To me this song is taking place on Trafalgar Square.
"Dirty town" would be London, then (and believe me, it is dirty and would have been much more so in the 80s).
The "square" is pretty self-explanatory.
There are "flags" in front of the National Gallery sometimes and always on top of it and several other buildings around the Square.
The "church" would be Saint-Martin-in-the -Fields then.
The "station" would be the Charing Cross underground station which has an entrance on Trafalgar Square (near that entrance there is a traffic light also mentioned in the song).
And of course there are the "lions made of stone", the four huge stone lions beneath Nelson's Column.
Of course this is only my interpretation, influenced by the fact that I have walked across Trafalgar Square feeling lonely like the girl mentioned in the song myself several times.
But the similarities between this song and the location are striking and we know (from "Wild West End" on the same album) that Knopfler wrote about a location just 2 min away on foot.
Well, I can only say that whenever I hear this song it reminds me of those lonely times on Trafalgar Square at sunset I have experienced.
To me this song is taking place on Trafalgar Square. "Dirty town" would be London, then (and believe me, it is dirty and would have been much more so in the 80s). The "square" is pretty self-explanatory. There are "flags" in front of the National Gallery sometimes and always on top of it and several other buildings around the Square. The "church" would be Saint-Martin-in-the -Fields then. The "station" would be the Charing Cross underground station which has an entrance on Trafalgar Square (near that entrance there is a traffic light also mentioned in the song). And of course there are the "lions made of stone", the four huge stone lions beneath Nelson's Column.
Of course this is only my interpretation, influenced by the fact that I have walked across Trafalgar Square feeling lonely like the girl mentioned in the song myself several times. But the similarities between this song and the location are striking and we know (from "Wild West End" on the same album) that Knopfler wrote about a location just 2 min away on foot.
Well, I can only say that whenever I hear this song it reminds me of those lonely times on Trafalgar Square at sunset I have experienced.