Britain remembers the Notting Hill riots 50 years on

August 1958 saw some of the worst rioting in British history in what is now one of London's most trendy and sought-after neighbourhoods. But 50 years ago the working-class area in west London, known as 'Notting Dale', was little more than a slum.

Newly arrived migrants from the Caribbean had settled in the Colville area alongside the white working-class, and it was an uncomfortable existence.

'Colour bars' saw black people turned away from pubs and consequently 'shebeens' or illegal bars sprung up providing social places for black people. Landlords refused to rent to black families, advertising for rooms to rent specifying 'no coloureds' while other crammed several people into one room and charged over the odds.

The riots led to a strong desire to heal the social wounds inflicted by the fighting which eventually gave rise to the Notting Hill Carnival.

But the fighting in 1958 also paved the way for the first Race Relations Act of 1965 which outlawed racial discrimination.