Notting Hill and Portobello Road

Map it! Shopping around Portobello Road and Golborne Road

Best for: a unique ‘boho’ atmosphere where you will find something different from the usual High Street.

The Portobello Road street market operates mainly on Saturdays. The antiques section (stalls, arcades and shops) at the southern end of the market is the UK’s biggest antiques market. See browsing for antiques for details. The new goods, fruit and vegetable section in the centre of the market, which operates Monday to Saturday (except Thursday afternoons), has lots of hot food stalls on Saturdays. The vintage clothing section (shops and stalls) at the northern end of the market is world-renowned as a fashion source, or you can follow the vintage fashion trail. It’s worth heading on to Golborne Road which has its own market all week and a concentration of Caribbean, Algerian, Moroccan and Portuguese restaurants and shops.

Specialist shops: the shops in Portobello Road really are special because there are so many different independent businesses. But in recent years we have lost some really important shops like the famous Travel Bookshop so do try to make a point of buying something, not just taking photos, or they may not survive.

The side streets leading from Portobello Road teem with designer boutiques, luxury brand stores and cafes serving the Notting Hill area. Westbourne Grove is probably the heart of the Notting Hill shopping experience and home to Turquoise Island, the most architecturally distinguished public lavatories in London.

People spotting: you are very unlikely to find Hugh Grant or Julia Roberts, but many actors, models and politicians live in Notting Hill and seeing one of them is a distinct possibility.

Trivia: The blue door featured in the film Notting Hill was auctioned for charity some time ago, but the doorway remains at 280 Westbourne Park Road. Portobello Road gets its name from Portobello Farm that was on the site of the Spanish School at the northern end of the road. The road is said to meander because it follows the route the cows took home. The farm, in turn, was named after Admiral Vernon’s capture of the city of Puerto Bello in the Caribbean. The market started as a herb and horse trading centre, and the antiques section developed as a result of the temporary closure of Caledonian Market.