by Emma Griffiths BBC News Online, London

The couple have been involved in carnival for 30 years

Thousands of colourful costumes have been created at Lawrence and Joan Noel's house in Leytonstone since 1973, when Mr Noel is credited with bringing the first costumes to the west London event.

He was given just three weeks' warning, but managed to produce 40 costumes with the help of his wife and friends, Brenda Riley and Rudolph Roberts, who worked day and night to get them finished.

The family's costumes have appeared at every carnival since, on stage at Top of the Pops and leading the four-hour parade on the Mall for the Golden Jubilee celebrations last year.

Mr Noel, who grew up in Trinidad, decided last year it was time for his son Roland, who is 20, to take on most of the responsibility for keeping up the family tradition.

Golden Jubilee parade See costumes from the carnival preview show

But although the 68-year-old, who has passed on his skills through workshops in London and across Europe, will continue to lend a hand, he was not sorry to give it up.

"I felt happy to be able to do that, because this is what I had been teaching throughout my involvement in carnival," he said.

"I have been teaching at schools, youth centres and carnivals because I wanted to pass it on at one stage."

Months of organisation and planning go into running his Trinbago Carnival Club and preparing for Europe's largest street festival each year.

Every week club members meet at the family's house to plan ahead and help create costumes. They start making the first prototypes in May.

As each one is made, created from a wire skeleton which is covered with fabric, they are handed to performers to save on space in the house.

It can be an expensive business, and performers are expected to contribute something towards the cost of the costume.

The costumes are a spectacle that goes with the music - they are synonymous Lawrence Noel

These days many costumes are created using fibreglass, but Mr Noel prefers the dexterity of wire work.

"You can make huge things [with fibreglass] but not with the same dimensions you are able to use wire work for. There is a vast difference," he said.

Mr Noel's reputation has won him an invitation to Buckingham Palace in 1979, where Prince Charles promised him he would pay a visit to the Notting Hill Carnival, which he later did.

Although Mr and Mrs Noel are taking a back seat, they still want to see the other mas (costume) bands competing at Notting Hill.

"It [mas] has always been the backbone. Without the bands there is no carnival, you would just have a multitude of people congregating together, " said Mr Noel.

"The costumes are a spectacle that goes with the music - they are synonymous."