Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a brothel.

1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin I viii: The cull with you who’d venture into a snoozing-ken, / Like Blackamore Othello, should ‘put out the light — and then’.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Snoozing Ken. A brothel. The swell was spiced in a snoozing ken of his screens; the gentleman was robbed of his bank notes in a brothel.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1833		‘Ye Scamps, Ye Pads, Ye Divers’ Regular Thing, And No Mistake 63: [as cit. 1781–2].
1833		advert for The Flash Mirror in Funny Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 34: Containing [...] a famous Guide to all the Flash Houses, Meeting Houses, Boozing Kens, and Snoozing Kens in London [...] The whole faked out, laid down, and taken up for the benefit of his Pals, by a regular Slangsman.
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: And where the fence and snoozing-ken, / With all the prigs and lushing men.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: Big Moll Johnson, the Amazon of ‘Hooker’s division,’ a ‘rusty’ old ‘gin pig,’ lost to virtue and wedded to sin, was before the ‘beakquere’ [...] for creating a disturbance in the ‘snoozing ken’.

2. (also snuskin) a bedroom, a bed.

1807		H. Tufts Autobiog. (1930) 293: Snuskin signifies a bed.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 2 Jan. 389/1: [T]he arrival of a rattler and four, with a few choice spirits, who soon had the waiter from his snoozing ken.
1833		Dublin Obs. 26 Jan. 11/4: A sporting crib, where the Deaf ’un has taken up a temporary ‘snoozing ken’.
1834		‘Of All The Blowings On The Town’ in Flash Chaunter 6: I’ll hasten to her snoozing ken, / Along with my flash Sally, / And on her bed, I’ll lay my head.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 125: Snoozing ken, a sleeping room.

3. (also snoozing-crib, snoozing jug) a lodging house [crib n.¹ (1)/jug n.¹ (2)].

1818		W. Perry London Guide 223: Neither the one nor the other ever nose the snoozing ken, where they inhabit.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 297: There were lots of kids who preferred having forty winks upon their chairs, than tipping an extravagant sum for an hour or two in a snoozing ken.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 208: ‘Where have you sent him to Kit?’ whispered Jared. ‘Why to the snoozing ken in Drury lane, to be sure.’.
1852		‘The Cadger’s Ball’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 148: To Mother Swankey’s snoozing-crib; / Each downey cadger was seen taking / His bit of muslin, or his rib.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 153: I kidded a swell in a snoozing-ken, and shook him of his dummy and thimble.
1887		Oakland Trib. (CA) 17 Sept. 10/1: Poor old Bottle alley in Baxter street has become a mere snoozing ken for vagrants.
1889		Clarkson & Richardson Police! 237: In ‘flash’ language, the resorts are described, not as lodging houses, but [...] ‘dossing cribs,’ ‘snoozing jugs,’ ‘cadgers’ covers,’ ‘tourist cabins,’ and ‘buskers’ retreats’.