the décor will change, the central message resonates today as it did half a century ago. Do have a read of his poem below:

Subway Songs Of Freedom
by Peter G. Scott, M.Phil., MIET, CMILT

All along the subway walls
Echo’d the sound of guitar chords;
A lonely hobo in bare feet stands
Strummin’ the strings with sunburnt hands,
Singing songs of peace today
Reminding us of what we say.

His bright silk scarf lights the subway gloom
As young girls jostle to give him room
To sing his songs of war and glory,
Then overhead rumbles a ten ton lorry!

His old cord cap lies on the ground,
Pennies land with a chinking sound,
We are his bread, we are his life,
He helps us dream away our strife.

(Penned in the Marylebone Road Subway, summer of ’66)