SKETCH : The Teds

Last night's warm-up drawing in a the ol' moleskine. It's a study composed via a photograph from the book The Teds:

"East of Barking, in the Summer of Fifty-four, on a late-night train from Southend to London, someone pulled the communication cord. The train ground to a halt. Light bulbs were smashed. When the train eventually reached Barking, police arrested a gang dressed in Edwardian suits.

In March of that year, a sixteen-year-old youth had been convicted at Dartford Magistrate's Court of robbing a woman 'by putting her in fear'. Said the Chairman of the Magistrates:

'There are a lot of things and so-called pleasures of the world which demand a lot of money. You tried to get hold of money to pay for ridiculous things like Edwardian suits. They are ridiculous in the eyes of ordinary people. They are flashy, cheap and nasty, and stamp the wearer as a particularly undesirable type.'"