Saint Etienne Sweet Arcadia
[spoken word]
The trains took us away from the smoke, from Fenchurch Street
Through Limehouse, West Ham, Barking, and over the fields
To Laindon, Dunton, Pitsea, Benfleet
To Southend-on-Sea
39 miles and 40 chains over the fields, through the thick clay
We took over the neglected meadow, the untidy farmyard, and overgrown hedgerow
Smallholdings--homemade, handmade
Makeshift towns, a land for the people, a home of your own
Sweet Arcadia
Tumbledown shacks and tumbledown cliffs
A refuge from the rent book
We built our own shops, we built our own cinemas, we named our own houses:
The Haven, Cozy Nook, Landsbury, Beerer John, Tellsville, Bon Ami
And when the waters the breached the seawalls, we moved back inland
Into Surrey: Box Hill, Normandy, Selsdon Vale
Into Kent: Cliffsend, Seasalter, Dungeness
Into Sussex: Jurys Gap, Pett Level, Peacehaven
Sweet Albion, makeshift, make do and mend
We built mock-Tudor sheds and houses from train carriages
From asbestos and corrugated iron
We took your land, and we made it our land
Sweet Arcadia
[sung]
Ohh, oh, Sweet Arcadia
Ohh, oh, Sweet Arcadia
Ohh, oh, Sweet Arcadia
Ohh, oh, Sweet Arcadia
Ohh, oh, Sweet Arcadia
Ohh, oh, Sweet Arcadia
