Refreshment Room from Real Lives by The Living Archive Band

The Wolverton Refreshment Room
Words & music: J Cunningham

If ever you take the railway that runs through Birmingham town
Three hours out of Euston, they let you all get down.
Eleven minutes is allowed - we have to keep up speed
And the Wolverton Refreshment Room will answer every need
With seven fair young ladies to wait upon you all
Four men and three boys are at your beck and call
A kitchen maid is in her proper station
With a matron to guard her reputation .

‘A wonder of these modern times’ a gentleman has said,
‘Three hundred railway cottages and every one is red,
A giant locomotive shed where meadows used to be.’
But the Wolverton refreshment Room is all that you will see
With seven fair young ladies to wait upon you all
Four men and three boys are at your beck and call
A scullery maid, a kitchen maid are in their proper station,
With a matron to guard their reputation.

You will not meet the railwaymen, oh entertain no fear,
They go off to a public house, The Royal Engineer
Or over to Hell’s Kitchen, which is beastly and profane
But the Wolverton Refreshment Room has neither sin nor stain
With seven fair young ladies to wait upon you all
Four men and three boys are at your beck and call
A laundry maid, a scullery maid, a kitchen maid
Are in their proper station, with a matron to guard their reputation.

Banbury cakes, ladies fingers, brandy, lemonade,
The company has insisted they be tastefully displayed
And if about your comfort you still harbour any doubt
There’s warming up, by the stove, a quantity of stout.
With seven fair young ladies to wait upon you all
Four men and three boys are at your beck and call
A house maid, a laundry maid, a scullery maid, a kitchen maid
Are in their proper station, with a matron to guard their reputation.

One hundred pounds of luggage is all that we allow,
Smoking is prohibited. The train is leaving now.
We hope you have been satisfied with our establishment
And please - no gratuities. The servants are content.
With seven fair young ladies to wait upon you all
Four men and three boys are at your beck and call
An odd man, a house maid, a laundry maid
A scullery maid, a kitchen maid
Are in their proper station, with a matron to guard their reputation.

• Acoustic
• community
• documentary
• local history
• Milton Keynes