What teenagers did before Snapchat: Fascinating black and white pictures show life on the streets of London in the 1950s

Working class youngsters hang out together in a west London street in 1956 

Teddy Boys play a ball game in a road in Kensington, London. The 1950s played host to the birth of modern teenage culture

Two girls swing from ropes of a lamppost in Kensingston's Southam Street in 1958

A group of women chat in the doorway of a flat in the Park Hills Estate in Sheffield

A teenager plays jump rope in the road with some younger girls. One youngster can be seen pushing an old-fashioned pram

A group of girls all dressed up for a 'teenage night' at a Sheffield dance club

Youngsters huddle in Southam Street in 1959. The decade saw teenagers begin to dictate popular culture

A boy clambers up a lamppost to tie some rope so he and his friend can swing off it in Kensington in 1956

A worker at the Raleigh bicycle factory in Nottingham. The photographer embraced the dynamic setting and low lighting to create a series of dignified portraits. The factory became famous after it was featured in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

A child clutches her arm and cries as she runs across the road in 1956

Small girls with grazed knees do handstands against a wall in Southam Street in 1956

Two young boys in shorts and shiny shoes stand on a London street in 1956

A youngster playing conkers in Addison Place, North Kensington, in 1957

Two women talk to youngsters in Southam Street. The photos were all taken by Roger Mayne

A little girl plays with a pram in Kensington as two ladies have a chat by a lamppost behind her

Teenage boys play cards in a doorway in 1958. The photographs will feature in an exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery from March 3 to June 11