In the introduction to the live version, he says this is "a song about a place I used to live," but it is far more than that.
Al met his girlfriend Mandi in early 1967 when he played the Central School of Speech and Drama. On New Year's Day 1968, he moved into his basement flat at number 10, Elvaston Place in South West London; for all intents and purposes he and Mandi were living there together, although they had an open relationship, which wasn't entirely to his satisfaction. On May 4, 1969 there was a party at John Martyn's Putney home - which inspired the song "Night Of The Fourth Of May." Al and Mandi left the party separately, and when they arrived back at Elvaston Place there was a bust up. The next morning, she left for Cambridge and thence to Spain to holiday with her parents. The story of what happened next is related in "
The News From Spain."
In "Elvaston Place," Al relates how he lived in his basement flat with little money in his pocket as a nascent folk singer intent on achieving fame and fortune, but happy just to look at her sitting beside him. By the time he recorded this song, his
Love Chronicles had been voted Folk Album Of The Year by
Melody Maker and
Zero She Flies had been its Folk Album Of The Month. Shortly he would be literally raking in the bucks, but as he says here:
All the money that I've ever owned
I'd give it all tomorrow
If I could lay happy beside you
In Elvaston PlaceThe final verse sees him returning to his old home:
You once held a love of mine
She changed just like the weather
The Kensington skies go on for ever
In Elvaston PlaceMandi did indeed change just like the weather, and it was not until he met his future wife at the age of 42 that he finally managed to lay her ghost to rest.