Having made some sketches for a symphonic poem about London, Vaughan Williams was encouraged by George Butterworth to write a full symphony, and adapted these initial sketches into his London Symphony.

Vaughan Williams continued to revise the piece for many years, yet for all his changes it remained “the symphony he himself liked best of his nine”, as he told Sir John Barbirolli.

Although not strictly programmatic (Vaughan Williams suggested it would have been better titled “Symphony by a Londoner"), the work still depicts various London scenes, including the Westminster chimes, the street cries of flower sellers, and also some of the grimmer aspects of city life.

The symphony ends with the rippling of the Thames carrying the audience away from the bustling city.