Portobello Road Market

There are a few places in London which are famous world wide, and the Portobello market in Notting hill is one of these places. Probably helped a lot in it's fame by the film of the same name who stared Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.

Instead of selling food here, most of the things for sale are antiques and collectables. There are actually over 1000 vendors on either side of Portobello Road and it extends down into the streets centre as well. You'll find everything from antiques, to toys, to vintage musical instruments. I also love the multi-coloured houses. If you follow my blog you'll see I look out for this quite often.

As expected of a very popular and famous landmark, the place is packed full of people, especially during these summer months. Most of the people are browsing and not necessarily buying anything. I fit into that category too as taking any of these amazing things home would be rather difficult. Still, the crowds do a lot to build up the atmosphere which is always a good thing.

Most of the shops which sell antiques are also extremely packed full of goods. They do a very good job of making use of all the space available but this also makes it difficult for customers a many.

Most of the goods whether vintage or antique are supplemented with a lot of faux-vintage items and thus, it has become a let down for some true collectors who must navigate through a lot of "bolstered" product lineups. The best thing to do is to know exactly what you're buying before you're buying it.

Another interesting thing here is that the vendors seem to be less friendly and polite than those at Borough market which we visited yesterday.

I think if you're not so much into vintage and antiques, it's still worth a visit, if at least once. If anything, just bask in the crowd of people and enjoy the atmosphere. It is very quintessentially London and you can also say you visited Notting Hill.