Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. Goldsmith’s Row, London E2.

1607		Middleton Michaelmas Term III iv: Where grows this pleasant fruit, says one citizen’s wife in the Row.
1616		Jonson Devil is an Ass III i: But there’s not so much gold in all the Row.

2. Paternoster Row, EC4, the centre of London publishing.

1696		Character of the Beaux 29: Pray Sir, take my word for’t, there’s not such a Silk again, in the whole Row.
1776		G. Colman Spleen I i: To be cooped up in the Row, amidst the smell of the printing-house.
1812		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 84/2: ’Tis not confined, we all must know, / To vulgar tradesmen in the Row.
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 339/2: Nor did the Doctor fail to go / To the bright region of the Row.
1836		Hull Packet 25 Nov. 4/1: When I was young I wrote a book and sold it in ‘the Row’.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 216: Row ‘the Row,’ i.e., Paternoster Row.
1873		Sl. Dict.

3. (Irish) New Row, Dublin, the site of the prison.

c.1791

Kilmainham Minit in Walsh Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1885) 88: But when dat we come to de Row, / Oh, dere was no meat in de market; / De boy he had travelled afore.

4. Rotten Row, London SW1.

1864		E. Yates Broken to Harness I 63: As De Blague [...] was leaning over the rails in the Row, Miss Mellon rode up.
1877		J. Diprose London Life 25: The hire of a horse for a ride in the ‘Row.’.
1879		C. Dickens Jnr Dict. of London 22: Bond Street. Those who would see the lounger of the present day must look for him in the Row.
1893		Richard Barnard ‘The King of the Strand’ 🎵 Don’t talk to me of Regent St., of Pall Mall or the ‘Row’ [...] But of the Strand, the dear old Strand.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Mar. 13/3: N.S.W. Lands Minister Tom Hassall [...] fairly ‘paralysed’ Rotten-row for a season in company with his friends, who shone with his reflected light while he ‘witched the Row with noble horsemanship.’.
1912		Leo & Bastow [perf. George Bastow] ‘Beauty of the Guards’ 🎵 When I’m perched on my bonny little grey gee-gee / In the Row.

5. Club Row, London E1.

1896

M. Williams Round London 25: Three of the largest bird-dealers in ‘the Row’ are teetotalers.

6. (US prison) the condemned cells, i.e. Death Row n.

1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die x: It [i.e. a book] deals with the Row, and with Quentin as seen from the Row.
1953		T. Runyon In For Life 140: Had it not been for a good lawyer, I might be in the Row myself.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 15: Eighty men were waiting on the row.
1980		Jackson & Christian Death Row 156: You find this quite regularly on the Row.

7. (US campus) fraternity or sorority row, i.e. the line of adjacent fraternity or sorority houses on a campus.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U. 190: There are so many parties on the Row tonight.