NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL
HISTORY INBRIEF
The idea of a carnival in Notting Hill came from the annual Lenten tradition of “playing mas” (masquerade) in the eastern Caribbean. In 1964 the community worker Rhaune Laslett invited Russell Henderson to bring a three-piece steel band to play for the first Notting Hill fayre and pageant, an event she had organised in conjunction with the London Free School and the photographer, writer and activist John “Hoppy” Hopkins.
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The small steel band arrived at Portobello Green accompanied by a crowd of regulars from the Coleherne pub, and after having played for some time in a standing position, Henderson suggested everyone should embark on a road march. The procession, joined by the public, was repeated the following day, and became the first manifestation of what has since grown into an international event attended by more than one million revellers each year.
RUSSELL HENDERSON
Henderson is also credited as one of the founding fathers of the Notting Hill Carnival, which started as a marching band festival in London’s Bayswater Road and Queensway. In 1964 he and his band were instrumental in establishing the Carnival as a national annual event. Reflecting on its initial success years later Henderson joked, “That was fantastic, let’s do it again next year!” He is remembered with a blue plaque on Tavistock Road.
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Russ Henderson, who died aged 91, was an eloquent jazz pianist from Trinidad and a leading figure in the steelband movement in Britain. For more than six decades he used music as a focus for community cohesion and the bettering of race relations, and was directly involved in the establishment of the Notting Hill Carnival in London.
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