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1851 Athenæum 1 Mar. 249/1 In one of the courts it appears there is an establishment..called the ‘Thieves' Kitchen’. It consists of two large cellars, in which every night are gathered a crowd of the lowest beggars and thieves..huddled together in a space scarcely sufficient to contain them.

1868 A. J. Munby Diary 29 Jan. in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 248 We went to see the Thieves' Kitchen,..a large long antique cellar,..men and lads, perhaps 15 in all, lounging on benches. All thieves.

1894 W. J. Locke At Gate of Samaria (1895) xxvii. 319 They went together to East End music halls, bank holiday gatherings, thieves' kitchens, night clubs in the West End.

1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. Victorian Era 243/2 Thieves' kitchen (London Street, 1882), the name satirically given to the then new Law Courts.

1960 Observer 24 Jan. 5/5 Where did I think the biggest thieves' kitchen was to-day?

1973 P. Geddes Ottawa Allegation iii. 32 A Whitehall trusty, too, once away from the thieves' kitchen of intelligence and admitted to the counsels of the mandarins.

1974 ‘M. Innes’ Mysterious Comm. xviii. 162 The place was certainly no thieves' kitchen. Honeybath..became aware of its respectable opulence.

1994 Alamogordo (New Mexico) Daily News 7 Jan. (Features section) 9/1 Doesn't the scriupture say ‘my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a thieves' kitchen.