David Gold of Royal Mail erred in saying that stamps had been issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the Notting Hill carnival (Letters, 12 November). The four carnival stamps were issued on 25 August 1998 and so marked the 33rd anniversary of the event (or thereabouts). Notting Hill’s 50th in 2016 was not marked by a stamp issue – a golden opportunity missed.
The carnival’s founding date is hotly disputed. Some claim it began on 30 January 1959, when Claudia Jones held the first of an annual series of indoor “Caribbean Carnival” shows. Others date the start to a steel band parade led by Russell Henderson in 1964 or 1965. But the generally accepted date is 18 September 1966, when Rhaune Laslett and her colleagues at the London Free School held the opening parade for a week-long community celebration dubbed the Notting Hill Fayre.
It was this parade, led by Henderson’s steel band, that grew into the Notting Hill carnival. Its development was organic – neither Jones nor Laslett set out to create a Caribbean-style carnival in west London in late summer. Nevertheless, the 1966 festivities ended with what Laslett described as “a Mardi Gras performed by the West Indian people in the community”. From this grew Europe’s largest annual celebration of Black culture and Caribbean creativity.
The diamond anniversary in 2026 will give Mr Gold a chance to celebrate in perforated artwork the pioneers in music and dance who helped lay down in London “the road made to walk on carnival day”.
Stephen Spark
Consulting editor, Soca News
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