The theatre

It’s another world here

the streets are gleaming

I was even dreaming

that they’re paved with gold

Seventeen at half-past ten

All the crowds are surging past

an electric display

There’s another world here

below shop windows

upon the pavement

where you wave goodbye

Boys and girls

come to roost

from northern parts

and Scottish towns

Will we catch your eye?

While you pretend not to notice

All the years we’ve been here

We’re the bums you step over

as you leave the theatre

It’s another world here

Somebody’s singing

I was only wishing

for a bit of cash

from a patron of the arts

or at least The Phantom of the Opera

Will I catch your eye?

While you pretend not to notice

all the years we’ve been here

We’re the bums you step over

as you leave the theatre

Pavarotti in the Park

and then you walked back up the Strand

Did you catch my eye?

And then pretend not to notice

all the years we’ve been here

We’re the bums you step over

as you leave the theatre

In the end, you pretend

’cause it’s so much easier

We’re the bums you step over

as you leave the theatre

1992. In 1990, a Conservative minister being interviewed on the radio described the London homeless as ‘the people you step over when you come out of the opera’, a notorious phrase which became emblematic of right-wing heartlessness.