1958 Notting Hill Race Riots - Aftermath

Aftermath

The sentencing of the nine white youths arrested during the riots has passed into judicial lore as an example of "exemplary sentencing" – a harsh punishment to act as a deterrent to others. Each of the youths received five years in prison and they were to also pay £500.

The Notting Hill Carnival was started by Claudia Jones in January 1959 as a response to the riots and the state of race relations in Britain at the time.

The riots caused tension between the Metropolitan Police and the British African-Caribbean community, which claimed that the police had not taken their reports of racial attacks seriously. In 2002, files were released that revealed that senior police officers at the time had assured the Home Secretary, Rab Butler, that there was little or no racial motivation behind the disturbance, despite testimony from individual police officers to the contrary.

Another, entirely unrelated, riot occurred many years later in 1976 at the conclusion of the Notting Hill Carnival after police arrested a pickpocket and a mixed group of both black and white youths came to his defence. The disturbance escalated and over 100 police officers were injured. Two notable participants in this riot were Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, who later formed the London punk band The Clash. Their song "White Riot" was inspired by their participation in this event.