52 Things To Do in London - Thing Five! Notting Hill.

THING FIVE.

NOTTING HILL - THE CARNIVAL, THE FILM AND GEORGE ORWELL.

The Notting Hill Carnival is the biggest street party in Europe and the second biggest in the world.  

It takes to the streets of West London every August Bank Holiday.  Notting Hill is a fascinating area.  It's gone from slum to showbiz in a relatively short period of time.

It now has the more tragic fame of the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower, the high-rise block of flats in North Kensington.  It was the worst civilian fire in London since the Second World War.  The burnt-out building is a horrible sight to behold.  And the neighbourhood of North Kensington is also fairly unique.  A poorer part of one of the richest areas of the UK, one of the best Pantomimes I ever saw was in Notting Hill.  The handwritten programmes, groups of school children and community groups performing were off-set by cameo performances by some very famous actors and musicians who live in, or near the area.  It was brilliant and democratic and everything a community should be. 

There was some talk of cancelling the Carnival this year, but Carnival will continue, with a pause and silence as a mark of respect for those lost. 

Tragedy aside, the first Carnival was arranged in the 1960s by those newly arrived in London from the West Indies, to celebrate their culture and help diffuse racial tensions.  It worked wonderfully on all levels although it was some years before the establishment recognised it as an ‘official’ London event.  Carnival runs over Bank Holiday Sunday, with a family day; then a more festive, full-on carnival parade on the Bank Holiday Monday.

The only problem with Carnival today is that it attracts crowds of over a million!  So you need to work out travel and transport in advance.  Forget the Tube Map - many of the stations are closed, so see the TfL journey planner in the link below.

Notting Hill also became internationally famous with the film of the same name, written by  Richard Curtis.  Richard still lives in the area.  I first saw the film ‘Withnail and I’ in his barn conversion home cinema near Southwold a few years ago.  So I love him! 

If you’d like to know more about Notting Hill and it’s history, I interviewed writer Fiona Rule about her book ‘Streets of Sin - a dark biography of Notting Hill’ for my radio show on Resonance FM and our podcast.  You can buy the book HERE and listen to Fiona at  Podcast Number LLPC - 045

And of course, George Orwell lived here too. See below and party on!

www.thelondonnottinghillcarnival.com

BONUS PUB. By Nick.  Again....

Notting Hill has some great boozers, especially around the Portobello Road.  The Prince Albert is very central and five minutes from Notting Hill Tube station and has the fab Gate Theatre above,  but walk a little bit further down toward Portobello and at number 7, is The Sun in Splendour.  You can’t miss its bright yellow frontage.




It dates back to 1852 and there was a fairly spectacular Sun and Rays model on the roof, but that was lost to a storm a few years ago.  There's a garden too, although like many pub gardens, it's been a bit taken over by smokers. But it's a good writing boozer especially in the week.  Saturday, it's full of Portobello Market folk. Generally the staff are friendly and ‘get it’, although if you're a tourist just looking for the loos, you might be in trouble!  

And if you come out of the pub, turn left and head down the road, keep you eyes peeled for the blue plaque on the white house on the right. Yep, George Orwell lived there for a while. So get back to the pub and start writing! 

52 Things To Do In London. Thing Two! Anglo-Texan love.

My first ‘Thing’ To Do in London, was more about where to stay for around £20. My Second ‘Thing’ is not so much linked to Literary London and the London Literary Pub Crawl, as America! And specifically, Texas.

That my second ‘Thing’ is Texas-orientated is for two reasons. Firstly, because recently a young woman from Austin, Texas, who had flown in to London the morning of the Literary Pub Crawl and not eaten or slept for 48 hours, got a bit tipsy. Only a bit, you must understand. (In fact in nearly five years of the Pub Crawl, we’ve only had two or three people ‘tired with the wine’! And that’s usually when I host the show and get carried away, as it were!) 

The second reason is that we are trying to raise some money to promote the London Literary Pub Crawl and expand into other areas, and a friend of mine who used to live in London is from Austin, Texas. He bought a £2k share in the company. Or a ‘Unit’ as they're known in the theatre world. Sort of like non-tradable shares. So I’m loving the USA. And Texas. And especially, Austin, Texas. It’s apparently a growing area in the USA, and has an annual arts and music festival. As a struggling writer, I can’t afford to go there yet - although I did wonder about creating a poetry slam or doing some readings, but that is perhaps for another time - but if you are from America or Texas, then this is what you should do in London.

Because in 1842, Texas was an independent republic. Nope, nothing to do with the USA.

In fact the Diplomatic address of Texas was in St. James!  So, Thing Two To Do In London is to get to Texas in London!  St James is the diplomatic area.  To visit Texas, go to St James’s Street - or more precisely, Pickering Place. The nearest tube station is Green Park. The tiny Pickering Place is an alley off the east side of St. James's Street near St. James's Palace in a building that also houses Berry Bros. & Rudd, a prestigious wine merchants' that has been there since 1730. 

On the north side of the building is a plaque - in fact there are TWO plaques - marking it as the site of the Texas legation. At least until 1845, when Texas decided to be less independent and became a United State of America. Then they left London, but didn't pay the rent. In fact the outstanding rent bill, due to the wine merchants next door, wasn't actually settled until the 1980’s!  Then 26 Texans dressed in buckskin, showed up at the wine shop to settle the Republic’s outstanding debt of $160, repaid on the spot in Republic of Texas bills.

This may be due to the fact that an organisation called the Anglo-Texan Society - who had author Graham Greene as a member - came over in 1963 and installed a commemorative plaque.  In 2013 they installed another plaque, probably relieved that their forebears finally sorted the rent. At the far end of the alley lies Pickering Place, a paved square with a sundial in the centre. One of London’s smallest public squares and once a notorious venue for duels and bear-baiting apparently. Pickering Place also boasts that it was the last place in London where a duel was fought and the place where Napoleon III plotted his return to France (he was in exile in England between 1838 and 1848). 

But never forget this is all next to a wine merchants. That in itself should be worth a visit! 

Yee-hah! Go see!