So, how to spend Fridays in London? I always wanted to show you my perfect Friday – for me, there is no better place than Notting Hill! Here we go 🙂
The epic Portobello crawl: what to do
How to get to Portobello market
First, you need to get to Ladbroke Grove tube station and get straight down to business at the best spot for vintage clothes shopping. Outside the tube station, cross the main road and walk south, making your way through the neighbourhood to Portobello market. This is where Portobello Road starts, under some not-overly-pleasant-looking railway bridges. Be prepared to spend some time trawling all the stalls. Oh, and carry cash – you’ll be sorry if you don’t.
The Northern section
Second, walk down Portobello Road. This northern section of the road has a bit of the dirty-hippie-cool feel of Camden Town (check out my old post on some Camden fun here). It has small vintage shops, niche music stores, eateries and cafés along the road lined with stalls of cheap clothes, veggies, fruits and sweets. Check out the nice side streets of Portobello Road too and you’ll find more music stores (like vinyl store Rough Trade) and some of your old faves (like Neal’s Yard Remedies) in a modest but really cute setting. By the time you’ve made it through all this, I bet you’ll need a little breather.
Take a break
Third, sit down for a snack or lunch, coffee and/or a glass of ale. I love to pop into old London pubs! Try the Earl of Lonsdale or The Duke of Wellington. If the weather is nice, you can sit down in the street at the Duke for some people-watching, or discover the cute green courtyard of the Lonsdale if you’d rather get away from the crowd.
The real Notting Hill
Fourth, now you are ready for the cutest parts of Portobello Road. Walking on southward, you see more vintage books, antiques, furniture, jewellery and London gifts in the shops and stalls lining the road. As you go further, the residential areas get a whole lot more pleasant. This is where you get to see the cutest residential buildings big and small with their colourful facades. Spend a good while discovering it all and prep your camera for those Instagram-worthy shots 🙂 Before you get to the end of the road, there is a final section of beautifully coloured buildings and shops so save some of your energy to have a look.
A wind-down break
Fifth, it’s time for another break. Again, whether it’s lunch or afternoon tea, it’s best if you finish the Notting Hill stint with a bit of a rest. At the end of Portobello Road, just before it runs into Pembridge Road at Notting Hill Gate, there is a pub called The Sun in Splendour. One summer I had the best ale of the season there (one with lemongrass) in the pub’s cool hidden little courtyard.
At this point, the official Friday trip to Notting Hill is done – if you feel up to the challenge, you have several cool options. Set out for Kensington via Kensington Church Street (my favourite route), or head to Hyde Park or, as I did on this occasion, try Holland Park. Some of the photos below were taken in the Kyoto Garden of Holland Park.
Show some Portobello cool: what to wear
If you ask me, there are three things to consider: a little foot love, the weather, and some vintage sugar and spice.
Foot love
As you can see, this little trip is one hell of a walk, even if you only do Portobello Road. If you want to survive the affair, make sure your shoes can handle it all. In cold, transitional or outright rainy weather, for me it’s a choice between Stans and Docs. If it happens to be a hot summer day, comfy sandals or slides should be perfect.
Mind the weather
In London, the weather tends to change quickly. As in, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait for five minutes”. This is actually true, and it’s not making dressing up too easy. If you don’t want the London weather to ruin your mood, be prepared for some layering and lugging stuff around. Have both your umbrella and sunnies with you, and carry a shopper for when your layers need to come off. My extra layers this time were a little warm cardi, a vinyl mac, a fine but warm scarf and a soft beanie. I know this may sound a bit too much but I was feeling sooo sick on this last Notting Hill Friday that the cozy deets were total lifesavers.
Vintage sugar & spice
It’s not that you can’t do Portobello in all the latest fash or sporting designer stuff from head to toe. Or clubwear, or a red carpet gown, or gym gear, for that matter. It’s just that, when you plan your day, you have to pick a theme, right? I don’t like to overhink things but it’s best to connect to your mood and your purpose with your outfit. So, while I kept the look simple with lace-up high waisted jeans and Stan Smiths, I picked this very old polo shirt with a big collar for that vintage touch. Plus, the red colour gave me a bit of energy as I suffered my way through the day with the cold I had caught the day before. On a proper summer day, I would choose Seventies or Eighties vintage style jeans and style a hippie or mod inspired outfit around those.
Any other ideas of how to combine comfort, rainwear and vintage accents? I’d definitely like to know!
Cheers,
Gabriella
vinyl mac: New Look (similar here, here, here, here and here)
red polo shirt: vintage (similar here, here, here, here, here and here)
lace-up high waisted jeans: Topshop (more pics: office to festival outfit)
trainers: Adidas Stan Smith (here, here and here)
bag: Nakedvice
sunglasses: Ray-Ban