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Many years ago there was a letter in The Guardian, and I’m talking about 40 years ago, from a woman who said that despite the multicultural origins that are claimed for it. She and her neighbours had lived in Powys Terrace and they started it for their children who had nothing to do over the summer. But I dare say she’s dead and nobody gives a shit now how or why it really started.'
Do you mean Rhaune Laslett? Her carnival should be better remembered, but she did include Carribean culture in her parade, among others, and it wasn't simply as children had nothing to do : that was part of it but earlier race riots were part of the reason.
I don't think the origins are a battle of either/or. Rhane Lauslett and Claudia Jones both originated important elements that evolved into today's carnival. Wikipedia is unreliable I know often, but the following claims are sourced : '
Rhaune Laslett (15 November 1919 – 28 April 2002)[1] was an English community activist and the principal organiser of the Notting Hill Fayre or Festival, that evolved into the Notting Hill Carnival.
Rhaune Laslett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaune_Laslett
Main article: Notting Hill Carnival
In a series of articles to newspaper correspondents and in The Grove (newsletter of the London Free School),[7] Laslett outlined the aims of the festival – that the various culture groups of Notting Hill become more familiar with each other's customs, to bring more colour and life to the streets and to counter the perception of the area being a run-down slum. As she stated to The Grove, "We felt that although West Indians, Africans, Irish and many other nationalities all live in a very congested area, there is very little communication between us. If we can infect them with a desire to participate then this can only have good results." The "Notting Hill Fayre and Pageant", or the London Free School Fair, was held over a week starting on 18 September 1966, and, as well as featuring a pageant that included "a man dressed as Elizabeth I and children as Charles Dickens characters", there was "a Portobello parade consisting of the London Irish girl pipers, a West Indian New Orleans-style marching band, Ginger Johnson's African-Cuban band, and Russell Henderson's Trinidadian steelband from the Coleherne pub in Earl's Court, followed by 2 fire engines".[8]
As Gary Younge has written, Laslett "spoke to the local police about organising a carnival". With more of an English fete in mind, she invited the various ethnic groups of what was then the poor area of Notting Hill - Ukrainians, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, Caribbeans and Africans - to contribute to a week-long event that would culminate with an August bank holiday parade....She borrowed costumes from Madame Tussaud's; a local hairdresser did the hair and make-up for nothing; the gas board and fire brigade had floats; and stallholders in Portobello market donated horses and carts. Around 1,500 people turned up, according to police figures."[9]
Neighbourhood Service
Legacy
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Laslett's Carnival: A Photography Exhibition, a photographic journey into the history of Notting Hill Carnival and its early pioneers, was held at The Tabernacle, Notting Hill, in August 2011.[12][13][14]
On 26 August 2011, a blue plaque commemorating Laslett's conception of the Notting Hill street festival that "later evolved into Notting Hill Carnival" was unveiled on the corner of Tavistock Square and Portobello Road (organised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust), facing another blue plaque that commemorates Claudia Jones, who in 1959 organised an indoor Caribbean carnival event.[15][16]
On the eve of the 2016 Carnival, in a series of articles, the leading black newspaper The Voice recognised that "Yes, this is Notting Hill Carnival's 50th year"[17] and "Rhaune Laslett: The true founder of Notting Hill Carnival".[18]