A Weekend in Notting Hill: Where to Walk, Eat and Stay
Pastel terraces, a famous market and some of the best small restaurants in London. Here is how to spend two unhurried days in Notting Hill.
Start slowly on a Saturday
Portobello Road Market is at its best before ten in the morning, when the stalls are still being set up and the street belongs to locals walking their dogs. Arrive early, buy fruit for the apartment, and walk north towards Golborne Road for the antique sellers and the quieter end of the market.
By midday the crowd arrives. That is the moment to step off the main road and into the side streets — around Stanley Crescent, Elgin Crescent and Lansdowne Road — where the terraces are at their most photogenic.
Where to eat
- Breakfast: a pastry and a flat white on Westbourne Grove.
- Lunch: something small and seasonal at one of the neighbourhood bistros on Portobello Road.
- Dinner: book ahead. The good tables in this part of London fill by Thursday.
If you would rather cook, the greengrocers and fishmongers along Portobello Road are excellent, and most of our apartments are within a short walk of them.
An afternoon of small pleasures
Electric Cinema on Portobello Road is one of the oldest working cinemas in the country, with armchairs at the back and a bar at the front. On a wet afternoon there is nowhere better to be.
For something quieter, the garden at St John's Church on Lansdowne Crescent is a peaceful place to sit with a book.
Staying nearby
Notting Hill sits between Kensington, Bayswater and Holland Park, which makes it easy to reach the rest of London. Our London apartments are all within a short taxi ride, and we are happy to recommend the ones that suit your plans.
The best way to see this part of London is on foot, without a schedule.