Brixton shuffle

English

Etymology

In reference to HM Prison Brixton and its exercise yard.

Noun

Brixton shuffle (plural not attested)

1. (UK, slang) A shuffling style of walking associated with former prisoners.
   • 1978, Mark Goulden, Mark My Words!, page 189:

     […] bearing unmistakably that scrubbed, carbolic look which is the hallmark of people who have lived in institutions. This institutional aura is as easy to detect as is the Brixton shuffle which characterises the gait of a man who has been 'inside'.

   • 2001, Tibor Fischer, Don't Read this Book If You're Stupid, page 238:

     You got into the Brixton shuffle. Shove, step, fuck off. Shove, step, fuck off, until you were clear. She didn't know what it was about Brixton; it was over some fault and allowed a strange brew, a ghost beer, to snake out from the earth's entrails: […]

   • 2006, John Barker, Bending the Bars, page 15:

     They looked great, no more Brixton shuffle. From A wing there were shouts of support from shadows moving at the barred windows.