As a proud East Londoner I’d love to know how many of my fellow Redditors will get involved 🙂.

23 comments

  3. I’m Essex, and grew up with some relocated Eastenders who used to babysit us. They’d grown up there pre and post war, and we were never too far from some fruity language. I’ve always employed some slang here and there, mostly for comic effect or knowing it will confuse someone, especially Aussies, yanks and Canucks.

    However, the one that sticks out for me, was actually in Eastenders, probably 25 years ago; “Nick the Bubble’s done a bunk!”

  5. Although not officially cockney slang the one I use the most is “it’s all gone Pete Tong”.

    I am also aware it’s out dated but it’s hard to shake the slang of your youth!

  8. “It hit me right in the Jacobs” always amuses me. I use it from time to time.

    I think it might have heard it on Snatch or something originally.

  9. That’s tough. I’m Middlesex, parents were NW London. But my father traded with proper Londoners (West End). Any cockney is so embedded I don’t even think about it.

    It’s more for me about using proper archaic words like “kerfuffle”.

  10. We’ve been together now for forty years/ And it don’t seem a day too much / (complete)

    Use your loaf. Get up the apples and pears. Rosie Lee. Dog and bone.

  11. In an episode of The Sweeney (rhyming slang in itself), Regan refereed to a guys teeth as his Hampsteads.
    Amazing, and something I’ve never forgotten.

  12. I like most rhyming slang so I don’t think I have a favourite but being a Skinhead, East London certainly has some of the best bands of all time.

  13. ‘I’ve had a Western-super’

    (Mare’ – I’ve had a nightmare of a day/scenario)

  15. Bag of Sand.

    I remember looking at a iPhone and the guy wanted a bag of sand and then some. Given that a 25kg bag of sand is less than a tenner (At the time and website I saw), I assumed the offer was quite reasonable depending on what the “then some” was.

    Imagine the look on my face when he said he wanted a Thousand Pounds, and his “then some” was another Hundred Pounds.

  18. “Are you avin a bubble?”

    I quite like it when it only works in a cockney accent as they rhyme laugh with bath.

  20. Bradley Wiggins caused a bit of confusion on Tour de France coverage the other day, referring to cyclists as going for a Jimmy Riddle, so I’ll go with that one.

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