The poem
From Bermondsey to Wandsworth So many churches are, Some with apsidal chancels, Some Perpendicular And schools by E.R. Robson In the style of Norman Shaw Where blue-serged adolescence learn'd To model and to draw.
Oh, in among the houses, The viaduct below, Stood the Coffee Essence Factory Of Robinson and Co. Burnt and brown and tumbled down And done with years ago Where the waters of the Wandle do Lugubriously flow.
From dust of dead explosions From scarlet-hearted fires, All unconcerned this train draws in And smoothly that retires And calmly rise on smoky skies Of intersected wires The Nonconformist spirelets And the Church of England spires.
Reprinted with the permission of John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.