Bowlers and Bad Men

The bowler or derby hat has a long history in Britain and the US; most readers will be familiar with it from its numerous appearances in popular culture. However, for a short while in the 1900s it was actually illegal to wear a bowler hat in the British Isles.

The bowler hat was originally created to protect the heads of coke shovelers in the low-ceilinged bowels of oceangoing steamships. It was named a bowler hat because of its shape, like an upturned bowl. Over time the hat became associated more generally with lower class workers in Britain, especially London. As organized mobs began emerging in late 19th Century London they adopted the bowler hat as an identifying symbol, and vicious brawls would happen with regularity in the back alleys of London as competing gangs fought for turf. One gang in particular, the Derbyshire Boys, were so notorious for the brutality with which they ran their protection and debt collection rackets that their name became synonymous with the bowler hat – hence the nickname “derby” hat.

Upon his ascension to the throne in 1901 Edward VII instituted several new laws designed to curb the growing power and lawlessness of these gangs. In addition to instituting a curfew in the lower class neighborhoods of London and closing many of the betting parlors and opium dens run by these groups, he restricted the wearing of the bowler hat to members of the nobility and the House of Lords. Through the use of (some say excessive) police power he was able to bring these gangs to heel, or at least cause them to move most of their activities from London to some of the surrounding cities like Dover and Southampton. The bowler hat ban was lifted in 1910 after the death of Edward VII.

One side effect of the ban on bowler hats was that it was illegal for American film companies to import Laurel and Hardy films into Great Britain. It was felt that the comedies glorified the lives of the “drunkards, indigents and wastrels” portrayed in the films.