1958: the summer of violence in Britain

Notting Hill in the 1950s

• By 1961, there were over 100,000 Caribbean people living in London.
• Caribbean migrants found homes in areas of poor housing, one of these areas was Notting Hill in North Kensington.
• At that time poverty and crime were a part of life in North Kensington.
• Poor white families competed with Caribbeans for housing, a situation which was often exploited by suspicious landlords who took advantage of the housing shortage to charge high rents.
• Oswald Mosely, former leader of the British Fascists, published anti immigration leaflets and distributed them in the area.
• Economic downtown, so jobs were scarcer, some white people blamed immigrants for 'taking their jobs'.

Teddy Boys

• A new gang culture was emerging among white working class youths, epitomised by the teddy boys.
• …