Sorry, Sugwash and Charley, you should have read the link above. Folkiedave and Giok have it right. This was one of the first of Cyril's songs I ever heard, sung by a Scottish a capella trio in the Glasgow Folk Centre in about 1968. Brian Miller explained the background to the song in much the same terms as Cyril himself did, ie that the guy selling Cornish pasties found himself eased off his patch by aggressively-priced competition from hot-dog and hamburger stands - "stands" being the kind of coster's barrow that such traders would use before the advent of vans. "Stand" also refers to the station on the street where such selling would be permitted. By the dockyard gate would be a prime spot, with hundreds of customers regularly in and out. At that time, the hot-dog and hamburger men could even have been gang-related - the "big boys" would ensure that any attempt by the oggie man to hold his place couldn't last long.

Ross