These images, the earliest taken in 1975, show Notting Hill before it became the fashionable haunt of Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts and a coterie of upper-class Conservatives. In the mid-1970s many of the houses in the north of the area were in poor condition, rented out by exploitative private landlords, occupied by squatters, or awaiting demolition. The Mas bands of the annual Carnival were able parade down Ladbroke Grove in relative freedom - although by the early 1980s Carnival attracted...
more »These images, the earliest taken in 1975, show Notting Hill before it became the fashionable haunt of Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts and a coterie of upper-class Conservatives. In the mid-1970s many of the houses in the north of the area were in poor condition, rented out by exploitative private landlords, occupied by squatters, or awaiting demolition. The Mas bands of the annual Carnival were able parade down Ladbroke Grove in relative freedom - although by the early 1980s Carnival attracted huge crowds (and much attention from the Metropolitan police), it was still predominantly a Caribbean event, without the enormous numbers of tourists and other visitors who now render the streets almost impassable over the August bank holiday weekend.
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