Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also Smokey) London, as regarded from the provinces; occas. as Smoke.

[1764		Foote Lyar in Works (1799) I 277: My provident papa, you know, would never suffer me near the smoke of London].
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 237: smoke London. Country-people, when going to the metropolis, frequently say they are on their way to the smoke; and Londoners, when leaving for the country, say they are going out of the smoke.
1873		Sl. Dict. 298: Smoke London. From the peculiar dense cloud which overhangs London. The metropolis is by no means so smoky as Sheffield, Birmingham, &c.; yet country-people, when going to London, frequently say they are on their way to the smoke.
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 1 Sept. 7/3: Going to the smoke for the winter? I am.
1888		Cornishman 14 June 7/1: The Cockneys from the ‘great smoke’ never fraternised with the ‘hardware blokes’ from Birmingham.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 71: What? lend ye yer fare back to the smoke? Not me.
1906		Marvel 24 Nov. 494: Towards the ‘Smoke’ – London, yer know.
1917		Camperdown Chron. (Aus.) 26 May n.p.: Everyone knows ‘Blighty’, but how many would recognise that expressive colloquialism for London, ‘The Smoke’.
1927		(con. 1925) ‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 199: ‘Running down to Smoke, perhaps?’ jeered Dusty; hitting at my regular game of London and back for tea.
1933		‘George Orwell’ Down and Out in Complete Works I (1986) 176: These (omitting the ones that everyone knows) are some of the cant words now used in London: [...] Smoke – London.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Smokey: London.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 34: Six months for knocking off a car. Up in the Smoke that was.
1957		J. Braine Room at the Top (1959) 187: You know, the jovial type you met in the Smoke at Christmas.
1959		F. Norman Fings II i: It looks like I’m about to be the guv’nor of ‘The Smoke’.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 91: He’d make a killing and clear off to the Cotswolds; a country pub with snacks, [...] to hell with the Smoke.
1968		A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 365: Laid out, brad, in some arsee plum-and-apple in the Smoke.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 162: He bolts back to the smoke.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 266: I understand that the Krays and Richardsons came here from the Smoke [...] and were knocked back by the club-owners of the day.
1999		Guardian Travel 28 Aug. 2: Brighton’s character is the complete opposite of the Smoke.
2007		S. Maconie Pies and Prejudice (2008) 14: I, like most northerners, maintain a cordial suspicion of ‘the Smoke’.
2011		D.D. Brazill ‘Lady and the Gimp’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] She used to be the singer in that punk band [...] before they moved down to the smoke.

2. (Aus./US) any big city, e.g. Sydney, Melbourne.

1848		H.W. Haygarth Recollections of Bush Life in Aus. 6: As he gradually leaves behind him the ‘big smoke’ (as the aborigines picturesquely call the town), the accommodations become more and more scanty .
1946		Sun (Sydney) 29 Sept. 15/1: When King became Gov. in 1800 he discovers that these smart alecks were bringing the stuff into the smoke for eight peg a gallon and the public were buying it for two smackers.
1954		(con. 1940s) E. Lambert Veterans 16: Those that live in Sydney, anyway . . . You live in the Smoke?
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 140: Ed’s a bushy [...] First time in the Smoke.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 73: Looks pretty lousy after the big smoke.
1997		L. Davies Candy 54: A Western District farmer down in the big smoke for a couple of days.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] [of Brisbane] It was Billy who’d helped him [...] save the dying son of a wealthy businessman, which had earned Jack his ticket back to the smoke.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 112: We’re in Sydney! the big smoke.

3. (Aus.) without def. article, Melbourne.

1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 June 21/1: ‘Your mate’s in smoke, and all the Presbyterian coppers in Melbourne are looking for him’.
1941		Howard ‘Heat’ in Mann Coast to Coast 128: In smoke for five months [...] Two rooms in Melbourne, we had.