In the minds of many abroad, painfully anachronistic as it is - exists an image of a Londoner, wearing a pinstripe suit, taking a red bus to work with briefcase, furled umbrella and a bowler hat perched on his head. Monty Python produced numerous sketches featuring this kind of commuter, perhaps perpetuating the myth during its death throes. It was a look that was firmly on the way out in the 1960s. During my extensive time in London I've seen only three people wearing a bowler hat, once near the Royal Exchange, also with a luxuriant handlebar moustache -  he was no doubt just another British eccentric. The other two were both on TV news reports from the City of London. During the first Gulf War (actually the second - the first between Iran and Iraq, quietly forgotten, was how Iraq acquired its arsenal of dated weaponry), CNN was an emerging channel and with the news that 'dirty nuclear devices' may be detonated in London there was an immediate scramble to get the view of the man on the street. Two of the three interviewed by CNN had pinstripes and bowler hats - where they got them, who knows? Perhaps they dressed them that way. The point being, that people wearing bowler hats to work died off decades earlier, but at one time they were so numerous that trying to find a hat-free head would have been a task. Where did bowler hats come from, why were they so popular and ultimately why did they disappear from the streets of London? Read on.

History of the Bowler Hat

Lock & Co. are a company of hat makers, still in St. James's, London where they've been since 1676. Edward Coke the brother of the Earl of Leicester wanted a hat to protect the heads of gamekeepers, that would deflect low branches and not blow off in a stiff breeze. The year was 1849 and Victoria had been on the throne for a mere dozen years. Lock & Co. commissioned hat makers Thomas and William Bowler to design the hat, which is how it earnt its name (they're sometimes called coke hats - pronounced 'cook'). The dome of the hat is protected by adding shellac, a tough resin extracted from insects. Coke stamped on the hat twice and it survived, so he paid 12 shillings for it and a new fashion was born. The name switched to bowler when the brothers started churning out 60,000 a year (in America it's called the Derby, after the horse race where it was de rigueur).


Prior to the introduction of the bowler, hats were instant indicators of social class. The landed gentry wore top hats and the traditional headgear of the working classes was the flat woolen cap. It would be easy and neat to suppose that the bowler fitted in the middle and was therefore the hat of the middle classes, but it was designed initially as a working hat. Tough and hard-wearing - it was suitable for many trades and occupations: Market and street traders, omnibus and hackney cab drivers, fish sellers, shipyard workers (think of it as an early 'hardhat'), builders, salesmen as well as the office, insurance and banking fraternities. Part uniform, part safety gear - the hat no longer stated so clearly which class you belonged to. Taxi design at the time (horse-drawn cabs - Hackneys) stated the height of the cabin had to accommodate a man wearing a bowler hat and like many of those bye-laws, they remain in place today.

Famous Bowler Hat Wearers

• - Mister Benn, never left 52 Festive Road without one
• - Oddjob: disfigured statues with his
• - Thompson and Thomson, probably a nod to René Magritte, another Belgian bowler hat man
• - Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, looked very futuristic-70s in his
• - John Cleese, wore his to the Ministry of Silly Walks
• - Laurel and Hardy, often punched through theirs, or shyly held them 'brim-twizzling' during emotional scenes
• - Aymara women from Bolivia - toy-sized if possible and jauntily worn. They're regarded as fertility symbols

Demise of the Bowler Hat

It wasn't just the bowler hat which fell from grace, but hat wearing in general. It was probably caused by a combination of the following factors:

The Sixties were a time of great progression, from abortion, the pill, turning on, tuning in and dropping out - to seeing the world, sputnik and landing on the moon. It was a vigorous break from the past. Younger people did not want the same life their parents had enjoyed and this baby-boomer generation wanted to distance themselves from the devastation of the Second World War. A hat was something your parents wore and therefore: uncool. There certainly were hats emerging in fashion back then, just witness the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper headgear, but it was way-out, ironic and non-traditional. Besides, long hair was in and you couldn't appreciate it so well under a hat. "Hair are your aerials, they pick up signals from the cosmos..."

Central heating began to creep into society and hats were also practical - they were often worn to maintain body heat. As the home and office became warmer, the period where you needed to wear a hat became shorter and shorter, meaning most didn't bother.

Hats also kept the rain off, but as society became more affluent, there were new ways to spend money. The rapid growth in private car ownership meant you didn't need protection from the elements that a hat offered and besides, early cars were designed to be cheap, not roomy - there wasn't enough headroom to wear a hat. So people didn't wear hats in cars and car ownership grew rapidly. Now you didn't need one at home, at the office or on the journey to work.

Just as important were mass-media influences, particularly in music and film. Film stars stopped wearing hats, which filtered down into television. If you wanted to portray an elderly, conservative or out-of-touch character - simply dress them in a traditional hat. The Who's 'My Generation' summed up the spirit of the time as being not a class war, but a generational war. Hats were out (man).

Hats in Modern London

Usually  hats are  now reserved for weddings and traditional events (like Royal Ascot, or the Queen's garden parties). Some hats are still common on the streets of London, however.

• - Baseball caps: chav's uniform, especially in Burberry trim
• - Beanie hat or skull cap, especially in cold weather - either sex
• - Bobble hat - like a beanie, but with pom-poms. A bit girly
• - Bowler/fedora/sombrero/top hat - uncommon and somewhat attention-seeking
• - Beret - women only these days, but unisex back in the 80s
• - Big fur/Russian hats - lots on sale in Walthamstow market and seen around town. Broke out during the recent cold spell

So, the hat's not dead - just resting. If you've seen one that's been left off the list, make a comment below. (*doffs imaginary hat*)

 

{Thanks to Jane for suggesting the idea of a Bowler Hat history}

 

The Ministry of Silly Walks sketch - bowler hats were already few and far between when this was shot.

Lock & Co. (original commissioners of the bowler hat), 6 St. James's Street, London, SW1A 1EF

Call:   020 7930 8874

Nearest Tube: Green Park

 

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