Stunning black and white photographs taken by film director Ken Russell show teddy boys and girls in the 1950s

HE IS best known as a movie maverick that spent his career pushing boundaries with flamboyant yet controversial films.

But, before his ground-breaking directing work, Ken Russell turned his artistic eye to documenting teddy girls and boys in bombed-out London streets in the 1950s.

Equipped with a Rolleicord camera, the-then 23-year-old freelance photographer wandered around the city capturing this fledgling youth subculture.

Now, fifty of his stunning images have been brought together for the first time for a new exhibition.

The black and white pictures have remained unseen for 50 years, and were only rediscovered in an archive in 2005.

The teddy girls and boys are photographed on East End bombsites, at funfairs, at stage doors and leaning on graffiti-covered brick walls.

They are also captured outside the Seven Feathers Club where they did the popular Ted dance, The Creep.

Teddy boys and girls were a British subculture typified by young men and women that were inspired by the fashion styles worn by aristocrats in the Edwardian period.

Saville Row tailors were at the forefront of pushing the trend into the spotlight after the Second World War.

A uniquely British phenomenon, the teddy boys and girls, known colloquially as Ted, were seen as a rebellious side effect to the introduction of American rock’n’roll music.

The movement started in London before spreading rapidly around the UK.

Ted clothing included drape jackets in dark shades, sometimes with a velvet trim collar and pocket flaps, and high-waisted drainpipe trousers, which exposed the socks.

Many outfits also included high-necked, loose-collared white shirts, a slim tie, a brocade waistcoat and chunky brogues.

The teddy girls rejected post-war feminine fashions, opting instead for a more androgynous look.

Girls customised the look with pencil skirts, straw boater hats, cameo brooches and clutch bags.