Streatham & Newham Carnivals: On Saturday 14 July 2007 I photographed carnivals in two areas of London, Streatham in south London and Newham in East London.
Although we had a long carnival tradition in England, and one that was much revived after the Second World War, many of those traditional carnivals had by around 2000 died out. But new carnival traditions, particularly from the Caribbean have come to take their place. Unlike the traditional events many of these received considerable funding from local authorities and organisations such as the Arts Council. While I was pleased to see this, I think we lost something by failing to support our own traditional and often rather zany activities.
The two events were rather different. This was only the second Streatham Carnival and seemed to be supported by small local groups and individuals. It was specifically a children’s parade, mainly with primary age children and their parents. The Newham event is a much larger council organised and sponsored event and includes many community organisations and schools and is in part a PR event for Newham’s Mayor.
The Streatham procession was mainly on the pavements of one of London’s busier roads, while in Newham to procession took place in a park and along less busy urban roads. The Streatham parade had a spontaneous feel while in Newham you were aware of the weeks or months of planning by the various organisations.
Here I’ll post a few pictures from each of them – with links to more pictures on My London Diary – and the short texts I wrote in 2007.
Streatham Carnival Parade
Streatham High Road
Saturday 14th July I photographed a small carnival procession in Streatham High Road, making its way down the pavement on the edge of the busy street, part of the Streatham Festival.
More pictures on My London Diary.
Newham Carnival
East Ham
Newham Carnival was a much larger affair, with quite a few local schools taking part along with other community groups. The carnival had a largely West Indian feel, although there were some Indian dancers. Of course those taking part reflected the multiracial nature of Newham, with over 60% of residents from ethnic groups other than White English, but I would have liked to see more diversity reflected. We even have an English Carnival tradition – and no reason why this, along with Irish and other ethnic traditions shouldn’t be more evident in events such as this
More pictures on My London Diary.
Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos
All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.
