We didn't have no where to live, / we didn't have nowhere to go 'til someone said / "I know this place off Burditt Road." It was on the fifteenth floor, / it had a board across the door. It took an hour / to pry it off and get inside. / It smelt as if someone had died; the living-room was full of flies, / the kitchen sink was blocked, the bathroom sink not there at all. / Ooh, / it's a mess alright, / yes it's Mile End. / And now we're living in the sky! / I'd never thought I'd live so high, / just like Heaven / (if it didn't look like Hell.) The lift is always full of piss, / the fifth floor landing smells of fish (not just on Friday, / every single other day.) Below the kids come out tonight, / they kick a ball and have a fight and maybe shoot somebody if they lose at pool. Ooh, / it's a mess alright, / yes it's / Mile End. [mumbled mutterings... you love it...] Oo-ooh / Nobody wants to be your friend 'cause you're not from round here, / ooh / as if that was something to be proud about. / The pearly king of the Isle of Dogs feels up children in the bogs. / Down by the playing fields, someone sets a car on fire I guess you have to go right down before you understand just how, / how low, how low a human being can go.