  Crime has been with us from the dawn of time. Some forms; fraud, murder, talking incessantly about your kids, are ancient attacks on the fabric of society, others are more recent discoveries. However some like the 'smash and grab' routine have been with us longer than you think, and often involved cows.. The song 'The Gallows Tree' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Songs From The Howling Sea

Cows, Fraud and Dirty Pyjamas

Many of us today may complain about having a crap job. The likelihood of that description being literal however, is highly unlikely.  Working life on the other hand for London's Toshers was, unfortunately for them, a darn sight more literal.. The song 'Into the Dark' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Mudbutter and Dirty Fingernails - London's Toshers

Life could be pretty grim for children on the streets of Victorian London. Flogging, imprisonment, slavery and perhaps expulsion to a colony can almost compete with today's modern hardships of low phone credit or internet drop out, just some of many trials so coldly visited upon our younger generation.  But life for Victorian street urchins took a turn for the better with the arrival of a man from Ireland. The song 'A Boy Like Him' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Gameboys & Irish Sideburns - Dr. Barnardo in the East End

Songs inspired by real life London stories. This episode, Infanticide & Slappy Bonita In the 18th century everybody hated the French because, well they were French. And so tax on French products was high and this included wine and brandy. Britain had had a good couple of years of grain harvest and that combined with the introduction of a spirit by a Dutch king (his own troops used to take it into battle with them resulting the term – Dutch courage) a boom occurred in the sale of a beverage we all know and love -  Gin. The song 'When Geneva Calls' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Infanticide & Slappy Bonita - London's Gin Epidemic

Songs inspired by real life London stories. This episode, Barflies, Bankrupts And The Open Seas. By the mid 1800's half of Britain's Royal Navy was comprised of vagrants, layabouts and other unfortunates who simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their misfortune was to the Crown's benefit and all carefully overseen and delivered by the Press Gangs. The song 'The Crown's Keep' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Barflies, Bankrupts And The Open Seas - London's Press Gangs

This episode, Stepney, Toffees & Extermination. At the turn of the century in Stepney, East London  there lived a boy named Arthur Bacon. Aurthur used to run errands for the local residents.On a street called Jubilee Street, there was a dilapidated block of flats that provided cheap lodgings, run by a Russian Jew. Arthur used to run errands for this landlord and tenents  and one day whilst doing just that, he met a big Georgian guy called Mr Ivanovic. Mr Ivanovic had just arrived from Russia and didn't really know much about life in London.  The song 'Flowers Of Fortune' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Stepney, Toffees & Extermination - Stalin in London's East End

In this episode of Songs From The Howling Sea, we hear the story of the Resurrection Men. By the 1800's the medical world was in crisis. A reduction in executions meant a reduction in cadavers on which to expand their knowledge. But when there is a need there is always someone willing to meet it. Enter the Resurrection Men. The song 'Resurrection Man' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.     

Murder and the Medical Profession - Graverobbers

It seems that everywhere, holly is synonymous with peace, love and Christmas cheer. Everywhere that is except London's Old East End where for some, it mean a long cold walk and a good firm thrashing. The song 'Holly, Green Holly!' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Holly and a Good Firm Thrashing

Whilst I'm sure you, the listener, have plenty of your own first date horror stories, we have to spare a thought for their those poor souls, the girls who would work the streets and alleyways of London's old East End. For many of those girls this was the result of a date gone wrong. The song 'Desire' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

First Dates, Tramps and Chlamydia

The daily grind of a 9-to-5 job can easily disappear into a sludge of mind numbing tasks and brain-dead monotony. But every now and again this life sentence can be interrupted by a freak occurrence or grim discovery. And I'm  not talking about a stubborn deposit in the Men's.  Maybe you arrive at work to find someone has hacked into your email account, or nicked your staple remover to pedicure their toenails, or you find a rotting corpse on your desk wrapped in chains with a stake driven through its heart. No? Well it  happened to some workmen in 1886.  The song 'Judgement Day' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Staple Removers and a Rotting Corpse - Suicide Burials

Bible bashers. Mildly annoying at parties when hijacking conversations with inane debates as to whether God could create a rock he couldn't lift, and downright dangerous when employed to oversee the foreign policy of the richest nation on earth. But whether you're in or out, whether you love them or hate them, whether you've turned from your life to follow Jesus or whether the only Jew that's made you want to turn from life is Bette Midler halfway through 'Wind Beneath My Wings', you can't deny the impact of General William Booth. A man who gave a damn but didn't give an inch. And all started outside the Blind Beggar Pub in Whitechapel, London.  The song 'Wounded Shoes' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.

Whitechapel, God & Benzodiazepine - The Salvation Army in London

In this episode of Songs From The Howling Sea, we hear the story of Mary East, the Female Husband Of Poplar. Mary was a normal girl. She had a boyfriend and, perhaps like one of your ex-lovers, this man like to dress up in masks and make strange demands. He was however a  Highwayman whose career was cut short on receiving a one way trip to Australia. Mary East vowed at that point to never to love another man again. So she loved a woman instead.. The song 'Backwards' inspired by this tale and included in this episode, is available for free download at www.songsfromthehowlingsea.com.  The video accompanying this story can be found at the Songs From The Howling Sea YouTube channel.  

The Female Husband Of Poplar

Songs From The Howling Sea is a podcast that presents short historical tales taken from the life of London. Each episode's story is accompanied with a song inspired by the tale, written and performed by the author R.M Anderson.

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Songs From The Howling Sea

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