Portobello Saturday Market and Notting Hill

We woke up well rested and ready to head out on our third excursion (and hopefully the first successful one) in search of proper antiques. Today's journey would lead us northeast from our Chelsea apartment to the Notting Hill district and Portobello Road where supposedly each Saturday they have one of the largest antique and food markets in the United Kingdom. Hmmm...we will wait and see, we have been lied to before.

But looking at the photos and reading the descriptions of the market by people who have gone in the past it did look promising. Not only that, we also wanted to check out Notting Hill, made famous in America by the 1999 film by the same name starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.

Notting Hill is an affluent district in Kensington and home to some of London's wealthiest families, but this has not always been the case. The area started off as part of London dedicated to the processing of brick and tile, dug from the local clay.

Soon after pig farmers moved in, and at one point it got so bad that the area that is now known as Avondale Park, was referred to in the 18th and 19th century as "The Ocean" because of the depths of the pig slurry. In the 1950's, this part of London was populated by a mix of very poor immigrants, a large number having settled here form the Caribbean, and the families were subjected to horrendous living conditions which led to several major race riots. Today the area has been transformed into one of the most desirable places to live in London.

We made our way from the Notting Hill Gate tube station about a half a mile to Portobello Road and it was hopping!

Wow, this might actually be as advertised! Portobello Market runs along Portobello Road that is pretty much turned over to pedestrian traffic only on Saturdays, except for the occasional deranged motorist that somehow find themselves trying to make their way through throngs of people packed shoulder to shoulder. How and why these people end up driving on this road during the market is anybody's guess.

The Saturday Market runs about a half mile down Portobello Road which has a number of really nice antique shops located mostly on the south side of the road, and numerous cafes and shops located primarily on the north side of the road.

Antique stalls are then set up mostly running along the sidewalks on the south side, while an amazing array of street food, pastries, sweets and produce stalls run along the sidewalks on the north side. All of the market goers walk down the middle of the road and duck into the shops along the way.

We know that the pictures make it look UTTERLY crowded and one would question why anyone would enjoy traipsing through crowds that size, but in all actuality it was one of the most polite crowds we've ever encountered. The English you see are wonderfully considerate about waiting in lines and not crowding or shoving. We found that even in this sea of humanity we always could duck into whatever antique shop we wanted to peruse or stall we felt like checking out.
We went in and out of several antique shops that are more akin to mini antique malls with several different dealers housed in each building and the antiques were really quite nice, running from the mundane to the truly extraordinary. We bought one really nice sterling silver ring tray, a cute little tangerine sized dish. (Not sure why David has chosen a "tangerine" as a comparison in size for our flat round tray? Maybe a coaster might have been a better choice?) We hadn't ever really seen one before and we've looked at a TON of antiques.

By this time we needed a little something to eat and we stopped at a booth selling crepes. We chose a cheese and ham crepe, and decided to buy just one and share. WHAT A MISTAKE! It wasn't that the crepe was bad, it was FANTASTIC! And we chose to buy...one. It was kind of a race between the two of us to see who could bite off the largest piece, but in the end we both agreed it was the BEST CREPE EVER!!!

 

We made our way down Portobello Road zigzagging from side to side, looking at all there was to see. The array of food and treats was fantastic and everything looked delicious. Once again, the idea that English food is bad is just complete rubbish. Maybe if all you ate was baked beans with blood sausage and oil soaked chips that might be true, but England is so multi-ethnic that there is food here from all sorts of cultures. From Indian, to Greek, to Caribbean to French. It's truly a melting pot and you can find wonderful food here in every corner of the city.

There are also a number of pretty gifted street performers dotted throughout the market. One saxophone player in particular was REALLY in to it, and was pretty fun to watch.

He was playing a Justin Bieber song and he was dancing around like a 20 year old. Good stuff!

As we neared the end of the market we purchased a couple of cups of coffee and watched an amazing feat of limbo by a very animated performer. 

This guy actually lowered the bar to the next notch down and limbo-ed under it! Literally about 18" off the ground.

Finishing our coffee we made our way back through the crowds towards the Notting Hill neighborhood.

These two women asked David to take a photo of them with their camera in front of the tree. He always gets asked to take the photos. I guess it's because he has the camera around his neck!

This area is POSH and you can tell! The cars and houses! Amazing. The houses that have off street parking have the fanciest cars as well. Porsche's, Ferrari's, Range Rovers, etc. The British do love their cars! We were amazed in Fulham that even the crappiest looking apartments had BMW's and Range Rovers out front. Our Honda CRV pales in comparison. We kinda wish for a fancier car now....

 

There are lots of Frenchies in this area! Lots of purebred dogs in general.

We walked down off the hill towards a different tube station and happened upon a retail district with an amazing butcher shop.

David went in and bought us a Beef Bourginon Pie for dinner. It was SO good! We had it with the bottle of wine our hostess left for us and a salad. A great ending to the day.