booking office
Preserved but no longer current.
In coaching days, when accommodation in the stage coaches was very limited, the traveller had to enter his name in a book kept in the office of the coaching inn, and wait his turn for a place in the coach. For the first few years after the introduction of railways all tickets were written out and entered up in their books by the clerks in the booking offices.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “booking office” mean?
In coaching days, when accommodation in the stage coaches was very limited, the traveller had to enter his name in a book kept in the office of the coaching inn, and wait his turn for a place in the coach. For the first few years after the introduction of railways all tickets were written out and entered up in their books by the clerks in the booking offices.
Is “booking office” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.