Notting Hill in London

Sunday, 5 November 2023 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, London, Shopping
Reading Time:  4 minutes

Notting Hill Carnival © Romazur/cc-by-sa-3.0

Notting Hill Carnival © Romazur/cc-by-sa-3.0

Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.

For much of the 20th century, the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. European, Caribbean (both African Caribbeans and White Caribbeans), African, Indian, Arab, Asian, South American, and other immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the cheap rents, but were exploited by slum landlords like Peter Rachman and also became the target of white Teddy Boys in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

Portobello Road Market © flickr:com - Garry Knight/cc-by-sa-2.0 Portobello Road Market © Josep Renalias/cc-by-sa-3.0 Portobello Road © Papertree/cc-by-sa-3.0 Notting Hill Carnival © Romazur/cc-by-sa-3.0 Notting Hill Carnival © flickr.com - Adrian Scottow/cc-by-sa-2.0 Kensington Park Road © Nhw11pictures21/cc-by-sa-4.0 All Saints Road © Doyle of London/cc-by-sa-4.0 Chepstow Crescent © geograph.org.uk - Christopher Hilton/cc-by-sa-2.0 Clanricarde © geograph.org.uk - Bill Boaden/cc-by-sa-2.0 Claudia Jones blue plaque © Megalit/cc-by-sa-4.0 Lancaster Road © Camerawalker/cc-by-3.0 Farm Place © flickr.com - Simon/cc-by-2.0 © flickr.com - Cristian Bortes/cc-by-2.0 North Kensington © Fernando Losada Rodríguez/cc-by-sa-4.0 Portobello Road Market © Arpingstone
<
>
Chepstow Crescent © geograph.org.uk - Christopher Hilton/cc-by-sa-2.0
In the early 21st century, after decades of gentrification, Notting Hill had by then gained a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-end shopping and restaurants (particularly around Westbourne Grove and Clarendon Cross). A Daily Telegraph article in 2004 used the phrase “the Notting Hill set” to refer to a group of emerging Conservative politicians, such as David Cameron and George Osborne, who would become respectively Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer and were once based in Notting Hill.

Notting Hill provides the setting for novels by G. K. Chesterton (The Napoleon of Notting Hill), Colin MacInnes (Absolute Beginners), Michael Moorcock (the Jerry Cornelius quartet), R. C. Sherriff (The Hopkins Manuscript), and Alan Hollinghurst (The Line of Beauty). Dan Waddel’s The Blood Detective is a murder novel set in the past and present – featuring Notting Dale. The area’s newer, wealthy residents are satirised in Rachel Johnson‘s novel Notting Hell (2006) set in grand houses surrounding a fictional communal garden. Sam Selvon‘s 1956 novel The Lonely Londoners set in Notting Hill portrays the lives of Caribbean immigrants making their way in post-World War II London. The area is also the setting of the films: The Knack …and How to Get It (1965), Performance (1970) featuring Mick Jagger, Lava (2001), and Paddington (2014). Notting Hill serves as the locale for the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. A film set in the same streets but showing a different story of the area is Pressure (1976), by Horace Ové, examining the experience of those of Caribbean descent in 1970s Notting Hill including police brutality and discrimination. The Notting Hillbillies were a country rock project formed by Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler in 1986. They released a single album, Missing…Presumed Having a Good Time, in 1990. Notting Hill is often referred to as ‘the most Instagrammable district in London’ due to the abundance of photogenic restaurants and pastel-coloured houses.

Read more on – Notting Hill area guide, Wikivoyage Notting Hill and Wikipedia Notting Hill (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Shibam in Yemen

Shibam in Yemen

[caption id="attachment_241584" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Maria Gropa/cc-by-sa-3.0-igo[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Shibam Hadramawt is a town in Yemen. With about 7,000 inhabitants, it is the seat of the District of Shibam in ...

[ read more ]

The Rotterdam

The Rotterdam

[caption id="attachment_151025" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © F. Eveleens/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The fifth SS Rotterdam, also known as "The Grande Dame", is a former ocean liner and cruise ship, and has been a ho...

[ read more ]

The European Union: Blessing or curse? Past or future?

The European Union: Blessing or curse? Past or future?

[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Since the Brexit referendum in the UK, again great flurry can be felt in all of Europe and around the world. This contribution doesn't go in this direction, because a bit of calmness and objectification is the right a...

[ read more ]

Neuwerk Island in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park

Neuwerk Island in the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park

[caption id="attachment_160527" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Horse carriages in the Wadden Sea near Neuwerk Island © Geoz[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Neuwerk (3 km², 39 inhabitants) is a Wadden Sea island on the German North Sea c...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Tel Aviv - Maccabiah Games

Theme Week Tel Aviv - Maccabiah Games

[caption id="attachment_164835" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Baloons representing the participant countries at the 2013 Maccabiah Games © Maor X/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Maccabiah Games first held in 1932, are a...

[ read more ]

The Ascot Racecourse

The Ascot Racecourse

[caption id="attachment_159863" align="aligncenter" width="590"] The Royal carriages leave after carrying The Queen to the races © geograph.org.uk[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in ...

[ read more ]

Vienna City Prayer House

Vienna City Prayer House

[caption id="attachment_218850" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Bic/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Stadttempel (English: City Prayer House), also called the Seitenstettengasse Temple, is the main synagogue of Vienna, A...

[ read more ]

PlanetSolar, the first circumnavigation of the world by a solar-powered boat

PlanetSolar, the first circumnavigation of the world by a solar-powered boat

[caption id="attachment_153680" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © PlanetSolar[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]What is the goal of the PlanetSolar team? To be the first to circumnavigate the globe in a "solar" boat, i.e. one driven by a si...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Crimea - Sevastopol

Theme Week Crimea - Sevastopol

[caption id="attachment_153373" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Best Western Sevastopol Hotel/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Sevastopol is one of two cities with special status in Ukraine (the other being the capital, Kiev), ...

[ read more ]

Jebel Ali, a hub of world trade, which link India with Africa and East Asia with Europe

Jebel Ali, a hub of world trade, which link India with Africa and East Asia with Europe

[caption id="attachment_25348" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Dubai World Central International Airport © Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Jebel Ali is a port town, loc...

[ read more ]

Argelès-sur-Mer in Occitania

Argelès-sur-Mer in Occitania

[caption id="attachment_236538" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Alan Mattingly/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Argelès-sur-Mer (literally Argelès on Sea; Catalan: Argelers de la Marenda or Argelers; Occitan: Argelers de M...

[ read more ]

The spa town of Bad Bentheim

The spa town of Bad Bentheim

[caption id="attachment_150717" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Bentheim Castle - Rose 'De la Grifferaie' from 1845 with an yet unidentified wasp © Kleuske[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bad Bentheim is a town in Lower Saxony, lying in t...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top