The History Behind 'Ridley Road'
The year Ridley Road was set in 1962 wasn’t quite the swinging sixties, but change was definitely in the air. Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan had been in power since 1957 but was losing support, and his government would come crashing down the next year following the Profumo Affair. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were just becoming popular, Doris Lessing’s feminist novel The Golden Notebook was published, satirical magazine Private Eye started, and the Pill was now available. Hemlines were rising discreetly above the knee. In 1961, A Taste of Honey, starring Rita Tushingham (Nettie in Ridley Road) in her breakout role, explored an inter-racial affair, abortion, and gay subculture.
Youth subcultures, which espoused everything from fashion statements to extreme and violent political views, were on the rise, including Mods and Rockers, Teddy Boys, and Skinheads, who later became associated with the anti-immigrant National Front founded later in the decade.
The original skinhead subculture explodes among urban, working-class youths in Britain, combining style elements drawn from white "Mods" and West Indian “Rudeboys.” Though tinged with soccer hooliganism, traditional skinhead culture is not racist (to this day, there are black "trad" skins). (Southern Poverty Law Center)
