"In the street" vs. "On the street"

[Kyle]

What's the difference? A British teacher told me that they are both grammatically correct, but "on the street" seems a little negative. Can I make a sentence such as "British people like drinking on the street" ?

 

[RonBee]

"In the street" seems more natural to me, but I'm not British. (AE speaker)

 

[David L.]

They drink 'in the street' because they are there temporarily. The pub, a fixture in the locality, is 'on the street'.

 

[Kyle]

I saw the BBC interviewed someone on TV just now, talking about a Russian poisened to death, and that guy said: "...The secret agent killed him on the street..." How to explain this usage?

 

[Soup]

What's the difference? A British teacher told me that they are both grammatically correct, but "on the street" seems a little negative. Can I make a sentence such as "British people like drinking on the street" ?

If "on the street" is a little negative, then killed him on the street seems to support that.

This, also, from Google:

The shocking story of how a young medical student, Daniel Pollen was murdered on the street by 3 thugs (one of whom was free on bail on the street thanks to ...

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[David L.]

I saw the BBC interviewed someone on TV just now, talking about a Russian poisened to death, and that guy said: "...The secret agent killed him on the street..." How to explain this usage?

I hope this was the guy being interviewed, though I've heard BBC interviewers come out with worse clangers than this.

We talk of "crime is rampant on the streets of L.A."
and
"People were partying in the streets the day of the Queen's coronation."
(a temporary one-day celebration)

The poor man is confusing two ideas: That it happened 'in the street' 'in an open public place';, and that this could actually happen "on the streets of London".