Rhaune Laslett (15 November 1919 – 28 April 2002) was a community activist and the principal organiser of the
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Roa ...
Fayre or
Festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival co ...
Rhaune Laslett was born Freda Pulverness in Stepney in the
East End of London
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have un ...
. Her mother Jennie was the daughter of Harris and Betsy Noskovitch. Her father was Abraham Pulverness. Laslett often claimed that she was of Native American heritage.
With the name Frederica R.A.J. Pulvernes or Gibbons, she married Terence A. Laslett in 1947 and was later divorced. In 1960 she was a matron of the Pixie Hollow home in Grove Road, Ramsgate, Kent. At the trial, she was acquitted of the main charges but, because of her record, she was sentenced to nine months in prison.
Laslett became president of the
London Free School
The London Free School (LFS) was founded on 8 March 1966, principally by John "Hoppy" Hopkins and Rhaune Laslett.
Description
The London Free School was a community action adult education project inspired by American free universities (and t ...
, organised by a coalition of local activists, including some emerging underground artists of the area, particularly John "Hoppy" Hopkins. The aims of the school were "to promote cooperation and understanding between people of various races and creeds through education and through working together".
John Michell
John Michell (; 25 December 1724 – 21 April 1793) was an English natural philosopher and clergyman who provided pioneering insights into a wide range of scientific fields including astronomy, geology, optics, and gravitation. Considered "o ...
and
Michael X
Michael X (17 August 1933 – 16 May 1975), born Michael de Freitas, was a Trinidad and Tobago-born self-styled black revolutionary and civil rights activist in 1960s London. He was also known as Michael Abdul Malik and Abdul Malik. Convicted ...
provided 26 Powis Terrace as a base and the idea was born of a free festival, which became the Notting Hill Carnival.
She set up the Children's Play Group at 34 Tavistock Crescent that was visited on 15 May 1966 by
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, ...
prior to his fight against
Henry Cooper
Sir Henry Cooper (3 May 19341 May 2011) was a British heavyweight boxer, best remembered internationally for a 1963 fight in which he knocked down a young Cassius Clay before the fight was stopped because of a cut eye from Clay's punches. C ...
.
She became president of the
London Free School
The London Free School (LFS) was founded on 8 March 1966, principally by John "Hoppy" Hopkins and Rhaune Laslett.
Description
The London Free School was a community action adult education project inspired by American free universities (and t ...
John Michell
John Michell (; 25 December 1724 – 21 April 1793) was an English natural philosopher and clergyman who provided pioneering insights into a wide range of scientific fields including astronomy, geology, optics, and gravitation. Considered "o ...
and
Michael X
Michael X (17 August 1933 – 16 May 1975), born Michael de Freitas, was a Trinidad and Tobago-born self-styled black revolutionary and civil rights activist in 1960s London. He was also known as Michael Abdul Malik and Abdul Malik. Convicted ...
provided 26 Powis Terrace as a base and the idea was born of a free fayre or festival, which became the Notting Hill Carnival.
In 1968 she married James O'Brien in London.
Notting Hill Carnival
In a series of articles to newspaper correspondents and in ''The Grove'' (newsletter of the London Free School), 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 the 18th 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
Russell Henderson
Russell Audley Ferdinand "Russ" Henderson (7 January 1924 – 18 August 2015) was a jazz musician on the piano and the steelpan. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, he settled in England in the 1950s. He is most widely recognised as one of the ...
’s
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
Coleherne pub
The Coleherne Arms 1866 public house was a gay pub in west London. Located at 261 Old Brompton Road, Earl's Court, it was a popular landmark leather bar during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2008, it was rebranded as a gastropub, The Pembroke.
History ...
in
Earl's Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
, followed by 2 fire engines".
As
Gary Younge
Gary Andrew Younge , (born January 1969) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and academic. He was editor-at-large for ''The Guardian'' newspaper, which he joined in 1993. In November 2019, it was announced that Younge had been appointe ...
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
Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in 1835 by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's"; the apostrophe is no longer ...
; 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."Gary Younge "The politics of partying" ''The Guardian'', 17 August 2001.
Neighbourhood Service
Out of the new-found energy in and around the Free School, and George Clark's work to establish the Community Workshop, Laslett established the Notting Hill Neighbourhood Service, one of the first voluntary services to offer free legal and drugs advice as well as an all-round welfare service. The work of the service is featured in a chapter of the book ''Drop Out'' by Robin Farquharson.
Legacy
"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.
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
Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is ...
(organised by the Nubian Jak Community Trust), facing another blue plaque that commemorates Claudia Jones, who in 1959 organised an indoor Caribbean carnival event.
On the eve of the 2016 Carnival, in a series of articles, the leading
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
* Abner Cohen (1993), ''Masquerade Politics: explorations in the structure of urban cultural movements''. Chapter 1: A Resurrected London Fair.
* "Rhaune Laslett, The Notting Hill Festival", in ''Carnival: A Photographic and Testimonial History of the Notting Hill Carnival'', London: Rice N Peas, pp. 50–83. .