Bikers unite: Rockers & rebels at the Ace Cafe, 1963

In the 1960s, the British motorcycle industry was at its peak. The Ace Cafe was one of many transport cafes that became popular meeting places for young bike enthusiasts. It was open 24 hours a day and had a service station as well as a cafe. The Ace’s loyal customers adopted the cafe's motto, 'Bikes 'N' Leather, Rock 'N' Roll Forever'.

We’d probably call this group ‘bikers’ today. But during the 1950s, they were known as ‘ton up boys’, because they’d try to hit speeds of 100 miles per hour, This was known as ‘doing the ton’, and was legal outside built-up areas until 1965, when new speed limits were introduced. In the 1960s, the group were called ‘rockers’ after their music taste. The rockers were widely covered in the press for their clashes with scooter-riding clans of mods.

Crews would strip their bikes back to the basics and add a more powerful engine to achieve maximum speed. Many modern motorbikes can easily cruise along at 100 miles per hour, but back then, hitting ‘the magic ton’ was difficult to do with the weaker engines available.

Back then, bikers were the image of rebellious youth. Leather jackets were their wardrobe staple, often personalised with studs and badges to mark an affiliation with clubs or racing circuits. Their bikes gave them freedom and were a symbol of their outsider, daredevil lifestyles – not just a means of getting from A to B.

Cafes or ‘caffs’ provided a space for bikers to hang out when they often weren’t welcomed into pubs. At the Ace Cafe, young riders would play tunes on the jukebox, mostly by American artists like Elvis Presley, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. When the traffic reduced at night, they’d race their bikes down the North Circular. ‘Coffee-bar cowboys’, they’d sometimes be called.

In 1969, five years after Henry Grant took these photographs, the Ace Cafe closed its doors – and didn’t fully reopen again until 2001. Today, it’s still a beloved home for London’s rock and rolling bikers and petrolheads.