Kelso Cochrane's Murder
Kelso Cochrane was a 32 year old, Antiguan born carpenter, and aspiring lawyer, living in Notting Hill at a time
when
racial tensions were high. He died after a racially motivated attack on Southam Street (off Golborne Road) Notting
Hill on May 17th 1959 (today a blue plaque marks the spot). His murder had a huge
impact on race relations.
Reportedly, there were over 1,200 attendees at his funeral. Many of whom came to demonstrate solidarity and a show
of
defiance against racism locally. Activism was stepped up to Whitehall when it was felt the investigation into the
murder was complacent, and allegations of a police cover up began to circulate (the case is unsolved to date). Rab
Butler, the then Home Secretary, made an appeal for witnesses in Parliament and went on to launch a public inquiry
into race relations. Much activity to ease racial tension within the Notting Hill area preceded Cochrane's murder,
leading to a children's street fayre organised my local resident and community activist, Rhaune Laslett. Laslett
is
reported to have said of her community and her event "We felt that although West Indians, Africans, Irish and many
others nationalities all live in a very congested area, there is very little communication between us. If we can
infect them with a desire to participate, then this can only have good results." It was this small community
children’s street fayre back in the mid 60s that
would morph into what we now know as Notting Hill Carnival.
The First Notting Hill Carnival
Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian human rights activist based in London, put on a BBC broadcasted indoor ‘Caribbean
Carnival’ at St Pancras Town Hall back in 1959. She is widely credited with planting the seeds for Carnival
in the UK by doing so.
An appetite for the indoor Caribbean carnival was fed by Trinidadian husband and wife booking agents Edric and
Pearl Connor who along with many partners including the West Indian Gazette (which was founded by Claudia Jones)
began promoting indoor events in halls dotted around 1960s London.
Rhaune invited well-known pan player Russell Henderson, who was accompanied by his pan band members Sterling
Betancourt, Vernon “Fellows” Williams, Fitzroy Coleman and Ralph Cherry.
The band were already popular amongst
the
Caribbean community, having been regulars at the indoor carnival events.
As Laslett had intended, many local Caribbean residents attended, and her vision of an outdoor multi-cultural
community celebration was a huge success: the first event saw Henderson's steelband weave its way through
Portobello Road as a trail of locals spontaneously gathered and danced in the street to the sound of pan. The
first Notting Hill carnival was officially born in 1964 and footage of the 1977 Notting Hill Carnival cane be
viewed here.
Present Day Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival is still proudly a community-led event, its ever-increasing popularity over
the last 5 decades
has seen it become the wonderfully diverse and vibrant event it is today.
With over a million visitors expected over the August Bank Holiday, London’s NHC is second only to Brazil's Rio
Carnival
in size, and is now one of the globe's largest annual arts events. NHC is considered to be the largest street
event
in
Europe.
Whilst Notting Hill Carnival is rooted in Caribbean culture, with its Windrush-generation influence remaining
strongly evident, it is at the same time characteristically ‘London’ – today's London.
Uniquely NHC is the only full-scale carnival in the world to feature multiple static sound systems – a feature
introduced in 1973 by the then NHC organiser Leslie Palmer MBE.
Mas Bands
Mas Bands create and provide the costumes for NHC. Each registered band has a new theme annually, and the general
public are welcome to purchase a costume and join a band to ‘play mas’ on the parade route at Carnival. Each mas
band is assessed by official judges at the judging point (south on Great Western Road) across both days. The
winning
mas bands are announced on social media.