The Language of London by Daniel Smith

Author:Daniel Smith [Smith, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books

CROWN JEWELS – Tools

The rhyme elegantly suggests the great value of tools to the workman.

* Benny Hill – drill. Hill was a comedian and actor most famous for his cheeky-chappy character. He seemed to spend much of his career chasing or being chased by scantily clad young lovelies to the tune of ‘Yakety Sax’.

* Cock sparrow – barrow. Cock sparrow also doubles as a Cockney term for a mate or chum (as in ‘You OK, me old cock sparrow’ or alternatively, ‘me old cocker’).

* Elsie Tanner – spanner. Elsie Tanner was a much-loved character from Coronation Street, played by Pat Phoenix from 1960 until 1984.

* Leaky bladder – ladder. Possibly referring to the effects that a particularly high climb can have on the uninitiated.

Costermongers

A costermonger is a name for a street seller of fruit, vegetables and assorted other produce. During their heyday in the mid-nineteenth century, there were crowds of costermongers throughout the capital, especially around the great markets like Covent Garden, Billingsgate, Spitalfields and Smithfield.

Relations between costermongers and the police were notoriously bad. The costermongers liked to regulate themselves and imposed their own forms of street justice when one of their number stepped out of line. They were less interested in involving the authorities and created their own languages in the interests of retaining confidentiality.

In his 1859 Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words, John Camden Hotten wrote of the costermongers in hardly glowing terms, outlining their ‘low habits, general improvidence, love of gambling, total want of education, disregard for lawful marriage ceremonies, and their use of a peculiar slang language’.

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