phrase
General Slang
back of Rackhams
· phrase · brummie
Birmingham's old red-light district — behind the famous department store.
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Definitions
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Euphemism for the city-centre red-light area that operated behind the Rackhams store. Used as a put-down (especially of a woman's dress or makeup) — 'she looks like she's just come from the back of Rackhams'. Properly old-school Brummie; the trade has long since moved on but the phrase stuck.
“Look at the state of that outfit — straight off the back of Rackhams.”
by community
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back of Rackhams In A Sentence
Look at the state of that outfit — straight off the back of Rackhams.
Origin & Usage
Rackhams was Birmingham's grand department store on Corporation Street (later House of Fraser, closed 2024). The streets behind it — particularly around Needless Alley and the Minories — were a notorious soliciting beat from the 1960s through the 1990s.
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