Back to its roots

11 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

So, you've got your whistle, map and friends tied together on a rope - looks like you're ready to head to the Carnival - but do you really know what it is you're going to?

Now Europe's biggest street party, the Notting Hill Carnival has been on the London calendar for 38 years and it's become so big it takes the entire year to prepare the colourful mayhem. But Carnival itself has been around much longer than that.

Its roots are in Trinidad, where prior to 1833 black people - then slaves - were forbidden to celebrate their culture with musical instruments or costumes except at designated times or for the entertainment of their oppressors.

Consequently, when the laws on slavery were finally repealed, black people erupted onto the streets to celebrate their liberation. And there was one almighty party.

It is from here that the seeds of the Carnival we know today were sewn. Year on year, costumes and music were used to satirise the situation of those Africans who had been shipped to the Caribbean as slaves.

This celebration has traveled with black immigrants who came from the Caribbean to London. At the height of racial tension here in the '50s, dances were organised in halls in North London as a way of bringing black people together freely. Likewise Trinidadians who had come to the city met up to play steel band music each Sunday in the murky Colherne Pub in Earls Court.

In the sixties, a social worker decided to invite the steel band to take part in a street festival in Notting Hill. This was the first time that steelband music was played on any street in England and from here the idea of bringing the whole community together - black and white - through Carnival was born.

So, since 1964, August bank holiday weekend has meant one thing, and one thing only to W11 - party time. One whiff of a steel band and people are out on the street celebrating the liberation of their ancestors - only now they're joined by thousands of others hell bent on celebrating life - to the max.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in