To listen (fragment)

Berliner 5 inch record #54

Wot'Cher! (Knock'd Em In The Old Kent Road)
written by Albert Chevalier, music by Charles Ingle (1891)

Last week down our alley came a toff
Nice old geezer with a nasty cough
Sees my missus, takes his topper off
In a very gentlemanly way

"Wot cher!" all the neighbors cried
"Who yer gonna meet, Bill
Have yer bought the street, Bill"?
Laugh! I thought I should've died
Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road

Ev'ry evenin' at the stroke of five
Me and the missus takes a little drive
You'd say, "Wonderful they're still alive"
If you saw that little donkey go

When we starts the blessed donkey stops
He won't move, so out I quickly lops
Pals start whackin' him, when down he drops
Someone says he wasn't made to go

"Wot cher!" all the neighbors cried
"Who yer gonna meet, Bill
Have yer bought the street, Bill"?
Laugh! I thought I should've died
Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road

---

Old Kent Road is a road in South East London, England and forms part of Watling Street, the Roman road which ran from Dover to Holyhead. Chaucer's pilgrims travelled along this route from London and Southwark on their way to Canterbury. Although the name appears as simply "Old Kent Road" on maps, it is usually referred to by Londoners as "the Old Kent Road". The Old Kent Road runs from the Bricklayers' Arms roundabout, where it meets the New Kent Road, Tower Bridge Road, and Great Dover Street, to New Cross. It is regarded as forming the boundary between Walworth and Peckham to the south and Bermondsey to the north although the ancient parish and vestry boundaries of these do not in fact coincide with it. The Old Kent Road also has a large number of large retail shops along it. Including Asda, Tesco, Currys, B&Q and others. The eastern entrance to Burgess Park is also located there.

The road once gave it's name to a railway station Old Kent Road near New Cross which closed in 1917. The street is famous as the cheapest property on the London Monopoly board and as the only one in South London. Old Kent Road is the title of a song by London-based indie pop group Pipas. In the film A Little Princess (1939) Shirley Temple sings this song of which the chorus gives a good idea of the sort of language that was used in the area :

"Wot cher!" all the neighbours cried
"Who yer gonna meet, Bill
Have yer bought the street, Bill"?
Laugh? — I thought I should've died
Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road!

The film excerpt is visible here on YouTube

Sources, and more details on :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kent_Road
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1891_in_music
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Chevalier