Notting Hill Carnival in London: the struggle of a community

The Notting Hill Carnival is now a showcase of London’s multicultural society, but in 1976 the Carnival turned into a race riot. See the interesting post of the history of black British people in West London, on the French blog Caraïbes et z'Antilles

In about two weeks, the streets of Notting Hill in West London, will be flooded for two days by more than one million people who come to attend the second largest street parade in the world after that of Rio de Janeiro. The Notting Hill Carnival is so immense popular that it allows the British government today to extol the virtues of its model of integration.

But its success was not obvious if you look at the early years of the Notting Hill Carnival. In the summer of 1976 racial tensions between the police and the Caribbean community sparked a riot after the arrest of two black men. The riot turned Notting hill into a battlefield.

In the compelling documentary 'The Long Hot Summer of 1976' the build up to the riot and the clash with police is told through interviews and visuals. Among the interviewed are black British filmmaker Don letts, singer Eddy Amoo and many others.

Official website Notting Hill Carnival
Read: Remembering the Notting Hill riot

The Long Hot Summer of 1976 - 1


The Long Hot Summer of 1976 - 2