Underneath the Arches (song)

Sheet music

"Underneath the Arches" is a 1932 popular song with words and music by Bud Flanagan, and additional lyrics by Reg Connelly.[1] It was one of the most famous songs of the duo Flanagan and Allen.

According to a television programme broadcast in 1957, Bud Flanagan said that he wrote the song in Derby in 1927, and first performed it a week later at the Pier Pavilion, Southport.[2] It refers to the arches of Derby's Friargate Railway Bridge and to the cobbled street where homeless men slept during the Great Depression.[3]

  1. ^ Catalog of copyright entries: Musical compositions, Part 3, Publ. Library of Congress. Copyright Office, 1932 (page 727)
  2. ^ Together Again, TV Programme broadcast 19 April 1957
  3. ^ "On Top of Friar Gate Bridge", BBC website, Oct 2008, retrieved 26 Nov 2011