In the late 1950s a deep strain of community activism took root in North Kensington, west London. Many of the grassroots campaigns there over the next six decades – including notable battles against racism and for better housing – could be mapped through the life of Eddie Adams, who has died aged 85.
Eddie, whom I first met while doing research for a TV documentary, was born in London, the son of an Italian mother, Maria Agostinelli. She died when he was young and he was adopted by Sheila Knubley, a housewife, and Samuel Adams, an electrician. North Kensington and Notting Hill, where his new family lived, was then synonymous with poverty and slum housing, and he had to sleep on a coat on the floor as a child.
