Teddy Boy

A mainly British phenomenon, the Teddy Boy subculture started among teenagers in London in the early 1950s, and rapidly spread across the UK, becoming strongly associated with American rock and roll music. After World War II , male youths in delinquent gangs who had adopted Edwardian-era fashion were sometimes known as Cosh Boys , or Edwardians . The name Teddy Boy came into official use when a 23 September 1953 Daily Express newspaper article shortened Edwardian to Teddy (which can be a diminutive form of either Edward or Theodore). The term had previously been used in Edwardian Britain to refer to members of the Territorial Army (see for example The Swoop!

written by P. G. Wodehouse in 1909). This was a reference to the king, Edward VII , in whose service they were.

In post-war Britain, rationing continued to affect the fashion industry until it ended in 1949 and men's tailors in central London devised a style based on Edwardian clothing hoping to sell to young officers being demobilized from the services. However, the style—featuring tapered trousers, long jackets similar to post-war American zoot suits , and fancy waistcoats —was not popular with its target market, leaving tailors with piles of unsold clothing which, to recoup losses, were sold cheaply to menswear shops elsewhere in London. While there had been some affluent adoption—"an extravagant upper-class snub to the post-war Labour Government and its message of austerity" —it was predominantly suburban working-class youth who adopted and adapted the look (" spiv " and cosh boy associations also hastened its middle-class rejection) and, around 1952, what became the "Teddy Boy" style began to emerge, gradually spreading across Britain. the latest cut".

Although there had been youth groups with their own dress codes called scuttlers in 19th-century Liverpool and Manchester , Teddy Boys were the first youth group in Britain to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market. The 1955 US film Blackboard Jungle marked a watershed in the United Kingdom. When shown in an Elephant and Castle cinema, south London in 1956, the teenage Teddy Boy audience began to riot, tearing up seats and dancing in the cinema's aisles. After that, other riots took place around the country where the film was shown.

Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival youth gangs as well as unprovoked attacks on immigrants. The most notable clashes were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots , in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the Caribbean community. " Teds were also implicated in the clashes of the 1958 St Ann's riots in Nottingham . The violent lifestyle was sensationalised in the pulp novel Teddy Boy by Ernest Ryman, first published in the UK in 1958.