91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Media   

Pop goes the weasel

Categories: Music / songs

Pop goes the weasel

provides the following explanation:
Some of the references are now quite opaque, but we can take a fair shot at a few. In the second verse, the City Road was, still is, a well-known street in London, more than a mile long. The Eagle was a famous public house and music hall, which lay near the east end of the road on the corner of Shepherdess Walk; this had started its life as a tea-garden, but was turned into a music hall in 1825 (one of the very first); it ended its days as a Salvation Army centre and was pulled down in 1901. However, it was replaced by another pub, which still exists under the same name.

The City Road had a pawnbroker’s shop near its west end and to pop was a well-known phrase at the time for pawning something. So the second verse says that visiting the Eagle causes one’s money to vanish, necessitating a trip up the City Road to Uncle to raise some cash. But what was the weasel that was being pawned? Nobody is sure. Some suggest it was a domestic or tailor’s flat-iron, a small item easy to carry. My own guess is that it’s rhyming slang: weasel and stoat = coat. Either way, it seems to have been a punning reinterpretation of the catch line from the older dance.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Pop goes the weasel

Commemorated ati

Eagle Tavern - song

Up and down the City Road In and out the Eagle That's the way the money goe...

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Other Subjects

Kathleen Ferrier

Kathleen Ferrier

Contralto singer.  Born Lancashire.  Her brief marriage failed due to physical incompatibility.  She learnt the piano and in a 1937 music festival she also competed in the singing contest for a bet...

Person, Music / songs

1 memorial
Argyll Rooms Concert Hall

Argyll Rooms Concert Hall

The 'Argyll Rooms' venue opened in 1806.  A new building was designed, as part of the Regent Street redevelopment, by John Nash himself, to provide a concert hall, other public rooms and shop space...

Building, Music / songs

1 memorial
David Bowie

David Bowie

Musician and actor. Born David Robert Jones 40 Stansfield Road, Brixton. The family left here when David was 6 and moved to Plaistow Grove, Bromley. David changed his surname to avoid confusion wi...

Person, Cinema, Music / songs, Seriously Famous, Theatre, USA

7 memorials
The Cimarons

The Cimarons

The UK's first self-contained indigenous reggae band. The original members (all from Jamaica) were session musicians backing various musicians. They emigrated to Britain and produced their first al...

Group, Music / songs, Caribbean Islands

1 memorial
Susan Daniel

Susan Daniel

Opera singer. Born London. She continues with an international career, in spite of suffering twice from cancer. Source: Susan Daniel.

Person, Music / songs

1 memorial