Let's All Go Down the Strand

rdf:langString Let's All Go Down the Strand

rdf:langString "Let's All Go Down the Strand" is a popular British music hall song of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, written by Harry Castling and C. W. Murphy. It was first performed by Castling, and was published in 1909. It was inspired by the Strand, a street in Westminster, Central London, that in the late 19th century became a centre for theatres, hotels and music halls. The song has three verses describing people trying to persuade others to abandon their current plans to "go down the Strand". The first verse is about a group of tourists planning a trip to Germany, the second about prisoners in jail and the third about sailors returning with Ernest Shackleton from a polar expedition. The song was popular with British soldiers in the First World War. A refrain of "have a banana", not included in the published lyrics, was often interposed after the first line of the chorus. Sometimes "Gertie Gitana" was sung instead, leading to the use of "Gertie" as rhyming slang for the fruit. A version was released by rock band Blur in 1993.