58 Riot Tour: A Hidden History of Notting Hill

fifty-eight riots or vague 50 in plain words you'd not live in our Napoli if you could live anywhere else and that is why there are to the square yard more boys fresh from Nick and national refugee minorities an out of business [ __ ] than anywhere else I should expect in London town the kids live in the streets I mean they have charge of them you have to ask permission to get along them even in a car the teenage lot are mostly of the Tate variety as captioned by Colin McInnis in absolute beginners in the classic street photographed by Roger main taken in 1956 a gang of Ted's loiter across Prince Dale Road in a slightly theatrical but nevertheless menacing manner mcinnis introduced Notting Hill as little Napoli the pop dystopia of his proto mod photographer hero the first teenager or the absolute beginner our tour guide through the 1958 white riot as Britain emerged from post-war austerity working-class use found themselves no longer categorized as older children or young adults but as a new economic class the teenager the first British manifestation the Teddy boy evolved from the wartime black markets fearful as a hybrid of upper-class Edwardian and Wild West styles Ted look consisted in the quiff of Greece Bank da Duck Sauce hairstyle Drake code bootlace tie drainpipe trousers and brothel keeper or Winkle picker shoes George Mele summed up the tapes revolt into style as an economic development from the Spitz in that play were not criminal in the old sense they were not out the game on the whole though they were profoundly antisocial the dark value of pop culture dedicated giggle and kicks in the mid 50s as youth culture was first defined in Hollywood by Marlon Brando in the wild one and James Dean in rebel without a cause over here rock around the clock by Bill Haley & his comets caused a series of cinema riots and a rock and roll moral panic as Portobello began its post-war transformation from rowdy flea market to international tourist attraction the once respectable surrounding area acquired a rather seedy reputation in the Notting Hill Interzone issue of International times the area is described as closed off and forgotten grey anonymous all life and Colour had vanished as quickly as the paint from the tenement walls and Notting Hill sank into its own twilight of sensational crimes violence poverty extortion and petty racketeering as North Kensington hit an all-time low in 1953 with the notorious 10 Rillington place murders an article entitled rotting hill in the Kensington post refuted allegations that Notting Hill is London's crime black spot number one and is ridden with teenage gangs regardless of pop trends Notting Dale was rocking anyway the old slum area around Latimer Road station had been in a riot waiting to happen state for some time the Dale came into existence in the early 19th century as a shantytown inhabited by brick makers and peak keepers officially known as the Kensington Potteries but soon nicknamed the piggeries the area's no Sariah tea was established over a hundred years before absolute beginners when it was featured in Charles Dickens household words journal as a plague spot scarcely equaled for in celebrity by any other in London after a century of ineffectual do-gooding nothing else still retained its rough reputation was known as a police no-man's land where anything can happen and usually does Anthony Richardson sets the scene in Nick of Notting Hill as the real-life Dixon of dock green PC Nick Nixon began his mid-fifties beat with its drab and furtive streets and its lines of squat grey buildings similar to - cottages verging like so many London districts on to neighbouring areas of decorative and elegant buildings this strange and sinister district was a world of its own ferocious and futile at the same time yet always beneath its gray secretive surface a delayed-action missile which might explode at any moment it seemed that on every street corner brawls and quarrels were taking place here a group of white youngsters would be lounging against a wall jiving at colored men passing by and wolf-whistling girls not infrequently half a dozen men and lads were milling around one another sparring for an opening in answer to the question if you're so cute kiddo why do you live in such an area the absolute beginner explained that firstly it was cheap but the real reason as I expect you'll have already guessed is that however horrible the area is you're free there no one I repeat no one has ever asked me there what I am or what I do where I come from if you go in anywhere take it for granted that you know the scene if you don't it's true they throw you out in pieces the advent of the teenager coincided not very happily with the arrival of the first major wave of West Indian immigrants in Britain to ease the post-war labor shortage in a mid-50s hazing survey of London landlords 90 percent admitted that they wouldn't take black lodgers and some were openly prejudiced displaying the notorious flats Alette notices amended with no blacks no coloreds were Europeans only fourteen English 44 their English yes yeah I'll cop mix and this is how I wouldn't sell I'll let you coming but it wasn't long before some enterprising landlords took it upon themselves to cater for the new black housing market as more and more afro-caribbean people found accommodation in Notting Hill the practice of charging extra for friends to stay with tenants escalated into rooms being split into sections with people sleeping in shifts Victorian slum style the most notorious landlord to exploit the situation Peter originally Parekh Rahman was himself a post-war Polish immigrant in the early 50s Ratman set up a letting agency at 91 to free Westbourne Grove as a respectable front and began renting flats to sublet to prostitutes in 1955 he came into a batch of properties in the Colville estate which had already been sublet and then sublet some more by then Rahman was known to be operating the practice of putting the Schwartz's into dis stat Bay's encouraged white setting tenants to vacate properties then subdividing rooms and charging the new West Indian tenants more rent in most first-hand accounts he wasn't the worst but he would become so notorious for the practice due to events far from housing that his name is now synonymous with slum landlord exploitation welcome back in tonight we see everything upside all the flow mashup all the water of all the chair all the table full of all the light no water I see well well well well by 1958 around 7000 black people had sailed in Notting Hill and the Powis in Colville area was nicknamed brain home as opposed to White City the other side of the racial frontline nightingale by then it seems that rattmann had managed to extricate himself from his slum Empire as he moved on to property development and in most accounts it was then that things really fell apart as his former henchmen tried to wring a profit from the deteriorating slums with most local pubs unwelcoming to anyone regardless of race he wasn't a local West Indian hustlers created their own scene consisting of various types of clubs there are after hours or afters drinking clubs basement or cellar close the daytime gambling and the most famous blues dances clubs or pies an attempt to recreate backyard same system culture indoors named in honor of the Blaupunkt radio gramophone the same system prototype known as the blue point with blue spot rather than blues music blues dance music went from jazz Calypso and Jamaican rhythm and blues through ska and Rocksteady to 70s dub reggae like Irish Sabine's as West Indian clubs were also known and the original and most violent mushroom clubs in bottle PI's of the indigenous English villains blues could crop up anywhere but tended to be in the Ragman areas around Paris Square instance Stevens Gardens thus defining the original West Indian growth area has more Westbourne and labyrinth the story of the Blues began in the basement of Fullerton the tailor's on Talbot Road where Jeep Vinnie's a selector then bargee opened a cafe and cellar Club next door which became Roy Stuart's celebrated globe After Hours bar restaurant on Paris Square the basement Ratman flat of michael de freitas boasted a residency by the jazz pianist Wilfred Woodley and the exclusive Montparnasse luck this fervor along Torbert Road to the safe kelvil terrace hosted sheriff's club stroke gym and the Barbadians club to the north Westbourne Park Road featured Larry Ford's yester one on the corner of Larry road and the Calypso Club mrs. Stephens Gardens blues clubs are now recognized as a vital ingredient in British pop culture that into the bargain help transform Notting Hill from a dreary slum into the heart of Maury cultural London however at the time they were not held in very high esteem after the first riot incidents stemmed from noise complaints about them the clubs played an integral part in the Profumo affair and the emerging drugs counterculture whilst also encouraging the formation of the first tenants associations in Calvary Winston Stephens Gardens although the Richard Curtis Notting Hill film managed to avoid any reference to local history the Hugh Grant walk along Portobello Road in ER vertically features the main flash point of the 1958 Notting Hill race riots nine Blenheim present between the Samuel Beckett mural and the real travel bookshop is the site of the 50s Caribbean cafe toto bags also known not always metaphorically as the fortress the cafe acted as a community centre and information service for newcomers a gambling den two such early same system selectors as Baron Baker count suckle Duke VIN and King dick a slumming attraction stroke cool hangout to some real aristocrats Sarah Churchill Winston's favorite actress daughter Georgie Fame and Colin McInnis and as a target for white rioters now a nondescript market store in the heart of gentrified Notting Hill the house looks like it's preserved in its 50s condition as a memorial the incident usually cited is the one that started the 1958 Notting Hill riots was an innocuous domestic dispute between a Jamaican man and his Swedish wife here outside Latimer O'Keefe station ray and Maj Britt Morrison's argument Julie attracted an audience some white men heckled ray and Maj Britt shouted back at them in defense of her husband a group of West Indian men joined in there was a scuffle and that was the end of the beginning to begin with the riot largely consisted of the local mob drunkenly milling about under the railway arches on Bromley Road as recounted in Jungle West 11 the 58th riot Paul Factbook by matric Morrison the following night a mob attacks her house on bard Road off restroom road and a blue spy on blendin Street setting off the late August riot weekend other colored people here who do cause trouble themselves and Loyola high never cast know me but I have any colored people here you think he'll give a fence in any way I don't know but I never cost none duster is why the district people here loved me before Lattimer Road was split into Freston Road and the northern stretch by the West way roundabout it was as important a fur affair as lab regrouping already appeared in the Blue Lamp in the Lavender Hill mob as a crash site it was immortalized by collie McInnis in absolute beginners featuring the altogether less funny last summer Road mob barred Road still exists although now only as an industrial slip road alongside the West cross route by the Christmas building on Freston Road blechh ndon street originally meandered from the north end of bard rode round Latimer Road station across Bromley Road to Lancaster Road all that remains of it today after Kalima kinases planning proposal to pull them down till not a ones left standing up was carried out he's occupied by the activist studios which hosts the Portobello Film Festival office the blech end and Street Blues incident as recalled by King dick in the wind rush book consisted of count circle playing the calypso record oriental ball mixed with the beasts warm sound of the Latimer Road mob approaching shouts have keep britain white breaking glass and police sirens on this occasion the police escorted the West Indian partygoers to another club east along Lancaster Road dissipating the trouble and containing the situation in nightingale however this gave the mob the impression that they could f initely cleanse the area while the moment in pop history was summed up by Kali McInnis from the Manchester Guardian reports the Kensington News reporter on the scene Colin eels is cited in the Windrush book for capturing the precise flavor of street corner agitation incredible rumor sexual hysteria random violence and holiday anarchy in the 1959 film sapphire racial prejudice was examined during the course of a police investigation into the murder of a light-skinned West Indian girl called saffron the black suspect Jonny fiddle escapes the law from the chi-lites Club in Shepherds Bush where everyone's called Johnny something only to run into not in Delhi after being roughed up by Ted's under the Latimer Road arches he saved by a grocer woman who locks him in a shop until the police arrive in the end Johnny Rotten turns out to be the racist sister of the victims white boyfriend The Grocer woman scene is a reenactment of a real riot incident also incorporated into the absolute beginners book from the Manchester Guardian an angry crowd of views chases a Negro into a greengrocer shot while police reinforcements are called after check the riot one of many that have broken out here in a few days the injured victim Jamaican Lee has taken to safety calling McKenna's pictured the woman as the patron say of corner shops going to heaven by rocket after Seymour Manning was finally rescued by police on horseback local teenagers told the Manchester Guardian reporter of reinforcements coming in from Elephant & Castle to help us finish the job and invited him to come back tomorrow night mr. for the next installment a hundred ninety thousand coloured people live in with less than half of one percent of the population and in the men they live happily a little strange at first they soon settle into living and working with their new neighbors working in harmony and peace good workers honest decent people who've come here because this is the mother country of the Commonwealth by right it's their second home now their faith in us and the crown wealth has been shaken by violence why did it happen what must we do we asked the Reverend dr. Marcus gems vicar of Marland an all-white parish and mr. George Rogers Member of Parliament for Kensington North mr. Otis what do you think of the basic reasons for these riots I think they are housing and by spire mind or chip the immigrants would you agree with that dr. James I would say that housing is a part of a continent but the basic problem in the present situation is one - my my organism and I personally would Monday September the 1st 1958 day 3 of the riots the main day of the first Notting Hill Carnival in the riotous revelry reckless indulgence is something eg bloodshed dictionary definition in the calm before the storm gangs of white news loitered about on street corners and the police presence remained minimal once sufficiently encouraged by the fascists at Latimer Road station the mob surged out of Notting Dale up Blenheim present across laborat Grove - besieged Rockman's black ghetto in Colville on the way smashing windows of West Indian houses on Westbourne Park Road and Lancaster Road if they attacked my countrymen did they have attacked me as well and if they had tagged us then it means that we're going to make certain that we get the last hit if they do not attack us they have no fear of us but if they attack then we'll fight back in the absolute beginners filmed footnote to the book gary beadle as johnny wonder portrays michel de freitas on his way to becoming my co x as he organized the black resistance at the calypso club on Westbourne Park Road by all accounts Michel said we don't want committees and representatives what we need is to get a few bits of iron and a bit of organization so that when they come in here we can defend ourselves echo in the battle without much serious injury in GK Chesterton's the Napoleon of Notting Hill with Michael in the title role his plan involved turning Toto bags cafe at 9 Blenheim Crescent into a real fortress from which Molotov cocktails were held to repel white rioters the 1958 Battle of Blenheim present was reenacted by julian temple in 1985 as a West Side Story style dance sequence on a set at Shepperton studios combining the Blenheim crescent and Bromley Road riot sounds as temple told the enemy at the time I don't think they'd let you stage a race riot that easily in Notting Hill these days and the place itself has all been painted in pretty electric blues or apricot and pink whereas in the 50s it was all crumbling and black and slums together in peace these little children show the way it should be easy for all of us old and young singer and teenage idol Marty Wilde knows we can I'm appealing to you as a friend and a human being to stop these riots now a handful of you are disgracing all of us remember black or white we are all born into the same world [Music] well that's all for this edition see you again sir for the cover picture of the first edition of absolute beginners Roger main returned to his favorite location safe from Street in Kensal this was after a West Indian had been stabbed to death by a gang of white men on the street and Mosley subsequently held a meeting there in response to the riots claudia jones organized the Caribbean Carnival show at st. Pancras Town Hall in early 1959 which became an annual event in the early 60s as Mosley was blamed for bringing further disgrace on the area over a phase and black and white people followed Kelso Cochran's funeral cortege in a proto carnival procession along laborat Grove to Kensal Green Cemetery you say from Street was declared unfit for human inhabitation in 1963 and demolished in the late 60s to make way for the Eden a mistake including Trellick tower all that remains of the street today is the corner pub the Earl of Warwick at 36 Golborne Road which retained a dangerous local atmosphere until its 21st century bar restaurant conversion into the Golborne Grove you the 58 Notting Hill riots and and conditions also brought about local community action campaigns by everyone from the Methodists to the angry brigade [Music] in 1966 Ronnie Leslie and the London Free School group organized the Notting Hill Fair and pagin featuring the first carnival procession the event remained largely a hippie festival until 1973 when Leslie Palmer established the modern or Caribbean carnival with reggae sound systems adding a unique post-colonial twist to traditional calypso nian carnivals of the Eastern Caribbean helping to foster event nascent black British identity it's ironic that in the aftermath of the fifty-eighth riots the death of one man Celso Cochrane lost in time became the spark for the biggest celebration of afro-caribbean survival in Europe [Music] [Applause] [Music]