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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Alan McEwen & Alasdair Clark

Edinburgh's notorious street teams from Young Niddrie Terror to Clerry Jungle

Glasgow's youth teams may be Scotland's most notorious, but Edinburgh has its own ugly reputation for street gangs.

Through the years, gang culture among a section of the city’s youth has shifted from pitched battles at travelling fairgrounds to YouTube videos boasting of their loathsome antics online.

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And some of the city's most high-profile criminals graduated from the ranks of the city's street gangs, including the infamous George Buchanan.

A member of Young Niddrie Terror since his teens, he was convicted in 1974 of the attempted murder of a rival and again in 1987 for his involvement in the theft of heroin from the MacFarlan Smith factory in Gorgie.

In the 60s and 70s, Edinburgh had scores of gangs which jealously guarded their patches of turf, but about 20 big “teams” were active.

More deprived areas, such as Pilton, Broomhouse and Niddrie, were particularly fertile places to draw youngsters into their number.

The era saw the emergence of gangs such as BarOx, Clerry Jungle and the Young Gillie Team into the public consciousness.


Gang fights would take place in city centre beauty spots such as Princes Street Gardens, terrifying residents and visitors alike.

One former gang member recalled that turbulent world, adding: “Most of us gang members did it for kicks. Fighting made us feel alive.”

He added: “Mostly we fought because we were there. Some folk say it was about meaningless things like territory and to some extent that was true.

“If another gang wandered into your turf, you chased them to hell and gave them hell if you caught them. But we fought anyway, even when there was no territorial dispute.

“Often we would actually arrange a joust, meeting in a city centre car park or stretch of waste ground. When the fairground came to Waverley at Christmas, we would turn up in numbers knowing fine well other teams would be there and we’d have a major battle.

“We didn’t give a f*** about the other folk just there for the shows. This was our city and fighting was our type of entertainment.”

Clerry Jungle dominated in Clermiston, whilst others were members of the Young Gillie Team throughout the 60s and 70s.

The 1971 release of A Clockwork Orange, which depicted youth violence in a dystopian near-future, influenced Edinburgh gangs before its later withdrawal from cinemas amid fears it had inspired copycats.

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On occasions, some members took to wearing gear like the film’s brutal protagonists.

As the city moved into the 80s, the spread of heroin use with needles produced a massive surge in overdoses and a tragic AIDS epidemic.

A number of “faces” from the street gang scene were caught in this wave of death.

Others street gang members would become involved in the football casual scene whose violence on and off the terraces rocked the decade.

But some would graduate from the gangs to become professional criminals who took advantage of the growing market for hard drugs.
Members of Edinburgh Live's history group on Facebook were asked to remember some of the capital's as part of a research project.

Celia remembered: "YNT - young niddrie terrors. Used to do the pinkie signal to show you were in the gang."

Brenda added: "Remember walls scrawled with "Mental Drylaw", "Fleet Ya Bass", "Tongs", etc., Many others escape my memory just now."

Another added: "I do remember my mum talking about certain people but I would be too scared to mention them on social media I am afraid."

Patrick said: "The boss of the Valdor...was a pal of my brother, we joined him in his search for a guy who owed him money, We searched all the cafes in the Tollcross area and, after a few cafes , could have accumulated a 40 strong mob! We never found the guy!"

The Valdor gang of Tollcross even targetted Sean Connery in the 1950s. Connery gained his reputation as a "hard man" after he stood up to six members of the gang, widely reported as one of the most violent in the city.


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Edinburgh Back In Time for more fascinating facts about Edinburgh's history.


He prevented them from stealing his jacket and was to the now demolished Palais de Danse in Fountainbridge, according to a 1992 book Sean Connery: Neither Shaken Nor Stirred.

Another gang fight in the 40s was so infamous it was remember in a comic because of one officers role breaking up the fight when Edinburgh and Musselburgh gangs met in Wallyford.

As modern technology came to the fore, it began to have an impact on the inter-gang warfare.

Street battles were increasingly organised via mobile phone and soon on early social media sites such as Bebo.

In the mid-2000s, cops were dealing with well-organised fights between hundreds of youths from opposing sides who often came armed with an array of weapons.

Knives, baseball bats, bricks, wooden stakes and metal poles were wielded during these well-planned stand-offs.

The Muirhouse Casual Fighters gained particular notoriety about this time for turning up in very large numbers carrying golf clubs or blades.

Bitter feuds, often stoked online, saw clashes between groups of up to 100 youths.

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Among the most popular sites for the yobs were the car park behind the Omni Centre, beside the Corstorphine Retail park and in the Meadows, along with locations in Pilton and Muirhouse.

In 2008, members of the Edinburgh Young Team boasted about arranging clashes with Glasgow gangs and Young Raploch Slade from Stirling. One member bragged at the time: “We’re going to Stirling to fight the boys from the Raploch. We’re taking 80 to 100 through on the train.

We’ll split up between Waverley and Haymarket stations so the police don’t spot us.”

Do you have any memories of Edinburgh's gangs? Let us know in the comments.

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