1965 Garton Sonda Traffic Patrol Scooter

“Two rival youth cultures clashed many times at Brighton in the 1960s, the most infamous occasion being the so-called ‘Battle of Brighton’ at the Whitsun holiday, 17-18 May 1964. The Brighton police were prepared for trouble as there had been clashes at Clacton and Hastings at Easter, but the town was invaded by up to 3,000 youths. The leather-jacketed ‘Rockers’ arrived on their motor-bikes on the Sunday morning, but were challenged in the afternoon by a much larger number of the neatly-dressed ‘Mods’ on their motor-scooters.” *

The mods and rocker fights in Brighton in the 1960s are by now part of popular British culture, as essential a component of sixties nostalgia as the mini skirt, Carnaby Street and a never-ending flow of fab music. Every now and then I get the urge to travel back to that time (and place), though only in a small way. So I take some of my pedal scooters down to Brighton Pier and park them in the same place to recreate 1960s scooter scenes…