Each August bank holiday, West London’s streets explode with colour, soca & dancehall beats. Drawing over a two million people for two days to celebrate Caribbean culture. It’s a summer highlight drawing people in nationally (even internationally). Notting hill Carnival will take place 24th and 25th August.
The dark origin of Notting Hill Carnival:
Kelso Cochrane was a 32 year old, Antiguan born carpenter & aspiring lawyer, living in Notting Hill at the time. He was brutally murdered in a racially aggravated likely from someone aligned with far-right groups at the time such as Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement.
Racial tensions were rife at the time following the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948. More than 300,000 people from the Caribbean settled in Britain after being invited to rebuild the country after World War 2.
At the time Brixton and Notting Hill had the highest population of Caribbean people in Britain.
In response to these attacks and increasing tensions, Trinidadian-born activist Claudia Jones & founder of the West Indian Gazette newspaper organised a indoor Caribbean Carnival in St. Pancras Town Hall on 30th January 1959.
Inspired by Claudia Jones’ carnival, Trinidadian marriage couple Edric and Pearl Connor organised a series of similar indoor events in halls around London during the 1960s until 1964 and the premature death of Claudia Jones.
How it took to the Streets:
In 1966, community activists Rhaune Laslett and Andre Shervington organised a street festival with the aim of entertaining the local children as well as attempting to ease ongoing tensions in the community.
To encourage the local Caribbean community to participate, the well-known Trinidadian musician Russell Henderson agreed to participate and transformed the festival into a carnival through the introduction of a procession and use of the steel pan.
Though the event wasn’t directly related to Claudia Jones’ indoor carnival, many of the elements featured in her event were used in the street festival – such as Stirling Betancourt and Russell Henderson’s steel band and other elements of Caribbean carnival.
This event marked the beginning of the annual Notting Hill Carnival with the gradual addition of Caribbean elements including more bands and costumes.
By 1974, over 100,000 people and a dozen bands participated and in 1975 static sound systems were introduced adding Jamaican reggae, dub and ska music to the traditional calypso and soca.
Tensions rising
The changing demographics of North London (due to gentrification) brought the Carnival into greater conflict with local, white residents with a growing police presence leading to clashes at the 1976 Carnival.
There were greater calls to move Carnival from Notting Hill and media coverage of the Carnival increasingly linked the event to crime rates and disorder.
Future at risk:
Today Notting Hill is a cultural institution and staple of Afro-Caribbean culture, attracting up to two million attendees and 40,000 volunteers every year.
However, its future is constantly under threat especially with the rise far-right influence. “This event is put on annually with very little government funding,” says Ansel Wong, a Trinidadian cultural and political activist, former Chair of the Notting Hill Carnival Board, and founder of Elimu Mas Band.
The history of Notting Hill Carnival represents the resilience and cultural diversity of the communities of London. Despite the political pressures Notting Hill carnival has grown and thrived and represents a space for challenge and community cohesion.
The iconic carnival was at risk due to funding for policing which was just about granted.
