Sarf London

UK/ˈsɑːf ˌlʌn.dən/

proper noun

South London

Meanings

proper noun
  1. UKnonstandardSouth London

    ‘I figured that all this Sarf London wideboy bit was just smoke.’

    2006, Martyn Waites, Mary's Prayer, →ISBN, page 106
    2 more examples

    Nigel Kennedy, the English violinist, is noted for having acquired a working-class “Sarf London” speech in early adulthood, overcoming the heritage of an elite education as a gifted child at the Yehudi Menuhin school, in the course of which he was exposed to continuous input of RP.

    1995, Kevin Durkin, “Language Development II: Social Dimensions of Acquisition and Use”, in Developmental social psychology: from infancy to old age, →ISBN, page 248

    Their stance as the most honest band in the world was offset by some nagging doubts: even some of their true believers felt that Strummer (real name John Mellors) came from too privileged a background to be genuinely angry, while Jones’s ‘Sarf London’ accent was considered suspect.

    2003, Peter Buckley, editor, The Rough Guide to Rock, →ISBN, page 203

Origin

Pronunciation spelling of south, representing a th-fronting South London accent.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Sarf London. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sarf%20London

MLA

“Sarf London.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sarf%20London. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sarf London,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sarf%20London.

Source: Sarf London on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.