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Mods, Skins & Mod Revival

The People's Archive ®

This selection from The People’s Archive brings together photographs of British subculture from the 1960s through to the 1980s, spanning original mods and skinheads, 2 Tone, rudeboy style and the mod revival. These are not polished press pictures or art-school documents. They are vernacular photographs, sent in by the people who were there or kept by those close to the worlds they show.

That is exactly what gives them their value. Taken together, they capture how style, allegiance and identity were lived on the ground: in clubs, on streets, at scooter runs, outside pubs, and in the ordinary social spaces where subculture actually took shape. What they may lack in technical perfection, they more than make up for in proximity and historical weight.

Stockport Mods, 1960s.
Stockport Mods, 1960s.

Photo © Scarlett Meikle/The People’s Archive®

“My grandad and ‘The Boys’ (still a phrase he uses to this day) Most of them still meet up each weekend down the pubs in Stockport.”

Stockport Mods, 1960s.
Stockport Mods, 1960s.

Photo © Scarlett Meikle/The People’s Archive®

Original Mods on Box Hill, Surrey, 1962.
Original Mods on Box Hill, Surrey, 1962.

Photo © Jack Oxford/The People’s Archive®

Jack “A photo of my Nan aged 16 with her mod mates in 1962.”

Stockport Mods, 1960s.
Stockport Mods, 1960s.

Photo © Scarlett Meikle/The People’s Archive®

Bermondsey Mods. London, 1965.
Bermondsey Mods. London, 1965.

Photo © Andrew Copley/The People’s Archive®

Andrew “My Dad and his pals enjoying a night out in 1965.”

A group of ten East End Mods wearing suits in London, 1966.
East End Mods, London, 1966.

Photo © Craig Curahee/The People’s Archive®

Scooter Girl, Grangetown, Cardiff, 1970.
Grangetown, Cardiff, 1970.

Photo © Kate King/The People’s Archive®

Scooter Boy, Barton Hill, Bristol, 1983.
Barton Hill, Bristol, 1983.

Photo © John Morgan/The People’s Archive®

Skinheads in Consett, County Durham, 1980s.
Skinheads in Consett, County Durham, 1980s.

Photo © The People’s Archive®

Pimlico, London, 1963.
Pimlico, London, 1963.

Photo © Colin Staplehurst/The People’s Archive®

Colin “My sister Bonnie blow drying my close-crop/skin cut at home in Pimlico.”

Tulse Hill, London, 1979.
Tulse Hill, London, 1979.

Photo © Lee Dema/The People’s Archive®

Caxton Mod Club London, 1960s.
Caxton Mod Club London, 1960s.

Photo © Colin Staplehurst/The People’s Archive®

Skinheads in St Leonards-on-Sea, 1980.
Skinheads in St Leonards-on-Sea, 1980.

Photo © Russell Macnay/The People’s Archive®

Aberdeen, 1981.
Aberdeen, 1981.

Photo © Keith Fowler/The People’s Archive ®

Two Tone arrives in Dudley, 1980.
Two Tone arrives in Dudley, 1980.

Photo © Tom/The People’s Archive®

Mods in Brighton, 1981.
Mods in Brighton, 1981.

Photo © David Kemp/The People’s Archive®

Mods in Margate, 1982.
Mods in Margate, 1982.

Photo © Billy Drinkwater/The People’s Archive®

Skinhead in London, 1980s
Skinhead in London, 1980s.

Photo © The People’s Archive®

A skinhead in Manchester sat in a photo booth in the early 1980s.
Skinhead in Manchester, early 1980s.

Photo © The People’s Archive®

Skinhead Bootboys, Newport Job Centre, 1980s.
Newport Job Centre, 1981.

Photo © Tutti Oi/The People’s Archive®

A you skinhead sat in a Photo Booth.
Young Skinhead in a photobooth, 1985.

Photo © The People’s Archive®

Mods outside The Pheonix, London, 1980s.
Mods outside The Pheonix, London, 1980s.

Photo © Billy Drinkwater/The People’s Archive®

Mods outside The Wimpy, Chiswick, 1982.
Mods outside The Wimpy, Chiswick, 1982.

Photo © Billy Drinkwater/The People’s Archive®

Scooter Run, Bournmouth, 1981.
Scooter Run, Bournmouth, 1981.

Photo © Ed Silvester/The People’s Archive.

Teesside Mods. Scarborough, 1980.
Teesside Mods. Scarborough, 1980.

Photo © Tony Rodgers/The People’s Archive®

Kettering Mods, 1981.
Kettering Mods, 1981.

Photo © Sean McManus/The People’s Archive.

Sean “With my friends outside Captain Jim’s Arcade in Kettering”.

Scooter Boy, Welwyn Garden City, 1981.
Scooter Boy, Welwyn Garden City, 1981.

Photo © Alfie Young/The People’s Archive.

Crewe and Stoke scooter clubs on the promenade in Rhyl, 1986.
Crewe and Stoke scooter clubs in Rhyl, 1986.

Photo © Grant Kettle/The People’s Archive.

Blackwood, South Wales, 1983.
Blackwood, South Wales, 1983.

Photo © Lynn Wells/The People’s Archive.

Ilkeston Scooter Club - Skegness Rally, 1980.
Ilkeston Scooter Club - Skegness Rally, 1980.

Photo © Joshua Hindes/The People’s Archive®

Newark-on-Trent, 1985.
Newark-on-Trent, 1985.

Photo © Ian Nicholson/The People’s Archive®

Ian “We were all 15, bending the school dress code for a mod look! We all went on to get scooters.”

Kingston Skins. Brighton, 1980s.
Kingston Skins. Brighton, 1980s.

Photo © Paul Ransom/The People’s Archive.

Mods in Chiswick, West London, 1981.
Chiswick, West London, 1981.

Photo © Billy Drinkwater/The People’s Archive®