Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

Analysis of Carnival 2001
2.59 In August 2001, the Carnival Public Safety Project carried out the first ever detailed
observation survey of crowding at the event. The spatial layout of all the constituent parts
that go to make up the Notting Hill Carnival was assessed in order to first understand the
pattern of crowding.
2.60 In total, there were 239 licensed street stalls at Carnival 2001, selling food and refreshments
as well as a diverse range of other items. Street stalls were all located near the main
attractions (the route and the sound systems) or on major streets. All the official street stalls
were inside the area enclosed by the circular route or directly adjacent to the route itself. As
well as the official street stalls, there were a number of unlicensed trading activities on the
streets of the Carnival area. Toilet facilities were provided not just inside the route but also
located on major access routes such as Kensington Park Road.
Crowd Management Strategies
2.61 A number of measures are used each year at the Carnival to manage the crowd for safety
purposes. The main measures are:
- the traffic exclusion zone (TEZ)
- sterile areas
- barriers
- medical and other special facilities
2.62 The Traffic Exclusion Zone (TEZ) is the most significant change that is made to the Notting
Hill area to accommodate crowds at Carnival time. With the TEZ in place, road space is freed
up for pedestrian use. In 2001, 38 roads situated in a 3 square kilometre area around the
route were included in the TEZ, leaving 0.8 square kilometres of pedestrian space for the
Carnival. In addition, the MPS cordoned off a number of streets from pedestrian access in
order to create ‘sterile areas’ for emergency access and emergency crowd dispersal. These
sterile areas accounted for approximately 15 per cent of the pedestrian street space in the
area enclosed by the processional route (8 per cent of the total pedestrian space inside the
TEZ).
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