Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.9
Object Name
Poster
Title
The streets belong to the people
Place
London
Events
Notting Hill Carnival
Date
1976
Description
Paddington Printshop was a graphic art and printmaking centre active in west London between 1975 and 1989. The Printshop worked collaboratively with members of local organisations and campaigns to create over 400 poster designs, and thousands of leaflets. The printshop was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of political issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This is a large screenprinted, colourful poster, with a purple background. The poster has an image of different people's faces, with a circle underneath. Some of the faces are more cartoon-like, and one is more realistic looking. Four of them are brown, and two of the faces are green. The face in the middle is caricature like, and could be seen as a racist depiction of a Black person. In the circle, there are triangles with red borders; inside these triangles there are different images, such as a
musical note, a raised fist, footprints, a cannabis leaf and a drum. The circle is blue, white and red. The bottom half of the poster has a yellow background, and black text which reads, "The streets belong to the PEOPLE. Keep CARNIVAL in the streets." This poster is in relation to criticisms of Notting Hill Carnival, which were usually racist in nature. These issues became prominent in the 1970s with the rise of the national front, and in 1976 there were uprisings and 'riots' opposing police brutality, and the unfair policing of Black people in the area and at the carnival. There were discussions about the carnival being banned. This poster was produced in 1976 and was created by artist John Phillips.
