Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Brighton.

1869		Man about Town 2 Oct. 29/2: [O]ther kinds of discipline, only tolerated because the venue is London-super-Mare, instead of London.
1889		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 16 Feb. 14/1: At Brighton, Addie Conyers [...] plays lead in the Forty Thieves. No wonder so many of the ‘boys’ have paid such frequent visits to London-by-the-Sea of late.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 9 Aug. 8/1: He opened very shortly afterwards at the Oxford, Brighton, which has very properly been termed ‘London-by-the-Sea’.

syphilis.

1697

J. Dunton Night-Walker Feb. 2: Strangers, instead of saying the French Pox may [...] call it the English-Pox, and the London Disease, rather than the Neapolitan Disease.

1. a dog [rhy. sl.].

1930

(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier.

2. (Aus.) any manual worker who does not perform their share of the work [such a person ‘will not lift’].

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxvi 4/1: london fog: Any person who will not lift.
1979		S. Moran Reminiscences of Rebel 59: On the Sydney waterfront nearly everyone had a nick-name. The odd worker who didn’t pull his weight was always a butt [...] The London Fog (never lifts).
1991		National Times (Sydney) 25 Jan. 24/2: A lazy wharfie would be known as ‘the Judge’ because he was always sitting on a case, and another ‘the London Fog’ because he would never lift.
2021		Betoota-isms 71: London Fog [...] 2. A lethargic tradie who never gets stuck into hard labour.

1. dust.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

2. fog.

1889		Sport Life 4 Jan. n.p.: A cold caught by contact with London ivy [F&H].
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

see jemmy n.³

Brighton beach, ‘where the “eight-hours-at-the-seas-side” excursionists dine in the open air’ (Hotten 1864).

1864, 1867, 1870

Hotten Sl. Dict.

1. a type of Madeira wine, imported especially for London merchants.

1802		Chester Guardian 30 Mar. 1/5: On Sale [...] Old London particular Madeira.
1807		Irving & Paulding Salmagundi (1860) 292: Prime port, claret, or London particular.
1828		G. Smeeton Doings in London 75: When the whole is mixed together [...] and reduced to the required colour, by means of lamb’s blood, it is considered excellent! and puffed to the public, as Old London Particular!
1831		Navy at Home II 243: [He] slipped into his cabin, and, from his private locker, produced a bottle of London particular.
1840		Era (London) 5 Jan. 12/3: Wine in Bond [...] Madeira [...] Direct London particular , first 50l to 55l.

2. a London fog or smog [? the pale yellow colour of sense 1 or the image of such a fog appearing only in London].

1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 83: ‘This is a London particular now, ain’t it, miss?’ [...] ‘The fog is very dense, indeed!’ said I.
1889		Nottingham Eve. Post 14 Nov. 4/2: A‘London Particular’. A dense fog prevailed this morning over London.
1890		Kipling ‘Adoration of the Mage’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 25 Jan. (1909) 226: [W]e stepped into a London Particular [...] we could not see our hands before our faces. The black, brutal fog had turned each gas-jet into a pin-prick of light [...] There were no houses, there were no pavements.
1904		Gloucester Citizen 22 Dec. 3/3: A ‘London Particular’ [...] A dense black fog, which suddenly overwhelmed Westminster [...] several omnibuses found themselves on the pavement.
1916		Western Dly Press 28 Dec. 7/4: A ‘London Particular’. Worst fog for many years .
1923		Western Times 23 Feb. 12/1: [headline] Experiments to Disperse the ‘London Particular’.
1927		Derby Dly Teleg. 23 Nov. 6/1: [headline] ‘London’s Particular’. Mid-day’s Midnight Darkness.

the anus.

1992

R. Puxley Cockney Rabbit.

(mainly Aus.) a certainty, the longest possible odds.

1824		P. Egan Boxiana n.p.: Sampson received an echoing blow in the short ribs and wind, and went down down wofully distressed, 10 to 1. The poundage went round in vain, and a Cockney called out ‘all London to a brick!’.
1909		Dly Post (Hobart, Tas.) 24 Dec. 12/7: [advert] We Think We Are Safe in Betting London to a Brick That One of the Sweetest Times of Your Life is When Mounted on a hallam cycle.
1917		Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW) 16 Oct. n.p.: Had the latter got away on even terms with the winner it would have been London to a brick on the mare; as it was she lost many lengths, and was then only beaten by a short head.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 108: London to a brick on Magger.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 50: London to a brick you had to put some plonk into her.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 236: ‘I’ll give you London to a brick, these names have been taken off any register of clients held at, where di they work? [...] Yes, these eggs have been poached’.
2014		Age (Melbourne) 17 Mar. n.p.: Even with advancing technology and ever more sophisticated extraction methods though, it is London to a brick that the price of crude oil will rise sharply in the longer term.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 45: ‘London to a brick he wasn’t paying award rate’.