London’s Working-Class Youth and the Making of Post-Victorian Britain, 1958–1971 (Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music)

"An ambitious and skilful marrying of cultural history and cultural geography [...], full of local colour and vivid detail." - Joe Moran, Liverpool John Moores University, UK "This book uniquely brings together the iconic history of 'swinging London' and the 'teenager' setting them firmly within British society and British identity that continued to be shaped by imperial ideas and ideals - both old and newly reconfigured." - Jodi Burkett, University of Portsmouth, UK "In this captivating book, Fuhg throws new light on youth culture in Sixties London. Global fashion, transnational popular music, immigration and modernism revitalized the metropolis. And working-class kids, in inner city estates and suburbs, were at the heart of this profound remaking of the capital city and of English society." - Mark Clapson, University of Westminster, UK This book examines the emergence of modern working-class youth culture through the perspective of an urban history of post-war Britain, with a particular focus on the influence of young people and their culture on Britain's self-image as a country emerging from the constraints of its post-Victorian, imperial past. Each section of the book - Society, City, Pop, and Space - considers in detail the ways in which working-class youth culture corresponded with a fast-changing metropolitan and urban society in the years following the decline of the British Empire. Was teenage culture rooted in the urban experience and the transformation of working-class neighbourhoods? Did youth subcultures emerge simply as a reaction to Britain's changing racial demographic? To what extent did leisure venues and institutions function as laboratories for a developing British pop culture, which ultimately helped Britain re-establish its prominence on the world stage? These questions and more are answered in this book. Felix Fuhg is Research Associate at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at the Technical University Berlin, Germany. Acknowledgements Contents Abbreviations List of Images Chapter 1: Introduction Society City Pop Space Bibliography Part I: Society Chapter 2: “Vulgar Nincompoops” and “Sawdust Caesars”: Generations, Adolescence, and the Historicity of Youth Culture in Post-war Debates The Birth of the Modern Teenager Teenage Culture in Urban and Rural Britain: Similarities and Differences Bibliography Chapter 3: “First I Look at the Purse”: Youth at Work “A Little Bit More Money in the Pocket”: Teenagers as Consumers The Youth Employment Service and the Making of the Modern Urban Economy From School to Work: The Attitudes, Expectations, and Experiences of School-Leavers in Their First Years of Employment Bibliography Part II: City Chapter 4: Mods, Working-Class Youth, and London’s Transformation into a Modern Post-war Metropolis Youth, City, and Modernity: Symbolic Relationships and Experiences of Urban Modernism in the 1960s City and People in Motion: Internal Migration to London and the Physical Mobility of Working-Class Youth Swinging London and the New City Image: Pattern, Locality, Networks Bibliography Chapter 5: Working-Class Youth and the Social Transformation of Post-war London “Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys”: The Urban Origins of Multiracial Britain Teenagers in “Jack the Ripper Land”: Working-Class Youth Culture and the End of the “Traditional” Working-Class Neighbourhood Bibliography Part III: Pop Chapter 6: Making Britain Great Again: Popular Culture and the British Invasion “The British Are Coming”: British Pop Music at Home and Abroad All British in British Pop Music? The Notion of Modern Britishness in Popular Music Bibliography Chapter 7: Cultural Renewal and the Transnational Fashion Industry London and the Retail Revolution Exporting Fashion, Importing Ideas Be “Original, Different, Unusual”: Fashion and Street Culture Bibliography Part IV: Space Chapter 8: The Creation and Use of Public Space The Meaning of Public Space for Youth Culture Meeting in the Green: Youth and the Parks of London Mobility and Space: Travelling Without Parents Bibliography Chapter 9: Leisure Venues: London by Day and by Night Black Shining Modernity: The Coffee-Bar Revolution in London London by Night: Dance Halls, Ballrooms, Nightclubs Youth Clubs and Modern Popular Culture Bibliography Chapter 10: Conclusion Bibliography Index