St Pauls Ludgate Hill
Radioontheshelf
One of the great advantages of living in London are the wonderful buildings open to the public. One of my regular haunts is St Pauls cathedral where despite its size you can enter and become part of something magical. I go more for the ambience than the religion but you cannot fail to be moved by Wrens tribute to a higher power
They unlocked the doors that had been open before but now there are vandals in the town
On the altars there’d been gold but now the golds been sold they’re using alloys to keep the prices down
Please light a candle for me I will give you the money for at heart I am an honest man
And if they’re taking requests the hymn I love the best is The Old Rugged Cross my Mother sang
For it was here some years ago that a boy stood in a row with 10 others who’d been choosen to perform
In a service for a King, where Martin Luther’s voice would ring through the history held forever in its walls
He said be a bush if you cannot be a tree if you cannot be a highway be a trail
If you can’t be the sun be a star for it isn’t by the size you win or fail
And just six years before Paul Robeson’s voice had roared as he sang for the freedom of all men
But despite his plaintive cry well thousands more would die seems like freedom is always at the end
And inside the sacred walls are the bones of some who stormed through our countries golden history
Names like Nelson and John Dunne Van Dyke and Wellington and Ethelred who was always unready
As a child I’d stand in awe gazing at its golden walls painted by angels from on high
And now as a man I still can’t understand how its beauty remains to feast the eyes
For outside the world has changed but noone is to blame we are the innocents its not our fault
Someone else has smeared the page of the history that we made someone else is guilty of assault
So as the choir sings I see the ghost of Mr Wren as he walks around the whispering gallery
I guess he never would have thought that as an only child he’d brought to us a building of such majesty
I will come again for sure to sit down inside its walls and savour all the goodness that it holds
But for now I must remove to a place that I did choose its my home away from home that is St Pauls.
They unlocked the doors that had been open before but now there are vandals in the town
On the altars there’d been gold but now the golds been sold they’re using alloys to keep the prices down
Please light a candle for me I will give you the money for at heart I am an honest man
And if they’re taking requests the hymn I love the best is The Old Rugged Cross my Mother sang
For it was here some years ago that a boy stood in a row with 10 others who’d been choosen to perform
In a service for a King, where Martin Luther’s voice would ring through the history held forever in its walls
He said be a bush if you cannot be a tree if you cannot be a highway be a trail
If you can’t be the sun be a star for it isn’t by the size you win or fail
And just six years before Paul Robeson’s voice had roared as he sang for the freedom of all men
But despite his plaintive cry well thousands more would die seems like freedom is always at the end
And inside the sacred walls are the bones of some who stormed through our countries golden history
Names like Nelson and John Dunne Van Dyke and Wellington and Ethelred who was always unready
As a child I’d stand in awe gazing at its golden walls painted by angels from on high
And now as a man I still can’t understand how its beauty remains to feast the eyes
For outside the world has changed but noone is to blame we are the innocents its not our fault
Someone else has smeared the page of the history that we made someone else is guilty of assault
So as the choir sings I see the ghost of Mr Wren as he walks around the whispering gallery
I guess he never would have thought that as an only child he’d brought to us a building of such majesty
I will come again for sure to sit down inside its walls and savour all the goodness that it holds
But for now I must remove to a place that I did choose its my home away from home that is St Pauls.