Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

are shown in Figure 1 below as blue dots. Most of the entry and exit points were located along
the length of the Ladbroke Grove (7 of the 10 total). The use of a particular entry point by a
Carnival band is largely dependent upon the location of the band’s changing area or ‘base camp’.
These camps are situated within church halls, schools and youth centres in Notting Hill. As part
of this review, an analysis of base camp locations revealed that the vast majority of the
masquerade bands had established camps within the North Kensington area, in close proximity
to and on the western side of the Carnival route.
1.40 The most significant change that is made to the Notting Hill area to accommodate crowds during
the Carnival is the introduction of a Traffic Exclusion Zone (TEZ), which delineates the whole
Carnival ‘footprint’. With the TEZ in place, road space is freed up for pedestrian use. In 2001,
all roads within a 3 square kilometre area around the route were included in the TEZ, leaving 0.8
square kilometres of pedestrian space for the Carnival. The TEZ border can be seen in Figure 2
below.
Figure (1): The Carnival route in 2000 and 2001
Figure (2): The Carnival Area and ‘Footprint’
1.41 MPS have estimated that approximately 400,000 people attended the Carnival on the Sunday
with 1 million people attending on the bank holiday Monday. There were over 80 participating
floats and mobile sound systems (including a number of ‘commercial’ floats advertising products
or services), two large-scale live music concert stages situated at Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance
and Powis Square; 41 static sound system sites – 8 of which were situated within Westminster;
3,092 police officers supported by 267 civilian staff on the Sunday and 3,991 officers supported
by 273 civilian staff on the Monday.
The Carnival Route in 2002 and 2003
1.42 The first major change to the Carnival route for almost fourteen years took place in 2002. Using
the existing Carnival ‘footprint’, a “U” shaped route with all mobile sound systems and
masquerade bands travelling in a clockwise direction was introduced in response to the findings
of the Review Group’s Carnival Public Safety Project. The judging point was relocated to the
43