PORTOBELLO FILM FESTIVAL PORTOBELLO FREE FESTIVAL 2014 28 August - 14 September POP UP CINEMA LONDON FILMS W10 5TY ROCK AND ROLL FILMS WESTBOURNE WORLD FILMS STUDIOS KID’S FILMS W10 5JJ VIDEO CAFE KPH ARTISTS W10 6HJ BLEK LE RAT www.portobellofilmfestival.com URBAN MYTHOLOGY/REALITY by Tom Vague Orwell Mansions, on the new become part of the multicultural recalls the Jewish boyfriend of his reputedly last seen at the Globe on Portobello Square W10 Notting Dale slum, along with wife’s sister going round the area Talbot Road and the Mangrove on development off Golborne Road, is English, Irish and Italian on his scooter and reporting back All Saints, and various other local named in allusion to George Orwell communities. to the West Indians on the addresses have claims to being living on Portobello Road (or A hundred years ago, at the whereabouts of the Teds. Hendrix crash pads. possibly the Orwellian style of the outbreak of the First World War the In punk rock mythology the Clash block?). He did indeed begin Electric Cinema was attacked in formed in Portobello market in does, however, have a naval origin. anti-German riots because the 1976. In other versions the pivotal The farm and its lane were named London and Provincial Electric meeting took place on Ladbroke in celebration of England’s defeat Theatres company was German- Grove, various other local streets of Spain in the 1739 battle of owned; not because the manager and the Lisson Grove dole office. Porto Belo (now in Panama), under was suspected of signalling to They did, however, frequent the management of Admiral Zeppelins from the roof. In the 30s Henekey’s (the Earl of Lonsdale) Vernon. the North Kensington ghost bus and the Elgin as the group came story arose after a fatal car crash writing ‘Down and Out in Paris and Notting Hill could mean ‘Nutting on St Mark’s Road. The driver is London’ along the road at his blue Hill, in allusion to the rich woods said to have swerved into a plaque house, number 22, but which no longer cover it’, as GK lamppost to avoid the phantom that’s at the other end in a Chesterton put it, or be derived number 7 of the General Omnibus different area, near Notting Hill from the Saxon Sons of Cnotta Company (by then succeeded by Gate. However, the Golborne tribe, that’s just a theory with no London Transport). Notting Hill Carnival wasn’t Portobello Square is closer to the evidence to back it up, but there ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ founded after or during the riots site of the Portobello farmhouse was Roman activity in the area; by Claudia Jones, the 59 London (on the south east corner of the Holland Park Avenue was part of features a ‘Portobello Road’ song summing up the mythology of the Caribbean Carnival founder, as together, so the myth is more or Portobello and Golborne junction) the Roman road to Silchester and a propagated in some quarters, or in less true. In 1977 Bob Marley and than the pedestrian precinct at the burial ground was discovered at the market: ‘Rare alabaster? Genuine plaster. A filigreed samovar owned 64/65, but by Rhaune Laslett and the Wailers’ ‘Exodus’ album and junction of Tavistock Road south of start of Ladbroke Grove. According the London Free School hippy Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ the Westway in W11, which is more to a 1970s archaeological survey by the czars. A pen used by Shelley? A new Botticelli? The single were recorded at Chris commonly known as Portobello there would have been a villa on Blackwell’s Island Studios on Basing Square. the hill. snipper that clipped old King Edward’s cigars? Waterford Street; not at Trevor Horn’s ‘Imagination starts with raffish The Kensington manor is defined crystals? Napoleon’s pistols?… subsequent Sarm Studios, as the Portobello Road’, wrote Monica by two underground rivers, Rembrandts! El Grecos! Toulouse- hoarding mural claims. Dickens, Charles’s great-grand- Counter’s Creek and the Lautrecos! Painted last week on the daughter who lived on the corner Westbourne, but Florence banks of the Thames.’ of Chepstow Villas. The most Gladstone noted in ‘Notting Hill in imaginative account of how Bygone Days’, ‘there is no Portobello market began is in the foundation for the statement, 1977 guidebook by Craig Sams, occasionally met with, that a vast which has: ‘in the middle ages lake underlies the district.’ The de there was a market on Nuttynghull Vere medieval lords of the manor Street. Later the Romany gypsies appear in Laurence Gardner’s community activists in 1966. Most and the travelling Irish tinkers ‘Realm of the Ring Lords’ as the elf of the stories about Michael de peddled their wares while local kings of Kensington. There are The most popular Portobello myth Freitas aka Michael X are true, farmers and pig-rearers sold their theories that two of them were is that the local serial killer John though his involvement in the Christie of 10 Rillington Place produce.’ Knottynghull is Robin Hood, and the Elizabethan Princess Margaret sex photos affair Apparently true legends of the mentioned in the Patent Rolls in Edward de Vere is thought to be worked at the Electric Cinema as a as portrayed in ‘The Bank Job’ film projectionist. He did work at a Portobello Hotel on Stanley 1359, but as a wooded area only Shakespeare. is stretching it. During the filming Gardens include Alice Cooper inhabited by robbers. Up until the cinema in Hammersmith and was The short-lived Hippodrome of ‘Performance’ in 1968, the 1850s North Kensington was associated with the Royalty on racecourse (1837-42) was unsuc- authenticity of Mick Jagger’s on- entirely rural, though Notting Lancaster Road, but there is no cessful because the clay soil made screen relationship with Anita Barns farm and the gypsy camp in evidence of him being employed at the going heavy, not because the Pallenberg (Keith Richards’ Notting Dale can be traced back to the Electric. The building is also land was overrun by pigs or bought girlfriend) is said to have nearly the middle ages. said to be haunted by the ghost of by Baron Warren Todd to build caused the Stones to split. But the a manager who slashed his wrists interior scenes were shot in luxury flats on (from Tony Allen’s in the upstairs office (now the local pub quiz). It’s not a myth that Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge, members club). Christie probably not Powis Square. the Ladbroke estate was built on didn’t go to the KPH much either, the racecourse, but it doesn’t have though it was the favourite pub of anything to do with the horse Timothy Evans. In the 1958 riots racing betting agency. it’s said to have been the fascist Charles Dickens local myths/uncor- HQ, and Oswald Mosley appeared keeping his stage prop snake in the roborated stories include him at a 59 election meeting outside bath of room 13, Tina Turner liking appearing at the 20th Century the library on Ladbroke Grove, not the place so much that she bought In the 1860s, when the Portobello Theatre and taking opium at the in the KPH. But he did visit the Earl a house next door, Damon Albarn Road and market were established Paul Smith shop house on of Warwick/Portobello pub in working behind the bar and along the old farm lane, the far Kensington Park Road. Dickens did Kensal. Graham Coxon as the porter, and out hippy guidebook has: appear at various local venues the Johnny Depp/Kate Moss ‘triumphal processions from The short-film ‘Sorry We Don’t including Holland House and Jimi Hendrix really came up with champagne bath. Greenwich docks would stop at Help Darkies’, shown at last year’s Kensal Green cemetery. He didn’t the song title ‘Purple Haze’ from Trafalgar Square to bask in festival, is an authentic looking re- write about Notting Dale but the the sight of 167 Westbourne national recognition before enactment of the 58 race riots but local slum area was featured in his Grove, which was painted purple carrying on by oxcart to Portobello the basic premise of the film is ‘Household Words’ journal. The when he was staying there in to get on with the serious business historically inaccurate. In fact the north end of Portland Road didn’t 1967. He died of drug misad- of transforming the fruits of white rioters attacked policemen become a poor area due to its venture 3 years later on Ladbroke conquest into hard cash.’ It really who came to the assistance of proximity to the gypsy camp, as Grove. According to the police started as a local flea market and black people. Yet, a real version of claimed in the BBC ‘Secret History report he was still alive when the wasn’t known for antiques until the mod ‘Absolute Beginner’ of Our Streets’ series. By the time ambulance arrived at 22 after World War 2. Portobello Road character in the Colin MacInnes Lansdowne Crescent. He was the road appeared the gypsies had novel did exist. Momodu Kamara tomvague.co.uk colvillecom.com Getting it Straight in Notting Hill Gate Vague 78 Tom Vague PORTOBELLO ENTRY TO ALL EVENTS IS FREE FREE FESTIVAL 2014 GRAND OPENING CEREMONY PORTOBELLO FREE ROCK AND 28 August - 14 September KPH PUB, 139 LADBROKE GROVE, ROLL FILM FESTIVAL NORTH KENSINGTON W10 6HJ 10th to 12th September 6:30–10.30pm Open to all. Welcome to the 19th Portobello Free Film Festival. 19 KPH, 139 LADBROKE GROVE, years of no admission charges.