A Trip Around London With Madness Quiz

Answer: Chalk Farm

The first Madness album, "One Step Beyond", did not include any direct references to London streets or landmarks. True, "The Prince" mentions Orange Street, but this is a nod to a thoroughfare in "uptown Jamaica", and is not connected with England's capital city at all.

I chose Piccadilly Circus as an option because Madness' inimitable frontman Suggs sang backing vocals on Morrissey's number 18 hit "Piccadilly Palare" in 1990.

Liverpool Street was an option because Suggs spent much of his childhood in Liverpool.

Covent Garden was one of the choices purely because it is located partly in the Borough of Camden, a place Madness filmed many of their classic videos.

Answer: Speaker's Corner

Speaker's Corner is, of course, a designated area of the park where ordinary men and women are given the freedom to say whatever they want to whoever is listening. Much of the time, political issues are discussed, but anything goes, so if you really wanted to, you could stand on your podium and wax lyrical on why cats are better than dogs, or vice versa. The area has attracted many famous visitors over the years, most notably the revolutionary German political activist Karl Marx and the celebrated English author George Orwell.

As for the other options, the famous monument to Lord Admiral Nelson is located a couple of miles away from Hyde Park in Trafalgar Square.

The Crystal Palace was first erected in Hyde Park in 1851, to house the Great Exhibition of that year. It was designed by the Bedford born architect Sir Joseph Paxton and was moved to Sydenham Hall in 1854, where it would remain until 1936 when it was destroyed by fire.

Rotten Row has historically been a meeting place for upper class citizens and its name dates back to the 14th century at the latest, referring to the erstwhile row of cottages that had become infested with rats. The wide track was established by King William III (also known as William of Orange due to his governorship of Holland) as a safety improvement for his journeys to the old St. James' Palace.

Answer: Primrose Hill

Hardly the epitomy of sophistication, "Driving In My Car" was rush released in July 1982 following the number one smash "House Of Fun" two months before. Despite its lack of worldly wisdom, the song has an innocent charm that is difficult to resist.

The lyric "I drive up to Muswell Hill" is also included in "Driving In My Car", but I asked where he bought it, rather than where he drove to.

Finsbury Park was the venue for Madness' triumphant comeback gig, Madstock, which became a fairly regular event, with three further concerts in 1994, 1996 and 1998.

West London's Venus Cafe was where the video was filmed for the band's 1981 number seven hit, "The Return Of The Los Palmas 7".

Answer: Old Kent Road

"A sorting office on the Old Kent Road caters from coast to most - a nice little number if you're out of work, and aren't the sort to boast". So begins this jaunty number as an antidote to the generally more moody feel of "The Rise And Fall".

I chose Whitechapel Road as an option due to its partnership on a UK Monopoly board as one of the cheaper "brown" properties.

Orange Street is referred to in the lyrics of the band's debut singls, "The Prince", which peaked at number sixteen on the UK top 40 in September 1979.

Kentish Town was the location of the video for the band's 1980 number three hit, "Baggy Trousers".

Answer: A hostel for the homeless

As Suggs explained to John Lewis in the May 2009 issue of "Uncut" magazine, "The street theatre in Camden in those days wasn't just Mediterranean goths juggling and fire eating, it was the fellas out of Arlington House. There were 1,500 men in there, and they'd have to leave the building between nine in the morning and four in the afternoon". The song also gives a sympathetic nod to the woman he would see trawling up and down Parkway with 200 carrier bags full of goodness knows what.

Although "One Better Day" directly references this UK shelter home, across the Atlantic there is also a memorial home of the same name. It commemorates General Robert E Lee - who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War.

The joke shop option was there because much of the action in the band's video for their only number one smash hit - "House Of Fun" - took place in what appeared to be one. In reality, it was filmed in a costume hire shop called Escapade on Camden High Street.

Finally I thought it sounded like it COULD be a part of Buckingham Palace, and the Royal residence is, indeed, included in one of the shots for arguably the band's most enduring single - the number five hit "Our House". The single also provided the septet with their biggest US peak position, reaching number seven.

Answer: Leicester Square

A fine piece of songwriting, "Victoria Gardens" was originally scheduled to be the follow up to the criminally underrated number eleven hit "Michael Caine", but was passed over in favour of "One Better Day". The lyrics ran "and now it is early evening, I look across grey Leicester Square".

Albert Square, of course, is the fictional location of the long running BBC soap opera "Eastenders".

I chose Trafalgar Square because it can certainly look grey when the vast array of pigeons that inhabit the area are circling overhead!

Berkeley Square is in the City of Westminster, and is probably most famous for its use in Manning Sherwin and Eric Maschwitz's 1940 song "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square".

Answer: Camden Town

Peaking at number fourteen in 1995, "Camden Town" was an affectionate look at one of London's most popular tourist areas.

"Baker Street" was a number three smash for Gerry Rafferty in 1978.

"Finchley Central" reached number eleven for the New Vaudeville Band in 1967.

"London Bridge" was by sometime Black Eyed Peas frontwoman Fergie, and made the dizzy heights of number three in 2006.

Answer: Big Ben

The lyric goes "Silhouettes at night, dancing over Big Ben". Many people believe that Big Ben is the name of the famous clock face. It isn't. It is the name of the bell within it.

The other three, of course, are also famous London landmarks - Madame Tussauds is the celebrated waxwork museum and Buckingham Palace, of course, is the official residence of the present monarch.

The only hit record I can connect any of them to, however, is XTC's 1980 number 31 hit "Towers Of London".

Answer: NW5

Written by pianist Mike Barson and saxophonist Lee Thompson, NW5 is the postal code for North London's Kentish Town area.

NW stands for North Western, and the other options of NW3, NW4 and NW6 relate to Hampstead, Hendon and Kilburn respectively, each one extending into the various boroughs and villages that surround them.

Answer: Colney Hatch

Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum was built in 1851 and housed 3,500 mental patients, hence its immortalisation in the vocabulary of many Londoners.
The song in question is "Mr. Speaker Gets The Word", which includes the line "Making space from Colney Hatch Lane".

Casey Street was included as an option because this is mentioned in a line from the title track of "The Rise and Fall". It is not in London though - it is an historical area Suggs recalls from his time in Liverpool.

Selsey Bill is a coastal area in West Sussex which is mentioned in "Driving In My Car".

Norton Folgate is part of the title of the group's 2009 release, "The Liberty Of Norton Folgate", which references a local government unit that was abolished in 1900. Norton Folgate itself is a thoroughfare which connects Bishopsgate with Shoreditch High Street.