Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the criminal ‘no-man’s-land’ of 16C London; divided into Alsatia the Higher (Whitefriars in the City) and Alsatia the Lower (around the Mint in Southwark).

1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia n.p.: Cant List: Alsatia. White-fryers.
1692		C. Gildon Dialogue from Hell of Cuckoldom 17: We [...] left our Estates to our Wives at our Death, who will be sure to bestow them on some Silly, Hectoring spend-thrift Bully of Alsatia.
1709		R. Steele Tatler No. 66 n.p.: There are another Pack of Dogs [pickpockets/thieves] said to be whelped in Alsatia, now in Ruins.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 201: Alsatia, Whitefriars [...] Alsatia the Higher, the same [...] Alsatia the Lower, the Mint in Southwark.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: Alsatia the higher White-Fryers, once a Privileg’d Place, as the Mint was lately; but suppress’d, on Account of the notorious Abuses committed in it [...] This Place also, when subsisting, used to furnish the corrupt Members of the Law with Affidavit-Men, or Knights of the Post; who were afterwards obliged to resort to Alsatia the lower, the Mint in Southwark, the Liberties whereof being abus’d, occasion’d an Act to pass in the Session of Parliament, 9o. Georgii, to suppress the same. Since which, they have refug’d themselves in Wapping, and erected a New Mint there; but have so irregularly and riotously behaved themselves in it [...] that they have brought themselves under the Cognizance of the Parliament, who are now actually taking effectual Measures to suppress them.
1727		‘The Martin and the Oyster or the Alsatia Amour’ in 18C Collections Online n.p.: Thus out Alsatia Martin blends / His S---d with Fish and Flesh.
1737		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: alsatia the Higher; White Fryars, once a privileged Place, as the Mint was lately; but suppressed, on Account of the notorious Abuses committed in it. [...] alsatia the Lower, the Mint in Southwark.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1827		High Life in London 30 Dec. 4/4: Yes, we have witnessed sad scenes at Almacks’: yet not worse [...] than have immortalized the Holylands, and embalmed the memory of Alsatia.
1839		(con. 1715) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 139: The Archduke of Alsatia, the Sovereign of the Savoy, and the Satrap of Salisbury Court.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 109/1: Alsatia, in modern cant a place of security against the law, a hiding place, a stall slum – originally White Friars [...] also the Mint.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 100: I would rather be a knight of Alsatia than a plucked pigeon.
1867		Sportsman 1 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The historic precincts of Alsatia have their modem representative in Holborn [...] London of to-day seems to be a vigorous revival of the times when ‘bloods’ and ‘bucks’ swaggered about [...] to the annoyance and danger of [...] ‘cits’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1, pertaining to crime.

1704		Swift Tale of a Tub 18: The second instance to shew the author’s wit is not his own, is Peter’s banter (as he calls it in his alsatia phrase) upon transubstantiation.
1809		Yankey in London 105: He was a gentleman of too refined taste to advocate this Alsatia term.

3. in fig. use, any no-man’s land.

1831		Navy at Home I 116: There was one part of the ship, in spite of his vigilance and severity, that he never could keep in any tolerable order — a sort of Alsatia afloat — Now this place was no other than the steerage and the Alsatians, the midshipmen, who had a sort of prescriptive right to play all sorts of pranks.
1852		T. Beames Rookeries of London 4: Whence came these Rookeries? Were they prison colonies, safety valves, so many Alsatias [...] girdled round by certain barriers which confined the pestilence within a given circle?
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 167: No lords or squires of high degree live in this political Alsatia [i.e. Soho].
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 66: So Blind Peter is the Alsatia of Slopperton, a refuge for crime and destitution.
1876		Lord Justice James Law Times 35 718: The Stock Exchange is not an alsatia; the Queen’s laws are paramount there, and the Queen’s writ runs even into the sacred precincts of Capel-court [F&H].
1879		Besant & Rice ‘The Seamy Side’ in Appleton’s Journal (N.Y.) Nov. 413: What better place could be found than a quiet street south of Whitechapel? It is not an Alsatia — not at all: it is a highly respectable place.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 1/1: Collingwood — the Alsatia of Melbourne.
1896		C.H. Haswell Reminiscences of City of N.Y. 376: There were other notorious locations [...] Maloney’s and ‘Bottle Alley,’ both of which were an ‘Alsatia’ or harbour for human derelicts, criminals of the lowest grade, and tramps.
1911		J.W. Horsley Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 129: Part of the parish was locally and expressively called ‘The Dusthole,’ and formed an Alsatia for vice and crime.
1933		‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 171: The lodging-house was an Alsatia for types like these.