subs. (old).—The House of Correction, Coldbath Fields, London (GROSE): latterly, any prison or lock-up. [Originally (HOTTEN) The Bastille.]
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 457. The only thing that frightens me when I’m in prison is sleeping in a cell by myself—you do in the Old Horse and the STEEL.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, i. 5. The ‘STEEL,’ a slang name for one of the large metropolitan prisons.
1877. GREENWOOD, Dick Temple, I. v. “And the ‘STEEL’—the place to which Mr.—a—Eggshells alludes in connection with his retirement?” “Coldbath Fields,” responded Mr. Badger, promptly. “Quod—gaol—prison—that’s the ‘STEEL.’”
1879. J. RUTHERFORD (‘Thor Fredur’), Sketches from Shady Places, 32. He pitched into the policeman, was lugged off to the ‘STEEL’ [lock-up, corruption of Bastille], had up before the magistrate, and got a month.
