at the Twopenny Hangover, the lodgers sit in a row on a bench; there is a rope in front of them, and they lean on this as though leaning over a fence. A man, humorously called the valet, cuts the rope at five in the morning.
~ George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
Perhaps apocryphal. ( https://mikedashhistory.com/2021/05/19/the-twopenny-hangover... )