Notting Hill & Portobello Road

Last Sunday after Kevin and I went to the Natural Science Museum, we headed over to Notting Hill (Yes...this is THE "Notting Hill" from the movie). It is quickly becoming one of the most fashionable and upscale sections of London. It is known especially for its Portobello Road market - a whole street lined with shops and vendors. As you can see, it was a beautiful spring day...really the first one we have had.


Many of the houses are painted in various pastel colors. Like in much of London, many of the streets feature row-housing. My architecture professor says that the English have always preferred their own house with its own entrance, while the French have historically favored apartment buildings in their cities. The old car is symbolic of this neighborhood's vintage charm. There are many vintage shops in the market area.


Here is the beginning of the market section of Portobello Road. It is less crowded on Sundays, and there are fewer vendors as well. Saturday's draw the biggest crowds, and stalls line both sides of the street all of the way down. There is a definite trade-off: the relative ease and quite of a Sunday is nice, but there is significantly less of a selection.


It's important to remember that this is a heavy residential area as well, and that seems to really add to the community feeling that you get while walking down the street. People live above, behind, and next to all of these shops. There are plenty of restaurants and grocery stores as well. This apartment complex is in the heart of the shopping area, and this balcony is only a few feet away from the sidewalks and the shoppers.


The British are huge fans of caricatures (as I saw when I visited the cartoon museum). These masks have been on display every week at the far end of the street where there is a flea-market under a big tent. From left to right we have Prince Charles, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (google image search her and take a look at some of the caricatures that the London newspapers have published - warning: they might keep you up at night!), and finally, it's either the Queen or a man. Kevin and I aren't sure.


Here is a view of the flea-market underneath the huge canopy. I assume that placement is on a lottery or something like that because the vendors seem to move around each week. There are all sorts of neat things for sale in here, including books, old pins, records, CDs, DVDs, vintage clothes, old magazines, and so many other neat random things that people want to sell.


Small alleys cut in between sections of shops. Many of them lead to houses and apartments that are tucked away from the street. Many also serve as staging and parking areas for the vendors. At the entrance to this one there is a man there every week selling various antiques and things from WWII. He has authentic hats, uniforms, medals, and all sorts of other things.


Crepes are a favorite of shoppers, and there are several stands up and down the street. Kevin and I couldn't resist stopping for a Nutella crepe. They are so delicious, and incredibly filling. It's fun to watch them being made - its amazing how easy they make it look. I'm sure that if I were to try it at home it would be a disaster. The temperature has to be just right, and the batter has to be just the right amount and of a certain thickness. As you can see in the picture, they use round electric hotplates to make them.


After shopping, we walked down a side street to see a little more of the neighborhood. There were flowers everywhere - more evidence that spring is just about here. You see the bike in the picture - this is a popular method of transportation here and all around London. I'm amazed how cyclists - on bikes or motorcycles / motorbikes - weave in and out of traffic, even in the heart of the bustling city. I expect to see someone get run over everyday, but somehow I've only seen one near-miss, and that was with a pedestrian on Oxford Street (which makes sense, the street and sidewalks on Oxford are always a zoo during the day). At night, bicyclists are required to have flashing lights mounted to the front so they can be seen.


Here are some of the grander row-houses, evidence of the money in this neighborhood. It wasn't always this way. One of my professors - an expert on London history who has written over 30 books on the city - explained how it has only been in the last twenty years or so that Notting Hill has been making a comeback. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, it became quite seedy and rundown, and was the center of the anti-war movement and the hippy population. Always having been a big immigrant area (as it still is), racial tensions escalated in 1958 to the Notting Hill Riots that took place over several nights. The famous Notting Hill Carnival was started the following year to try to bring the community back together and resolve differences.


The immigrant population is always changing, with new groups always coming into the neighborhood and replacing others that have dwindled. Churches are one of the ways you can see which groups are here now, as typically it takes a substantial community to open an ethnically-centered place of worship. I don't believe that the church above is one of these, as many are closer to Portobello Road or on the other side of it. As an assignment to make up for a missed class due to our snow day, our Ethnic History professor had us (made us - but it was fun!) come here on our own time and write down all of the examples of entrenched ethnic populations in Notting Hill that we saw. It was really interesting, but I'll save that for a separate post.


Finally, it was time to go back to the flat so I took one last picture reminding us that spring was almost here. It also reminds us of how creative these people are in finding new places to stick flowers - these are on the top of a retaining wall, where a trench was left in the middle of the top rows of bricks to form one long flower bed. Maybe they saw the jungle-like balcony pictured earlier and got inspired!