Hello & welcome

Posted by on February 23, 2013

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Welcome to the The Great British Teddy Boy website. A website dedicated to the British Teddy Boy history and culture.

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My name is  John Facer aka Johnnie Jack Daniels I am  75 years old and have been a Teddy Boy from the very first, now classed as an original teddy boy.

I became a ted after seeing a tall guy running for a bus in a strange (to me) suit. The following week I managed to talk to him to ask what was that ‘get up’ he was wearing .he told me it was an Edwardian teddy boy suit that was popular with lads in London where he was working at the time. I was hooked,  I had to be a teddy boy. A friend and I went to a tailor named  Panters to have one made .I tried to get it as near to the style as the bloke who influenced me. It was a finger tip, black  Baratha  cloth, four buttoned suit. This has pocket flaps and turn ups. Velvet on the collar only, with 2″ turn ups on the cuffs .For this I paid a weekly sum, also known as ‘on the drip’ by us lads in Northampton.

Enjoy the website and if you have any comments please use the comments section on the pages.

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Last modified on June 4, 2023

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3 Responses to “Hello & welcome”

  1. Johnnie Jack Daniels Says:

    Welcome to the Great British Teddy Boy website.
    I am passionate about the teddy boy,the dress, the music and the life style.I was born in 1938 and was a teddy boy from the very start.The idea to create a website just for teddy boys was in 2005 when I got my first pc and got to know how to use it.

    What is a teddy boy?
    Teddy Boy (also known as Ted) is a British subculture typified by young men wearing clothes that were partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, styles which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after World War II.The subculture started in London in the 1950s, and rapidly spread across the UK, soon becoming strongly associated with American rock and roll. Originally known as Cosh Boys, the name Teddy Boy was coined when a 1953 Daily Express newspaper headline shortened Edwardian to Teddy.

    Wealthy young men, especially Guards officers, adopted the style of the Edwardian era.At that point in history, the Edwardian era was then just over 40 years previous, and their grandparents, if not their parents, wore the style the first time around. The original Edwardian revival was far more historically accurate in terms of replicating the original Edwardian era style than the later Teddy Boy style. It featured tapered trousers, long jackets that bear a similarity to post-war American zoot suits and fancy waist coats.

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

    Some Teds formed gangs and gained notoriety following violent clashes with rival gangs which were often exaggerated by the popular press. The most notable were the 1958 Notting Hill race riots, in which Teddy Boys were present in large numbers and were implicated in attacks on the West Indian community.

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  2. Jimmy Says:

    Brilliant.I am not an original, I was part of the revival in the 1970s, and we wore the more garish outfits, loads of velvet on the drapes, fluorescent socks (not “luminous” as other people say) skin tight drainpipes (at odds with the prevailing flared trousers) and an inherent dislike of anything fashionable, particularly pop music. Having said that, Rock ‘n’ Roll came to me with Roy Wood’s “The Move” with a number called “California Man” in 1972,and I had a radio which I would listen all day to to hear it.It might sound a bit of a cliche, but I remember my uncle taking me fishing; he had the radio on in the car, Radio 2 probably, and they played “Rock Around The Clock” and at 14, I knew what music could do. To me, being a ted in the 1970s was all about being an individual, about bucking the trend.I was never a fighter, but I hated it when my mates at universtity said “hey, Jimmy, there’s a bloke dressed like you” in the “News of the World”. A bloke in a drape jacket, drainpipes, and winklepickers.My how we laughed as we kicked their heads in, fucking punk rockers.I had good times in Salford in the 1970s, brilliant club called the “Mid” Now, not as old as you mate, I still, just have my quiff, I still love Rock “n” Roll, and I will always be proud to have been a ted.Still am I suppose.Best Regards, and respect to one of the Originals.

  3. admin Says:

    Hi Jimmy,Thank you for your post.I hope we will hear more from you.

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