While Notting Hill is famous for Carnival, a Romantic Comedy and Up Market Boutiques , Ladbroke Grove to me represents the more urban and gritty end of the scale, synonymous with graffiti , breaking and hip hop in general. I remember the Vinyl Solution record shop and Children of Vision Hair Stylists back in the day.
I was lucky enough to go see Mos Def and Talib Kweli (Black Star) at Ladbroke Grove early in their career with my friends Alex Shaolin and Wayne Snooze.
I remember the year Tim Westwood hosted the Radio 1 stage in the underpass at Carnival and got shot. While Westwood clearly loved the music. I always thought the gangster image he portrayed was inauthentic and that was before the sex allegations came to light.
I had my own experience of "the endz" just after finishing University. I was "temping" and was given a job as the pool attendant of open air lido in a small park just off Ladbroke Grove.
On my first day my I met my Supervisor at "Cerco" he practised Five Animals Kung Fu so we had a nice chat about that, He said "people don't often last in this post don't take it personally." I couldn't think why, it seemed a nice stress free role. I was looking forward to reading a book a friend had recommended the "Celestine Prophecy". No sooner had my supervisor left and a gang of youth turned up they said "This is our park and lido and you shouldn't come back to work tommorow". That night the lido was vandalised. I had to close it the following day and spent the day clearing up the mess. The vandalism continued all week and I suffered verbal abuse, threats, intimidation each day as I worked. By Friday I'd had enough and the following Monday I called in sick at which point my agency, at the suggestion of the supervisor moved we to a different job.
