Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

“A People’s Art is the Genesis of their Freedom” - Beginnings of Carnival
1.21 One such ‘space’ was provided by Claudia Jones, a leading member of the West Indian Workers
and Students’ Association and a prominent figure in the black community. Jones was also the
editor and co-founder of the West Indian Gazette, a news journal designed to address black
issues and provide a source of inspiration, assurance and information to an embattled minority
community. Following the 1958 disturbances, Jones cultivated the idea of establishing a carnival
as a vehicle through which to uplift the Caribbean community, build upon the new found sense
of unity and begin the process of healing. The primary purpose of the event was to “present
West Indian talent to the public, which at that time could not see Caribbean people as anything
other than hewers of wood and drawers of water”. The Gazette sponsored the creation of a
Caribbean Carnival Committee and, as a positive reaction to the divisive events surrounding the
riots, Jones used her skills and connections to bring together African, Caribbean and other artists
and performers in a celebration of black culture. St. Pancras Town Hall provided the venue for
the first Carnival celebration on 30 January 1959 and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of
the souvenir brochure was pledged to pay the fines of those members of the community (black
and white) who had been involved in the 1958 disturbances. For the next six years, these indoor
Mardi Gras celebrations continued to be organised under the auspices of the Gazette in halls
located in West London. Each year the festivities would take place under the slogan, “A people’s
art is the genesis of their freedom”.
1.22 It was after Jones’ untimely death in 1964 that a local social worker by the name of Rhaune
Laslett invited members of the black community to participate in a street fair in Notting Hill.
Laslett invited a steel band to take part in the street parade so as to appeal to the vast majority
of Caribbeans living in the area. When the steel band came to the Notting Hill Festival in 1965,
it is said that nearly every Caribbean as well as local white people, came onto the streets in
celebration, song and dance enthused by the infectious rendition of the popular songs being
played on the pan. For the first time black people were able to express themselves freely on the
streets of Notting Hill in appreciation of their music and in the same tradition as the carnivals of
the Caribbean.
1.23 The first Notting Hill Carnival therefore “consisted of one steel-pan combo, 500 followers and
two policemen” 31 and was a great success. Its organisation however, had not been without its
problems: a few weeks before the festivities, the mayor of Kensington cancelled his sponsorship
and withdrew a grant, which had been promised by the council. On behalf of the carnival
committee, Laslett published a letter sent to the mayor signalling the community’s intention to
proceed with the festival and its activities. In a leading article after the event, the Kensington
Post criticised the mayor and the council for withdrawing their support, commenting that “for
our part, all we saw was an innocent, unselfconscious mingling of white and black… all intent on
enjoying themselves and in so doing bringing a welcome splash of colour and gaiety to their drab
surroundings” 32 .
Politics, Community and Culture
1.24 In his seminal work on the politics of the Notting Hill Carnival, Abner Cohen 33 has commented
that the process of organising and planning for the Carnival provided an effective platform for
mobilising the local working class population, both black and white, for a vigorous, sustained and
relentless campaign against the area’s dire housing situation. During the 1966-70 period, a
major by-product of the Notting Hill Carnival was the development of a multi-racial grassroots
31
Michael La Rose, “A Short History of Carnival in the Caribbean and Britain”, p15, June 1999
32
Kensington Post, 30 September 1966
33
Masquerade Politics: explorations in the structure of urban cultural movements’, Abner Cohen, Oxford; Berg (1993)
38