The song was first conceived of and largely written by Ronnie Lane, who had been reading a leaflet on the virtues of
Oxford which mentioned its
Bridge of Sighs and "dreaming spires", both referenced in the song's first stanza. A number of sources claim the song's name is derived from the nickname of
Little Ilford Park, on Church Road in the London suburb of
Manor Park, where Small Faces' singer and songwriter
Steve Marriott grew up. The "itchycoo" nickname is, in turn, attributed to the
stinging nettles which grew there. Other sources cite nearby
Wanstead Flats (Manor Park end) as the inspiration for the song. Marriott and Small Faces manager
Tony Calder came up with the well-known story when Marriott was told the
BBC had banned the song for its overt drug references, Calder confirms: Ronnie Lane said of the true location of Itchycoo Park: "It's a place we used to go to in Ilford years ago. Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it's full of nettles and you keep scratching actually".
Other possible etymologies In an interview Steve Marriott stated that Itchycoo Park is
Valentine's Park in
Ilford. "We used to go there and get stung by wasps. It's what we used to call it." This was reiterated by actor
Tony Robinson, a childhood friend of Marriott. The term "Itchycoo" also appears in the Scots language from around the 1950s, particularly referring to the itchy seeds of the rose-hip (Dog Rose).
Steve Marriott once said of Small Faces, "(We) were a mix of R&B and music hall. The R&B came from Detroit, the music hall from Stepney. That's what 'Itchycoo Park' is about ... having a drink and a party." Itchy Park refers to the grounds of
Christ Church, Spitalfields in the East End of London, laid out as gardens in 1890. In his book
A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & the 70s (2020), Mike Barnes writes that the song "epitomised a peculiarly late-Sixties English way of looking through a metaphorical lens – be it drug induced or not – at the everyday and transforming it, via the imagination, into something transcendental, almost mystical, and as such it was one of the most potent songs of the
psychedelic era, which, at most, lasted just a couple of years from 1966 to the beginning of 1968." Barnes says that, with the song, the Small Faces "began to veer into more period territory, while still making a brilliant
experimental pop single. They epitomised the way that many British musicians at this time were moving away from their influences and pursuing more individual ideas. [...] This pop song, with its memorable tune and alluring soundworld – and a Top 10 hit for the group – re-imagined humdrum Britain as somewhere that really could be perceived as being all too beautiful." ==Personnel==