World Wide Words 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.
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...
Other Subjects
Samuel Phelps
Actor/manager, born in Devonport. In his early working life he worked on the York theatre circuit and acted in numerous tragic roles. In 1837 played Shylock at the Haymarket. He then had a short r...
Claudia Fontaine
Claudia Fontaine was an backing vocalist from Peckham, London. Guardian obituary. The plaque has Fontaine spelt as Fontayne.
Royal Opera House
Home of the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera. Originally built in 1732 as a playhouse. The current building is the third on the site, following the fires that destroyed the first two.
S. K. Golder
Member of the office staff of Trinity College of Music, killed in WW1.
Brian Poole
Singer. Born in Dagenham. He became lead singer with the Tremeloes (originally Tremoloes), and had several hit singles in the 1960s including 'Twist and Shout' and 'Do You Love Me'. The group split...
Previously viewed
Lockerbie bench - 01 - crew
TW9, Kew Gardens
We have numbered these 17 plaques, anti-clockwise, starting from the plaque for the whole crew which faces the water. Oddly, the last two...
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon
Born Wiltshire. His daughter, Anne married the Duke of York, who eventually became James II. His son was Henry. Close to Charles II even before the Restoration he was appointed his Chancellor of t...
13 Croydon - Christopher Wren
CR9, Katharine Street, Croydon Public Library
Built in 1892 by Charles Henman Jr. this heavily decorated complex of buildings makes up Croydon's Town Hall. The building and the rounde...
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them