Portobello Road Market

After the V&A, we took a tube to Notting Hill Gate and followed the crowds to Portobello Road Market which has been in existence since the late 1860's in one form or another. The second hand market is on Fridays, while the antiques market is held on Saturdays. Fruit and vegetable vendors, sellers of knickknacks, antiques shops, and junk shops stuffed with treasures occupy the central part of the market every day of the week.
You may have seen the movie Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant which has greatly popularized this area which has also increased some of the prices! After getting home, we borrowed the DVD from Vic, the director of the LMC, and watched it. It was fun to see the places we had just been to. Plus near the end of the movie when Anna (Julia R) is filming a period piece in London, they are filming at Hampstead Heath which is where we have been frequently and is only about 1 1/2 mile walk from where we live.
The first picture is one of many eating stalls. The huge pans have different kinds of paella (pronounced: pie-eh'-ya). It's a little similar to jambalaya but often not as spicy. The smells are wonderful! This is Potobello Road Market and we walked from one end to the other, then turned around and went back. The length is probably around 1/2 mile. Besides all the stalls in the street, the shops are great as well.

There are many interesting shop signs.
Many of the houses are painted in these bright colors.
Along the way before you get to the market we passed one of George Orwell's many London residences. It's marked with one of those blue round plaques that I talked about in a previous blog entry.