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Street gangs in the 1870s

By The Archivist on March 27, 2014

Bob dug up an interesting article about street gangs in Manchester in the 1870’s. clicky:

http://www.northernsoul.me.uk/the-scuttlers-of-manchester-britains-first-youth-cult/

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The Archivist
The Archivist

Maintenance account for the Babbage Aethernet Reader (BAR) and archival records.

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3 Comments

  1. Jimmy Branagh Jimmy Branagh March 29, 2014

    Jimmy grins, puts on his maskie and bowler, and chuckles.

    “Oy’m siiiiiiiiiiiiiingin’ in th’ rine … Jus’ siiiiiiiiiiiiiingin’ in th’ rine …”

  2. Jon Chen Jon Chen March 30, 2014

    “Spare some cutter me brother?” ;)

    Super article — illustrates how the gang gets institutionalized across a generation…

    also:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaky_Blinders

    And evidently, there’s a TV series on BBC 2, “Peaky Blinders,” probably loaded w cultural

    flavour and historical goodness….

    The Teddy Boys follwed in this vein, but were WWII/post WWII

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Boy

    Still the emphasis on fashion as a point of social distinction, a marker of class stratification; the Teddy Boys were bad boys right off the bat for wearing clothing that was a) old fashioned (but looked *very* nice), and b) clothing that was far too expensive/wasteful of resources in Britain of the day.  We also see that, as w the Peaky Blinders and the Scuttlers, Teddy Boys looked to peers (other Teddy Boys) for combat/violent self-assertion in a meaningful sense.

    NB: looks like the social solution was extremely Victorian — social involvement; English football emerges as a way to channel the restless energy of these wayward street youths, as well as encouragements towards other things, like club hobbies, etc.

    NB 2nd: This gang activity starts as a direct result of industrialization — working age people lured from the countryside to the industrialized parts of the city for jobs; and with many of these people being young men/boys, and lacking adequate supervision when off work, they stick together and get into trouble.  Dreadful!  May have to watch some of the BBC2 series, if possible….

     

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