Notting Hill and the Portobello Road Market

Notting Hill, the movie, is one of my favourite movies of all time.  If I spot it on TV, I definitely put my ass right down and watch the hell out of it, even though I’ve probably already seen it like 10 times.  I laugh every single time, I cry every single time, I just freakin’ love it OK…

Needless to say then that I was dying to check out the actual market and surrounding area featured in the film. (And of course embarrassingly hunt down that famous blue door, that travel book shop and… yes yes, I acted like a total movie groupie.)

Notting Hill was an easy 20min walk from where I was staying and the Portobello Road Market (open Mon to Sat) was where I was heading…

Now before we get down to what you can buy at the market, I just want to show you how beautiful the buildings on Portobello Road are.  The fixed stores all have that quirky, old school feel about them, with lots of bright colours and just bundles & bundles of character. It was actually like being transported back in time a little:

Really loved that old cinema bottom right…

I also loved this Allsaints store – it’s not unique to this area, I spotted 2 other stores in other areas of London – but the sewing machine displays inside were just so incredibly cool:
So on the market shopping side, you can expect to find a little bit of everything here.  The market is very big on antiques, like vintage jewellery, silverware, furniture, decor pieces, old cameras and such.  But then there’s also a lot of modern fashion & accessories, souvenirs and fun odds & ends.

Saturday however seems to be the best day to go, because that’s the only day that the antiques and “bric-a-brac” stalls are open.  So that’s good to keep in mind.

And of course there’s food options, lots of yummy food options:

Oh and fresh flowers (bottom left)… no market is complete without fresh flowers…

I chose to brave the absolutely insane crêpe queue for a Nutella & banana piece of “bad for your bum” goodness:

And it was sooooo worth it…

While I scoffed that baby down, I got to listen to the musical stylings of Kantian Fall (go on and give them a like on Facebook – they’re very cool):

But what was more important than all that awesome stuff??  Hunting down that blue door dammit!

Movie-locations.com gave me the inside scoop on where to find it – 280 Westbourne Park Road (one of the roads that cross with Portobello Road).  Then just across the road on the opposite corner you’ll find the coffee shop where Hugh Grant’s character, William Thacker, runs into Julia Roberts’ character, Anna Scott, and accidentally pours his orange juice all over her.  And then further up at 142 Portobello Road, you’ll find the travel book shop where William worked, but today it’s actually a little fashion store:

There are plenty more movie location spots that you can hunt down.  But those were the three I wanted to see most.  So I was a happy chappy.

I was also a happy chappy with the awesome loot I left with.  Check it out:

There’s a really great Banksy shop on Portobello Road, as you can see I definitely spent some time there…

Oh and I also got this very classy vest of Adam Levine from Maroon 5:

The boyfriend hasn’t seen this yet… hehehe…

I really loved my Notting Hill outing.  It’s a beautiful area and the market had a very Cape Town feel about it actually.  If for some reason I had to live in London for some time and I had my pick of area to stay in, it would probably be this one.  It’s arty, fun and a little hipster… and I love all those things.

Of course I’d also be living in the hope that maybe one day, the hot, much younger version of Hugh Grant would maybe accidentally pour some orange juice on me too. 😉

xxx