Notting Hill Verite The movie version of London's hip neighborhood pales next to the real thing. By Tamsin Todd The Washington Post Sunday, May 23, 1999; Page E01

"There's the market on weekdays, selling every fruit and vegetable known to man. . . . Then suddenly it's the weekend, and from break of day, hundreds of stalls appear out of nowhere, filling Portobello Road right up to Notting Hill Gate, and thousands of people buy millions of antiques," enthuses Notting Hill bookshop owner William Thacker--a k a Hugh Grant--in the film's opening sequence. "So this is where I spend my days and years--in this small village in the middle of a city--in a house with a blue door . . ."

But Notting Hill is not entirely the idyllic place depicted in the film. Many visitors find the Saturday crowds along Portobello Road crushing. In the 1950s, Notting Hill was the site of Britain's first race riots, and the annual Notting Hill Carnival acquired a dangerous reputation that lasted into the '80s. More recently, an influx of celebrity residents into the tonier parts of Notting Hill has gained it a reputation as a snobby and unaffordable playground for the rich and famous. "Notting Hill's just a film set," one cynic claims. "No one real can afford to live there."

Yet these ethnic and economic contrasts are what give Notting Hill its vibrancy. It's a unique London neighborhood, and certainly worth a visit, whether you're there to browse antiques or simply to people-watch and soak up atmosphere.

There are plenty of trendy watering holes in Notting Hill for those on a large budget, but the best way to get a feel for the neighborhood is on foot. The intersection of Westbourne Park Road and Portobello Road is the epicenter of Notting Hill life. The Ladbroke Grove tube station, a 10-minute ride from London's West End, puts you in the middle of the action. (Don't be fooled into starting at the Notting Hill Gate tube station, which is, deceptively, in Kensington.) From the Ladbroke Grove tube, go three blocks south on Ladbroke Grove, turn left on Westbourne Park Road and continue until you get to Portobello Road--a five-minute walk. You'll know when you get there.

This is where Thacker buys fresh fruit and sips cappuccino in the movie. Every morning, East End "barrow boys" set up fruit and vegetable stalls here, pulling their carts up and down the street and hawking wares to passersby in a scene straight out of Dickens.

Weekdays, Portobello Road is busy with locals: West Indian mothers, withered antiques dealers, aging flower children in dreadlocks and love beads, and the ubiquitous "trustafarians"--rich, young, white Brits supported by wealthy parents while they aspire to the Rastafarian lifestyle. On Saturdays starting around 5:30 a.m., visitors from around the world pour in to visit the Portobello Road Market, where stalls sell an unimaginable array of goods: music, club clothes, antique scientific instruments, Peruvian sweaters, multicolored brooms. A quieter organic market that stays open into the afternoon can be found four blocks north of Westbourne Grove, at the intersection of Portobello Road and Cambridge Gardens. To the south, antiques shops and charming pastel houses line Portobello Road.

The effects of the neighborhood's new, trendy image are evident along Portobello, where corporate interests are starting to take hold: Two chain coffee shops (one a Starbucks) have recently opened on the corner of Westbourne Grove. But just off Portobello Road, there are still plenty of unique local enterprises. One block south of Westbourne Park Road turn right into Blenheim Crescent, a haven for specialty book-shops. At No. 13 is the Travel Bookshop, the model for Thacker's shop in the film. It's larger than the shop in the film, and more prosperous (Thacker's is running bankrupt), with an impressive stock that runs from popular travel guides to obscure essay collections.

For the green-fingered, Garden Books is at No. 11; Books for Cooks at No. 4 has a kitchen in the rear where the proprietors hold cooking demos and bake the cookies and cakes they sell, along with books, in the store. Another prize is the Spice Shop at No. 1. Spices are piled high in the street fronting the shop, and inside proprietors sell natural remedies as well, cheerfully doling out advice on subjects ranging from what kind of tea to drink while pregnant to natural cures for migraines.

On the opposite side of Portobello Road, Blenheim Crescent becomes Talbot Road. Rough Trade, possibly the most famous record store in Britain, is at No. 130. In the 1980s, the Rough Trade label launched many independent bands. The perpetually busy Coins Coffee Store at 105-107 serves an all-day breakfast menu ranging from $5 to $10. A more expensive option is Dakota, at 127 Ledbury--the Southwestern menu is a novelty for Londoners.

Two more hot eateries are a stroll away, on Kensington Park Road between Blenheim Crescent and Elgin Crescent. The enormously popular 192 (192 Kensington Park Rd.) serves a modern European menu. Across the street, Osteria Basilico at No. 29 is a charming, low-lit trattoria. Before leaving the area, be sure to look for the Blue Door that marks Thacker's home in the film. (Hint: It's on Westbourne Park Road, not far from Ladbroke Grove.) In real life, it's the front door of Notting Hill screenwriter ("Four Weddings and a Funeral") Richard Curtis's house.

(Interestingly, the Garrick estate agent next door advertises a "bohemian one-bedroom flat with balcony and access to communal gardens" for rent for $405 a week, or about $1,620 a month: As Notting Hill locals are quick to point out, there's no way Grant's broke bookseller could afford to live here.)

Notting Hill may be best known for the Portobello Road market, but many of its residents moved there not for the bustle of the market, but for its gorgeous, quiet green spaces. Laid out in the first half of the 19th century, the nicest residential streets are sweeping crescents of tall white wedding-cake houses, bounded by lush gardens. (On maps of London, Notting Hill resembles a bull's-eye, with stripes of green park and white crescent making up the circles.) Unfortunately--as Thacker explains to his girlfriend, Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), in the film--the gardens are private: Only residents of the adjoining streets have keys.

To see the gardens, walk five minutes south from Ladbroke Grove tube along Ladbroke Grove or Kensington Park Gardens (both run parallel to Portobello Road). There are high hedges around the perimeter but there are gaps that let you glimpse the glorious space inside.

A 10-minute walk south of the gardens, Ladbroke Grove and Kensington Park Gardens both feed into Notting Hill Gate. Notting Hill Gate is a typical high street with the usual smattering of hardware stores and chain restaurants, but the culturally astute won't miss Pharmacy (150 Notting Hill Gate), the bar and restaurant co-owned by conceptual artist Damien Hirst. The food is pricey, the atmosphere clinical, and Hirst's touch is everywhere: Bar stools are pill-shaped, fluorescent blue lighting recalls that last trip to the dentist, and the staff wears surgical gowns .

Perplexed locals have noted that the medical theme Hirst started seems to be catching: At 25 Pembridge Rd., just north of Notting Hill Gate, is Brit-pop fashion haven the Dispensary, and a luxury food store called Outpatients has opened just down from Pharmacy. Notting Hill's two movie theaters are also on Notting Hill Gate: the Notting Hill Coronet, a haven for smokers since it's the only cinema in London that allows customers to light up in the theater, and the artier, independent Gate Cinema.

When longtime Londoners express a distaste for trendy Notting Hill, it's often because they remember a different Notting Hill of 20 or 30 years ago. Then, Notting Hill was home to a large Caribbean community that immigrated to Britain in the 1950s. There were Portuguese, Moroccan and Pakistani communities, too: Camper vans that had carried entire families across Europe and Asia were a common sight, and the scent of baked plantains and curry wafted from windows.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the local council sold off many government-owned buildings cheaply, and artists and other bohemian types snapped them up. It's only in the past 10 years that Notting Hill has become truly chic, attracting such celebrity residents as actor Ralph Fiennes, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and singers Van Morrison and Robbie Williams.

Today, much of the immigrant population has left, but traces of Caribbean, Asian and North African communities remain--most notably during Carnival. The Notting Hill Carnival started in the '60s, and it's still one of the largest West Indian Carnivals in the world. Held over the bank holiday weekend at the end of August--this summer it's Aug. 28-30--parades featuring floats, steel bands and spectacular costumes run from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday. There are also live-music stages, street entertainers and a magnificent selection of Caribbean and North African food. Police have worked hard with local residents to make the Carnival much safer in recent years--though, as in all crowded public places, it's still best not to wear expensive jewelry or watches.

The hub of the Carnival starts at Powis Square off Westbourne Park Road (a five-minute walk east of Ladbroke Grove tube) and stretches north across the Westway (a busy freeway) to the top end of Notting Hill. It's in these areas that the immigrant community's influence on Notting Hill remains strongest. Next door to Coins Coffee Shop in Talbot Road is the Globe, a private West Indian club and restaurant featuring "all-day chess and backgammon."

A hundred yards or so east, on Powis Square, a converted church is home to the Tabernacle, a new community arts center that also operates one of Notting Hill's most reasonable and interesting restaurants, the Good Cook. The world-food offerings include a huge artichoke frittata for $5.50 or prawn kedgeree for $12 at lunch time; dinners range from about $11 to $18.

The Good Cook also serves coffee, fresh fruit smoothies and Red Stripe beer all day, and it's a gathering place for artists of all kinds. When I stopped in at midday, it was already buzzing: At the table behind me, a steel band was planning an upcoming performance, while at the next table a trio of dancers picked at salads while working out some new steps. In the art gallery beside the restaurant, an artist was putting finishing touches on a show of paintings of the Caribbean scheduled to open that night. Children walked in and out carrying instruments (a city music school is based here), and a double bass leaned against a piano in the corner. There are jazz sessions most evenings at the Tabernacle, explained the waitress, a dead ringer for Kate Moss--an out-of-work actress or musician, I guessed.

North of the Ladbroke Grove tube station, Notting Hill's trademark stuccoed buildings start looking down-at-the-heels. Groovy Moroccan cafes replace chrome coffee bars, the market stalls get cheaper, and the street is noticeably friendlier. (When I phone a friend to get directions to a nearby pub, a passerby calls out, "Straight, then left, and it's on your right.")

At the junction of Ladbroke Grove and Westway is the cavernous Icon Bar and Restaurant, which specializes in happy-hour cocktails. Running east from Icon along the Westway, the recently rejuvenated Thorpe Grove is home to a number of Internet cafes, gyms and pool halls that nestle under the freeway, with cars whipping by overhead. But it's not your usual derelict-under-the-freeway scene, and, like the Tabernacle, it's the kind of creative community project that's typical of Notting Hill.

A five-minute walk north of Westway, Golborne Road crosses Portobello, and the tone turns distinctly North African. Corner shops have names like the Marrakesh. Ethnic food stalls and restaurants line Golborne Road; the Lisboa Patisserie at No. 57 serves Portuguese cakes and coffees. At the far end of Golborne Road, the looming Trellick Tower marks the end of Notting Hill. It was the tallest block of flats in the country when it was built by Erno Goldfinger in 1973, and critics argue about its merits; rumor has it that 007 creator Ian Fleming hated the architect so much he gave his name to the infamous Bond villain.

For many, Notting Hill ends at the Westway. North of the Westway, Notting Hill is unglamorous; Thacker and Scott don't spend much time along Golborne Road in the film. For others, however, this is the best part of Notting Hill--the neighborhood is still ethnically diverse, and you can get a sense of what it was like before it got trendy.

In the end, perhaps a visit to Notting Hill isn't complete without seeing both parts. For what's unique about Notting Hill is the way it brings together different kinds of cultures and people, and the way they all manage to thrive, side by side, in its happy-go-lucky village atmosphere.

For more information on visiting London and Notting Hill, contact the British Tourist Authority, 212-986-2200, www.visitbritain. com. For information on Portobello Road, including its famous market, check out www.portobelloroad.co.uk.

Tamsin Todd, who last wrote for Travel on the London pub scene, lives in the capital's Camden Town neighborhood.