King Pippin's Hall Lyrics
King Pippin builds a fine hall with pie-crust walls, black and white pudding windows and pancakes for slates, a kind of house you never saw the like of.
King Pippin's Hall
King Pippin built a fine new hall,
Pastry and pie-crust were the wall;
Windows made of black pudding and white,
Slates were pancakes, you ne'er saw the like.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/king-pippins-hall/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Recited with a grand, proud voice
- Best for ages
- 3 to 7 years
Hand Motions and Actions
| When you sing | Do this |
|---|---|
| King Pippin built a fine new hall | Stretch both arms wide to show a very big hall. |
| Windows made of black pudding and white | Draw a square in the air with your fingers. |
| Slates were pancakes | Flip an imaginary pancake in the air. |
What Does King Pippin's Hall Mean?
Everything in this hall is something to eat. The walls are pastry and pie-crust, the windows are made from black and white pudding, and the roof slates are pancakes. The joke is that a grand king would not build with stone and glass but with a baker's shopping list.
The last line says you never saw the like, which is true. It is a good rhyme for children who like silly food pictures, and it invites them to invent a different house built from their favourite dishes.
History and Origin
Walter Jerrold prints the rhyme in The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (1903) with no author named. In the book it follows a short verse called "The Division of Labour", about the cock on the housetop and the bull in the barn.
The next page of the book carries the "If all the world were apple-pie" verse, another rhyme in which food takes the place of ordinary things.
Learning Activities
- Build a food house: draw a hall with walls, windows and a roof made of food.
- Pancake roof: make pancakes and arrange them like slates on a plate.
- Design a menu: write what your own palace would be made of.
- Rhyme match: spot the two rhyming pairs in the four lines.