Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

mobilising strategy, which allowed local people to contribute to the struggle for better housing
and social conditions. In the programme distributed by the Carnival Committee in 1967, Laslett
also highlighted the political significance of the event: “The people of North Kensington,
regardless of race, colour and creed, have a common problem: bad housing conditions,
extortionate rents and overcrowding. Therefore, in this misery, people become one.”
1.25 It is clear that from its inception, the Notting Hill Carnival has always been a multicultural event,
designed to bring communities together. In a leading article in the Kensington News, a local
reporter went so far as to offer the following description of the 1967 Carnival: “The Notting Hill
festival lost money but enriched the community. It brought a lot of gaiety to Notting Hill, the
street Carnival and the international song and dance festival being particularly successful. At
these events the various national groups got together and mingled freely and happily. It was a
far cry from the sullen atmosphere sometimes associated with the area…..It showed just what a
voluntary organisation can achieve but at the same time showed up the Council’s own failings” 34 .
1.26 When, because of growing tension in the area in 1970, Laslett cancelled the event only two
weeks before it was due to take place, local black leaders stepped in and the festival went ahead
as planned. By that time, the carnival movement in Notting Hill had assumed a life of its own.
1.27 The nature and character of the Notting Hill Carnival underwent a dramatic transformation
between 1971 and 1975 as the event’s leadership and artistic content became almost exclusively
Caribbean. This was also reflected in the audiences who attended to witness and participate in
the festival. Once again, the growth of Carnival could also be linked to the economic and
political climate facing black people in Britain at the time. Rising unemployment fuelled the
competition for jobs and heightened the tension between black and white communities. The call
for more stringent immigration controls was constantly on the political agenda, against a
backdrop of continuing racial discrimination and the “rivers of blood” speeches and writings of
the Conservative MP, Enoch Powell who painted scenes of Britain being torn apart by racial
violence. In addition to the national politics, there was also growing discontent and unrest
within the black community about what they believed were the local manifestations of Powell’s
speeches and government policy in Notting Hill – the heavy-handed and continual police raids
on a Caribbean restaurant called the ‘Mangrove’.
1.28 Established by Frank Critchlow in 1969, the Mangrove Restaurant had become an important
meeting place for community activists, journalists and musicians. Situated on the All Saints
Road, the Mangrove became the focal point of a series of police-community confrontations,
which started with the 1970 demonstration organised by the Action Committee for the Defence
of the Mangrove. What began as a peaceful mass protest against what was seen as hostile
policing and harassment, escalated into a violent clash between local police and Mangrove
protesters. Of the nineteen people arrested, nine were later charged and tried at the Old Bailey.
Known as the ’Mangrove Nine’. Many viewed the trial as an opportunity to highlight what they
saw as the oppressive policing and treatment of black people in Britain. The trial ended with the
acquittal of seven of the accused and short suspended sentences being passed on the remaining
two. The trial of the Mangrove Nine has become a symbolic landmark in the history of policecommunity
relations in Notting Hill. The acquittals and relatively light sentences were viewed by
many as a major triumph and in the aftermath, the Mangrove underwent a transformation from a
local restaurant into an institution for community mobilisation, resistance and struggle. Its role
in the development, shaping and planning of the Notting Hill Carnival was pivotal, as it became
the central headquarters and meeting place for the organisers, performers and musicians.
34
Kensington News, 29 September 1967
39