Penny Blood's Black Book – My Independent Guide to London - Penny Blood's eclectic collection of favourite places in London to drink coffee, eat cake, have tea, eat out, buy clothes, watch movies, kill time, read Voltaire, quote Baudelaire and write this blog.

Portobello Road is the largest antique market in the world stretching for around two miles. On a Friday and Saturday the southern end of Portobello Road is lined with antique stalls one after the other, then come the food stalls followed by the junk and vintage clothes stalls. My advice is to take the tube to Ladbroke Grove station and walk underneath the Westway (the motorway) as this is where all the best vintage clothes stalls are, more locals in the know and less tourists. There are also a fair number of local designers with unique inexpensive clothes on sale along with jewelry and more vintage clothes.
So if you’re coming from Ladbroke Grove and you’ve walked under the motorway next you can either turn right onto Portobello road where you’ll hit the food vendors but if you turn left you’ll find yet more vintage clothes, eventually coming to Golbourne road which is nothing but eclectic furniture shops spilling all kinds of random clutter on the street and Moroccan and Lebanese cafes, loads of them. Here you will see my favourite building in London, Trellik Tower, an apartment block designed by the architect Erno Goldfinger who when starting the project must have looked around at the other council high rises and thought “you think that’s ugly, wait and see what I can do”. It’s a listed building now and one of the most sought after addresses in London. There are all kinds of cafes, restaurants, bars and shops down Portobello Road including one of my favourite cinema’s the Electric. Westbourne Grove is near by which has some more upmarket shops along with more great cafes and deli’s.

If you turn right onto Portobello road you’ll hit the food vendors but if you turn left you’ll find yet more vintage clothes, eventually coming to Golbourne road which is nothing but eclectic furniture shops spilling all kinds of random clutter on the street and Moroccan and Lebanese cafes, loads of them with a view of my favourite building, an apartment block where the architect Erno Goldfinger looked around at the other council high rises and thought “you think that’s ugly, wait and see what I can do”. It’s a listed building now and one of the most sought after addresses in London.

http://www.portobellomarket.org/

Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London
Friday and Saturday 9-6

Related posts:

1. Columbia Road Flower Market
2. Cafe Vintage, Mountgrove Road
3. Falafel King
4. Rellik