The East End Language Tourists Don’t Realise Londoners Are Speaking

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You’re in a black cab heading from Liverpool Street when the driver mutters something about his “plates of meat”. You nod politely. You have absolutely no idea what he just said.

Welcome to Cockney rhyming slang — the two-hundred-year-old code language that grew up in London’s East End and has never quite gone away.

Where Cockney Rhyming Slang Actually Came From

The exact origins are disputed, but most historians trace the language to the 1840s in London’s East End.

Market traders, street sellers, and dock workers developed it as a way to speak without being understood by police, customs officers, or customers. It was a working-class defence mechanism dressed up as wordplay.

The East End at that time was one of the most densely crowded places in Britain. Streets like Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, and Spitalfields were packed with poverty, commerce, and community all at once. The people who lived and worked there needed their own language.

Some historians believe Irish immigrants arriving in the 1840s brought a tradition of coded speech that merged with East London’s market culture. Others point to Romani influence on the language of street traders. Most likely it was a blend of both, shaped by the specific pressures of urban working-class life.

What is certain is that it spread quickly through the tightly knit communities of the East End — passed from parent to child, from market stall to pub, from street corner to factory floor.

How It Actually Works — and Why It Is So Confusing

The mechanics are simple. The effect is baffling.

You take a phrase that rhymes with the word you want to say. Then — and this is the crucial part — you drop the rhyming word entirely.

So “stairs” becomes “apples and pears”. But in actual speech, you say just “apples”. Anyone who knows the code understands immediately. Anyone who doesn’t is left guessing.

This is what makes it so impenetrable to outsiders. You cannot even hear the rhyme that gives it meaning.

Here are some of the most common terms still in use today:

• Dog and bone = phone (you say “dog”)
• Trouble and strife = wife (you say “trouble”)
• Plates of meat = feet (you say “plates”)
• Adam and Eve = believe (you say “Adam”)
• Butcher’s hook = look (you say “butcher’s”)
• Bread and honey = money (you say “bread”)
• Mince pies = eyes (often said in full — one of the exceptions)
• China plate = mate (you say “china”)

A Cockney might say: “Blimey, take a butcher’s at that — I couldn’t Adam and Eve it.” Translation: “Look at that — I couldn’t believe it.”

The Phrases That Have Made It Into Everyday British English

Not all Cockney rhyming slang stayed local. Some phrases leaked so thoroughly into mainstream British English that most speakers have no idea where they came from.

When someone says they’re having a “butcher’s” (a look), they’re using Cockney. When they call someone a “berk” — well, that’s the polite version of a far ruder phrase involving “Berkshire Hunt”.

“Porky pies” meaning lies has appeared on national television. “Apples and pears” turns up in school textbooks. “Gordon Ramsay” now informally means taxi in some circles — a recent addition that proves the language is still growing.

The language that began as a way to stop police understanding what market traders were saying now appears in broadsheet crosswords, prime-time comedy, and everyday conversation across Britain.

That is a remarkable journey for a code that started in a Victorian street market.

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Who Still Speaks Cockney — and Where They Live Now

Cockney was always tied to geography. The traditional definition: someone born within earshot of the Bow Bells at St Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside.

Today, that area is largely offices and City workers. The original Cockney heartlands have shifted east — to Hackney, Barking, Romford, and out into Essex.

Some linguists now talk about “Multicultural London English” as the successor to traditional Cockney. This broader urban dialect blends Caribbean, South Asian, and East End influences and is spoken by young Londoners across the capital regardless of background.

But the rhyming slang itself survives. It lives in pubs, on market stalls, in cab offices, and on building sites across East London and Essex. Older residents of Bethnal Green or Bow switch in and out of it as naturally as breathing. It is not performance. It is home.

It is also used as a deliberate badge of identity — a connection to a culture that property prices and chain coffee shops are gradually eroding.

How to Experience Cockney London on Your Visit

To understand this culture properly, you need to get east of the City.

Spitalfields Market on a Sunday morning still carries something of that original market energy — street food, traders, banter between stalls.

Brick Lane rewards those who explore beyond the curry houses. The Sunday market at its northern end, the vintage clothing shops, the old Truman Brewery complex — these reveal layers of East London history that stretch back centuries.

On Sunday mornings, Columbia Road Flower Market fills the air with sellers calling out prices in a mix of banter and slang. Go early — it gets packed by ten o’clock.

The food that grew up alongside the slang is still here too. Jellied eels, pie and mash, and whelks are East End staples that survived the Blitz, the slum clearances, and the arrival of artisan coffee shops. Several pie and mash shops have been in the same families for four generations.

If you want help planning your trip around these areas, our London trip planning guide covers getting around, the best neighbourhoods, and how to make the most of your time in the city.

What is Cockney rhyming slang and how does it work?

Cockney rhyming slang is a coded language that originated in London’s East End in the 1840s. It replaces a word with a two-word phrase that rhymes with it, then drops the rhyming word. So “stairs” becomes “apples and pears”, shortened to just “apples”. Only those who know the code can follow the conversation.

Do people in London still use Cockney rhyming slang today?

Yes, particularly in East London and Essex, where older generations use it naturally in daily speech. Many individual phrases have also spread into mainstream British English — “butcher’s hook” for look, “dog and bone” for phone, and “porky pies” for lies are widely understood across the country even by people who would not call themselves Cockney.

What are the most common Cockney rhyming slang phrases?

The most frequently used include plates of meat (feet), dog and bone (phone), Adam and Eve (believe), trouble and strife (wife), butcher’s hook (look), bread and honey (money), and china plate (mate). In each case, only the first word is spoken — so “I’m on the dog” means “I’m on the phone”.

Where can I hear Cockney rhyming slang in London?

Your best chances are in the East End’s traditional market areas — Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday mornings, Spitalfields, and the older streets around Bethnal Green and Bow. Black cab drivers are a reliable source, as the trade has deep East End roots and many still use it naturally in conversation.

The next time a London cab driver says something you cannot quite follow, don’t just nod. Ask them to explain it. You’ll get a ten-minute education in a language passed down through families for nearly two centuries — and a conversation you could not have anywhere else on earth.

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