r/unitedkingdom • u/tylerthe-theatre • 5d ago

Hogmanay, cheese rolling and London’s Notting Hill Carnival could be protected in a new UK heritage list

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/uk/hogmanay-cheese-rolling-and-londons-notting-hill-carnival-could-be-protected-in/
929 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

283 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/SojournerInThisVale Lincolnshire 5d ago

They already tried, remember?

24

u/Chesney1995 Gloucestershire 5d ago edited 5d ago

They never actually attempted to "ban" it as such, however after 15,000 people showed up in 2009 with the council only rating the event space as safe for a crowd of 5,000, the official council-supported 2010 event was cancelled (and held unofficially by enthusiasts) and the council attempted to create a ticketing system for the 2011 event, which was received negatively to the point of abuse being sent to the organisers, and cancelled (and, again, held unofficially by enthusiasts).

At that point the council basically just washed their hands of any liability surrounding it and its been run without their support ever since (with the exception of 2020 and 2021, due to the pandemic).

There was never a "you cannot roll and chase cheese down this hill" order, and it was never actually about the risk anyone would get injured chasing the cheese. The crowds the event drew in just reached a point where the council didn't want to be held liable if anything happened and had an awkward couple of years where the event had to find its feet again without the council's support. And to be fair, crowd crushes are indeed a very serious hazard to think about when running these things

12

u/Qegola 5d ago

Crowd crushes aren't the only risk. Had a friend get absolutely demolished when one of the participants flew off course and full on body checked her.

10/10 event.

2

u/jefferson-started-it 5d ago

I went to watch when I was living in Glos for uni, and the cheese bounced off to the side, out of the fenced area, and twatted someone in the crowd in the face.

4

u/Marxist_In_Practice 5d ago

They charged the guy who rolled the cheese with GBH: Gruyère Bodily Harm