In this pivotal northern town

Its all changing and rearranging

They’re pulling it all down

Where have all the pubs gone? 

They’ve seemed to disappear

Nowhere to drown your sorrows 

With a pint or three of beer

Let’s tear all the alehouses down

They’re such a waste of space

They use up too much land

It’s all going to waste

Chuck out the flock décor

Burn the tables and chairs

No one will kick up a fuss

Lets face it no one cares

Make a massive bonfire

Chuck in the beer mats

Then from the ashes watch them grow

A pile of luxury flats

It’s all happening, it’s all happening

In this developing northern town

Its all changing and rearranging

They’re pulling it all down

The churches all stand empty

Even on the Sabbath day

No one wants to go there

No one wants to pray

They may be impressive buildings

With gothic carvings and stained glass

They may have once meant something

But that time has long since passed

They are now in a state of disrepair

Its time to asset-strip

The roofs are already lead-free

So all we need’s a skip

Lifestyle apartments for professional types

So let’s plan a quick conversion

Give it a fancy estate agent’s name

Something or other urban 

It’s all happening, it’s all happening

In this rain-soaked northern town

Its all changing and rearranging

They’re pulling it all down

Tear down all the libraries

We don’t need them anymore

Reading’s so old fashioned 

And really quite a bore

They once mattered to someone

When people liked to read

Seeking self-improvement

Satisfying an inner need

Eating places and trendy bars

Will soon stand in their place

So every mover and shaker

Can go and stuff his face

Welcome to modern England

Where place shaping promulgates

Practitioners procuring visions

Guaranteed to alienate

It’s all happening, it’s all happening

In this functional northern town

Its all changing and rearranging

They’re pulling it all down

And when all has gone forever

We can look round and say

Perhaps we should have objected

Or stood in someone’s way

We should not have turned a blind eye

We should have got in first

Not mounting any protests

Allowed them do their worst

I suppose that such is progress

Perhaps but even so

Some things ought to be preserved

But we simply let them go

It always ends in tears

We’ve seen it all before

Slum clearance and the high rise

In the years that followed the war

Or when they reformed the railways 

Tearing up miles of track

We destroy things so efficiently

And replace it all with cack

It’s all happened, it’s all happened

In this cascading northern town

Developers have redeveloped it

They’ve pulled the whole lot down