Photographer Charlie Phillips moved to London from Jamaica in 1956 and began to document life in his local community. His photographs of people and places associated with Notting Hill depict both significant and everyday moments in the area’s history, particularly in relation to its growing black population.

Born in Trinidad in 1943, Darcus Howe became a key figure in black British activism during the 1970s, especially within the Notting Hill community. In 1977 Howe was tried and controversially imprisoned on charges of assault following an altercation at Notting Hill Gate tube station. There was strong support for Howe’s release, including a picket line outside the Royal Courts of Justice. Dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, who was involved in the British Black Panther movement with Howe, created the campaign song ‘Man Free (For Darcus Howe)’. The lyrics describe the demonstration: ‘so we step it up the Strand to make our stand, we step it up the Strand to the Courts of Justice.’ Howe’s supporters were successful and he was released after a week in jail.

The V&A acquired ten photographs by Charlie Phillips as part of the Staying Power project. Staying Power is a five year partnership between the V&A and Black Cultural Archives. The project aims to explore black British experience from the 1950s to the 1990s through photographs acquired by the V&A and oral histories conducted by Black Cultural Archives. A photograph by Syd Shelton, which depicts Darcus Howe rallying opposition to a National Front march in Lewisham, was also acquired as part of Staying Power. A photograph of Linton Kwesi Johnson taken by Dennis Morris was acquired as well.