This was taken when I was 16, near the Seven Feathers Club in north Kensington, London, where we all lived. A sort of youth club run by well-to-do ladies, it was our world. I’d make a beeline for it every night of the week; I had left school a year earlier and was working on a site in west London, knocking down a bomb shelter.
At the club, we’d play table tennis until 8pm and then dance until 10. There was no alcohol, just soft drinks. I remember walking down the alley towards it and hearing Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis for the first time. It was so different from anything else; it was like being hit by something.
We all lived in tenement housing. My street was a meeting place; it had a reputation for being rough. The Notting Hill riots took place nearby a few years later, and there was a lot of racial tension. Local men would play football alongside us with no consideration for prams or passersby, and windows would get smashed. The girls joined in with the music and gambling – they’d play pontoon or 21 on the steps. I had a record player in our back parlour and used to put 78s on: Fats Domino, Little Richard. Girls from the factories would sit outside our house. “Put that one on, Teddy,” they’d say. I loved it.
The lads in this picture were my good mates, and that’s Jeanie Rayner in the middle. She was one of the first girls to start smoking. Lots of us were into teddy boy style. Girls wore high-neck shirts above their jackets and loose jeans with flat shoes. Boys wore long tailored jackets and drainpipe trousers. Quiffed hair was a must. The look evolved from Edwardian dress – hence “teddy”. I got my suits from Montague Burton, now Burton’s.
I got away from the scene when I started going to the West End of London with some pals. One night we were walking down Wardour Street and heard this sound coming from a basement. We went down and it was the Flamingo club. I discovered modern jazz.
When my wife and I got married in 1962, aged 22, we were able to buy a nice semi-detached in Wembley for £3,650. That was unheard of where I came from. My old area was demolished in the mid-60s – much of it had been bombed and the tenements were deemed unfit for habitation. North Kensington’s different now; much cleaner.
I first saw this picture in 2005 when it was part of an exhibition of rediscovered work by the director Ken Russell. I don’t remember him when he took it but I can recall everyone else. We were a close group. The area was rough, but it was a fantastic place to grow up; there was so much going on.
I’m 77 now and work part-time as a handyman on a golf course, and play there, too. I still dress smartly; I don’t go out without polishing my shoes. And I still love music.
• Ken Russell’s Teddy Girls & Boys is at The North Wall, Oxford, until 18 February. Are you in a notable photograph? Email thatsme@theguardian.com.
