A celebration of the folk history of the Olympic boroughs, in story and song.
This week, songwriter Ruairidh Anderson starts on the final leg of this 10-month project to chronicle the history of the Olympic boroughs in song. In the first tale from Newham, he explores the worst London disaster of the industrial age: the sinking of the SS Princess Alice.
"It was a beautiful autumn evening in September 1878 when James Read Bilton left his house in West Ham, Newham with his family, for a relaxing moonlit cruise aboard the SS Princess Alice..."
Lyrics can be found at shorttext.com/urrqtnjo0
For more free London-inspired songs visit www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com
Previously in Waltham Forest
- Pestilence, Plague and the Pits of Waltham Forest
- Motors and Muddy Marshes in Walthamstow
- The Cursed pool of Epping Forest.
- World Sports, Wastage & Walthamstow Ave FC
Previously in Hackney
- William Lyttle: Mole Man of Hackney
- Mrs Basil Holmes: saviour of London’s graveyards
- Horatio Bottomley: Hackney MP and scoundrel
- Deerfoot: the native American who ran in Hackney
Previously in Greenwich
- Joseph Druce: mudlark and Maori Chief
- Anne Boleyn: Marriage and May Madness
- General James Wolfe: Battles, Brothels and Broken Hearts
- Martial Bourdin, The Exploding Anarchist Of Greenwich
Previously in Tower Hamlets
- Charlie Brown: Uncrowned King of Limehouse
- Angela Burdett-Coutts, Queen Of The East End Poor
- Jamrach’s Menagerie, Rhinos & the Ratcliffe Highway
- Moris ‘Two-guns’ Cohen
- Emmanuel Swedenborg, Veruca Socks and Heavenly Secrets
- John Newton, Goebbels, Star Trek & The Slave Trade
- Eliza Marchpane, Mozart, Vol Au Vents And The Wapping Streets
- Isambard Kingdon Brunel, Ships, Bones And Bad Breath
