20 Famous Words & Phrases Born in London

Interesting! I particularly liked the origin of "bold as brass" and the evolution of "subway."

How cool and fun! I just added the video my YouTube queue! :-)

Thanks GerryM

Gerry, I love this! Thank you so much for posting it! What a fun and informative video! They’re all great! I had to look up on Google maps Tenter Ground. Who knew?

That was fun! I never knew where "spend a penny" came from. I don't hear it any more, maybe I heard that one more in the UK.

Love this- thank you! My favourites- Spitalfields, tabloid, daylight robbery, not up to scratch!

I enjoyed the segment about Keep Calm and Carry On, the wartime poster you can see in every souvenir shop in one form or another these days. I did some classes at Birkbeck when I first moved to London and that was the first time I'd seen Senate House. (where it originated at the "Ministry of Information") If I had a top 10 of buildings in London, that would definitely be in there. It's quite reminiscent of a grand imposing building from an American east coast city of the turn of the century, I guess it's from a similar time period. It's definitely more Gotham City than New York City.

When you find out the origin of “Gotham” it will blow your mind. And it should be pronounced Goat’m. (It’s in Nottinghamshire)

I'm a fan of historical fiction and always enjoy when the history of a word makes its way into a story. The latest for me was "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey." My Dad often used that phrase and I giggled every time as a young boy, and had no idea it was a nautical phrase. I'm sure my Dad didn't either, but liked to annoy my Mom with crude phrases.

It's interesting to have Tyburn mentioned in the video. I'm not sure how many visitors to London hear about the history. It's an easy spot to find, just by Marble Arch.

I'm a fan of historical fiction and always enjoy when the history of a word makes its way into a story. The latest for me was "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey." My Dad often used that phrase and I giggled every time as a young boy, and had no idea it was a nautical phrase. I'm sure my Dad didn't either, but liked to annoy my Mom with crude phrases.

You sometimes hear this phrase in an abbreviated form. “It’s proper brass monkeys today,” is something I would say on a very cold morning. Or “it’s brass monkeys out there.”

"The Clink", to mean the jail, is another one that appears alongside an interesting location in the video.

The Clink Prison Museum in Bankside is featured. In some cultural history that very few on this forum can relate to probably, that was the site of Clink Street Studios. "Clink Street" was one of the venues that birthed the acid house revolution in London in 1988. Nicky Holloway and Danny Rampling had already returned to London with their ideas of clubbing from Ibiza and were running Shoom! and The Trip, but Clink Street was somewhere by all accounts that was open to all, rather than the hipper clubs with less inclusive door policies. Clink Street was the purest distillation of the idea of people coming together under the strobe lights and in the smoke. It's often said that house music, club culture and ecstasy put an end to the period of football hooliganism that had lasted throughout the 80's. Clink Street was really one place where the warring hooligan firms of London could come together and unite to dance.

An article goes into some more detail - https://mixmag.net/feature/deep-inside/6

The Clink Prison Museum - https://maps.app.goo.gl/ejM2L19rTZz99jgD8

learn so much round here