stones, the, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stones, the n.

[abbr. SE cobblestones]

the streets, usu. of London.

c.1785		‘The Connaughtman’s Visit to dublin’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng. in 18C Ireland (1998) 388: [of Dublin] If ever you cath me vonst more on your stones, / I give whree leave whor to broke all my bones.
1825		Bell’s Life in London 10 Apr. 2/3: Ven vee got off the stones, I puts my nag into a trot, but Bill called out to not to be in an urry, as ve’d be only blowing our cattle.
1835		News (London) 4 Jan. 3/4: ‘He did not care a d—n if she had twins on the stones; if she had three at a birth she should not have her basket again’.
1838		implied in off the stones
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 68: Ven I first piped her, she vos a swoddys mot; vell, she did the charvering dodge, vith the other swods, so her old man turned her up, and she stumped the stones for her chances.
1868		Sportsman 24 Oct. 4/1: Notes on News [...] [T]he same conveyance which rattles the bones of defunct paupers ‘over the stones’ carries to live ones their coarse bread!
1903		Wkly. Mail (Cardiff) 12 Sept. 2/6: ‘I hope you didn’t tell them we got rid of the stuff at the coffee-house. If you did, they won’t have us there any more.’ [...] ‘No; I told them we sold it on the “stones,” but don’t say any more’.

In phrases

off the stones

outside London; not on one’s regular route.

1825		Morn. Advertiser (London) 20 June 3/3: Free Public-house and Wine Vaults, just off the stones, in one of the most pleasant situations near London.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 193: I shall get off the stones an hour arter daybreak.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 349/2: Smoking their pipes with one another when ‘off the stones’.
1865		G.F. Berkeley My Life & Recollections 274: On alighting I gave the men the sum agreed upon; but they insisted they had a right to more, because they had been ‘off the stones’, viz., into Grosvenor Place.
1876		‘Some Road Slang Terms’ in Malet Annals of the Road 395: 4. Of Coachmen Short shillings...Fares that coachmen are allowed not to put on the way-bill — generally the first stage off the stones.

on the stones

1. in the open air, usu. referring to a fight, often with sidebets and between local champions, arranged outside the normal boxing world.

1821		‘Sparring Exhibitions’ in Fancy I XVII 408: He is a rum one for a turn-up on the stones.
1895		Mirror of Life 5 Oct. 10/3: Peter Brislin was such a born fighter that he would fight on the stones on the sawdust, or on the grass, or, in fact , anywhere.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Feb. 2nd sect. 3/1: Though Griflo could not hit hard in the ring he was a terror ‘on the stones,’ and even nowadays it is a mere nothing for him to flatten out half a dozen cops who are attempting to effect his arrest.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 41: Farmers with hay loads as high as fifteen feet were arriving in Smithfield and Haymarket Street itself from early morning. The men from the hay factors were always ‘on the stones’, that is, out on the roadway, to meet them.

2. unemployed.

1840

T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 202: The coaches was took off, the hosses was sold off, and I was the third time off myself on the stones agin.

3. in London.

1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 167: No better cabhorse ever went on the stones.
1905		Chelmsford Chron. (Essex) 3 Nov. 7/6: The officer inquired where he got the animal from, and Robson replied that he had bought it ‘on the stones’ (Caledonian Market).

4. homeless; living on the street.

1866

J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 97: Here you are, chucking of yourself on the stones.

5. selling goods laid out on the pavement rather than on a stall.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 1159/2: since ca. 1910.