Brighton and Hove Herald: Youths slashed by Teddy Boy thugs

20 November 1954

Dance Hall Gang Fight Sequel - 'Teddy Boys' Will Be Screened

Strong action is expected by both police and dance hall managements to prevent any repetition of the gang fight started at the week-end by 'Teddy Boys' from London in which three innocent bystanders received nasty injuries. The three victims, all local men, were slashed it is believed with shoe-makers knives, sharpened to a razor edge. Every person seeking admission to the Regent dance hall to-night will be scrutinised by the ballroom manger, Mr Lionel Stewart. "I dont have to bar everybody who looks like a Teddy Boy, but I shall sort them out and those with big rings just wont get in" he told the Herald last night. "They dont frighten me".The difficulty in 'screening' would-be dancers is, of course, that the Edwardian fashion is just a passing phase with many of the younger generation, just as harmless as 'Oxford Bags' were in the 1920s. Many of the younger men who affect it are decent and law-abiding citizens. But a small minority of vicious young thugs have adopted it as a uniform and they go from town to town picking quarrels with their local counterparts.

A menace

The 'Teddy Boys' are regarded as a greater menace than the racegangs were just after the first World War. The racegangs fought amongst themselves, and normally did not interfere with other people. But the modern thugs, as is shown by Saturday nights happenings, lash out indiscriminately at innocent people trying to keep out of harms way. The three local men who were injured were not together. Basil Ferrari, aged 25, of Hornby Road, had 13 stitches inserted in his face. Richard Thompson, aged 20, received a four-inch gash on the back of the neck. John Wadey, aged 20, had three stitches in a cut on his back. Women and girls were knocked over during the scuffle in the bar of the Regent ballroom. Basil Ferrari, a van driver, said: "I was sitting by myself at a table in the bar waiting for a friend, when I saw four fellows in Edwardian dress attack another man". He picked up a chair to defend himself.
Table knocked over

“There was a rush towards men, and my table was knocked over. I got up to get out of the way and someone jumped on my back. I felt a sharp pain across my face. The man on my back seemed to be pulled off, and I got out as fast as I could. Blood was pouring down my face. I found there were slashes in my jacket, in the front and the back.” The cut in the back of the jacket, which was soaked in blood, was six inches long and must have been caused with an extremely sharp instrument. Richard Thompson, a carpenters apprentice, said: “I am very interested in playing the drums and I was standing listening to the band near the entrance of the bar, when I saw a chair hurtling through the air. I ducked and tried to avoid it, but I felt something cut my neck. It was all over in flash and I have not idea who did it.” said John Wadey, a general dealer, who has just completed his National Service in the Queens Royal Regiment: “I was standing by the bar trying to get a drink when a crowd of fellows surged towards me. One was swinging a chair. I tried to get out of the way, but I was struck over the head with a chair, and then I felt something sharp in my back. When I got out in the street I found blood coming form my back.” There was a six-inch slash in Wadeys jacket and shirt, which were both blood-stained, and a gash in his back, just above hip. Wadey did not get a clear view of his assailants, but his brother, Patsy, aged 17, who was in the dance hall, said, "The fellow swinging the chair was about six feet and wearing a pinstripe suit. The other four were all over medium height and in Edwardian clothes. Three were in clerical grey and the other one in Donegal tweed."

Brief but violent

The struggle was brief by violent, After it was over the 'Teddy boy' gangsters ran down the stairs and out just before the police arrived. A retired police officer employed at the Regent tried to head them off by going down in lift, but he “Teddy boys” go down the stairs too quickly for him. A cordon was thrown across Brighton station, but it is believed that the gang got away in a car. Earlier in the evening three men in Edwardian dress ordered a hired car proprietor waiting at the bottom of West Street to drive them to the Regent. He pointed out that he was engaged and they became extremely aggressive, but went away when he picked up a spanner.