Norbury Gardens in the Sun

Intro

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

Chorus

Oh, walk along the avenue, beneath the open sky,

Where Arts and Crafts and garden paths caught every dreamer's eye.

The very first to break the mold, a vision made to last,

The Norbury Cottage Garden Estate is singing from the past.

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

Verse 1

In nineteen-oh-one, the chimneys rose, past London's crowded core,

An answer to the tenement, the dark and heavy door.

The London County Council drew a map of brick and green,

To build the finest cottage town that South was ever seen.

They cleared the clay of Norbury to plant a bolder scheme,

Where working hands could find a home, and ordinary folk could dream.

Chorus

Oh, walk along the avenue, beneath the open sky,

Where Arts and Crafts and garden paths caught every dreamer's eye.

The very first to break the mold, a vision made to last,

The Norbury Cottage Garden Estate is singing from the past.

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

Verse 2

See the asymmetry, the whimsy in the stone,

The roughcast walls and timbered gables standing on their own.

With pointed arches, sweeping roofs, and doorways deep and wide,

And little plots of fertile earth where roses bloom outside.

No endless rows of gray distress, no uniform design,

But structural grace and cottage charm along the boundary line.

Bridge

They left the smoke of factories, the damp of urban blight,

For leafy verges, sunny rooms, and windows catching light.

An architecture built for health, a blueprint for the crowd,

Where simple brick and community made humble people proud.

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

Chorus

Oh, walk along the avenue, beneath the open sky,

Where Arts and Crafts and garden paths caught every dreamer's eye.

The very first to break the mold, a vision made to last,

The Norbury Cottage Garden Estate is singing from the past.

(Norbury Cottage Garden Estate)

Outro

So if you walk the London Road, step off the busy way,

And see the quiet heritage that's standing there today.

A hundred years of living history, of gardens in the sun,

Ending

The pioneering estate of all, where a new world was begun.

Yeah, Norbury’s garden town, where the new world was begun.