'Carnival's diversity and inclusion are more important than ever' W

NOTTING Hill Carnival's boss today said its message of "diversity and inclusion" is just as important as the economic boost it gives London-with as many as two million people preparing to join Europe's biggest street party over the bank holiday weekend.

- Robert Dex

Matthew Phillip, whose first experience of the event was being pushed round it as a baby in a buggy before graduating to a steel band, said the recent riots "absolutely" echoed the events in the 1950s that spurred on the carnival's founders.

Its roots are in a Caribbean carnival set up following race riots in the west London neighbourhood in 1958, when it was a byword for poverty and bad housing rather than the gentrified area it has become.

That first Caribbean carnival, set up by activist Claudia Jones, took place in 1959 and ran for six years until her death, when social worker Rhaune Laslett organised an event for local children which featured a pan band performing in Portobello Road, with the two events eventually giving birth to Europe's biggest street party.

Mr Phillip told the Standard: "That is why Carnival was set up in the first place, to bring people together. Notting Hill in the 1950s was a very different place to what it is now.