“Streets Of London” by Ralph McTell

"Streets of London" first turned up on Spiral Staircase in 1969, Ralph McTell singing and playing guitar on his own song, with Gus Dudgeon producing. It grew out of his days busking and hitchhiking around Europe, Paris most of all, and its people were drawn from Parisians. He meant to call it "Streets of Paris" until he realized he was really singing about London, and anyway there was already a song called "The Poor People of Paris".

It sets everyday grumbles against the lives of the homeless, the lonely, the old and the forgotten, and the market in it, McTell told Danny Baker in 2016, is Surrey Street Market in Croydon. It wasn't a UK single until 1974, it earned him an Ivor Novello Award, and McTell has counted 212 known recorded versions.

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