A curious mix of Victorian houses, painted in pastel
shades, and stores selling everything from shoes, trendy clothes and antiques, to
street performers playing music on the sidewalk, Portobello market on a
Saturday is a good place to stroll for 3-4 hours for Indian visitors who are
looking for bargain shopping in an interesting setting.
Street performers on Portobello road
It was drizzling on a
rather cool Saturday morning as we hailed a taxi from outside Heathrow airport at
London in May. We were on our way to Novotel at Wembley, a hotel that was just
about a month old and therefore offering good rates.
After a quick change,
my daughter suggested a visit to the Portobello market that’s open only on
Saturdays. I don’t like the idea of visiting a market the first thing on a
holiday, but we relented, my wife and I, as we had promised our children that this
was a family holiday in which each member had the power to shuffle the planned
itinerary.
By the time we arrived at
Portobello road from the Notting Hill tube station side, it was afternoon. We
settled in Manzara café and ordered fish and chips, pizza pepperoni, sandwiches
and beverages to wash them down. The spontaneity of deciding to eat at the
first place we came across before dissolving in the street that was a few steps
away, our first gathering hunger in a foreign land, and the fact that sun had emerged
to cheer our decision, all combined to a wonderful experience. We paid about 30
pounds, a figure that made me relax. If this was the first indication to go by,
the 12 day self-made adventure seemed within our stipulated holiday budget.
Portobello market, the
largest antiques market in the UK, is a treasure for those hunting for their slice
from the past: pocket watches, chronometers, sextants, coins, jewelry, china
etc. But as we promenaded there, we realized, there’s a lot more to explore and
experience.
George Orwell's house on Portobello road
The food came to good
use as we walked the distance, about a kilometer across Notting Hill, meandering
between committed buyers and curious wanderers. The children didn't complain, though
there was nothing of immediate interest for them. Until my daughter pointed at
the house of George Orwell. The Indian born, who had worked for the Imperial
police in Burma (now Myanmar) before turning to writing, had actually lived in
this small house in 1927 for a year. The
blue plaque did confirm that the British novelist and political essayist lived here.
Transported back to the school days, our Orwellian influences woke up, as we
joined many others clicking pictures before moving on.
Antique sewing machines with a clothes shop underneath, Portobello road
Originally a farm that
got its name when Admiral Edward Vernon defeated the Spanish occupants in the
war of Jenkins’ ear at the city of Portobelo in modern day Panama, today this
market is a confluence of the old and the new.
We continued on the Portobello road, which unlike London roads, curves, rising
and falling all along on shallow gradients, mid to late Victorian terrace
houses marking its edges.
From the inside of the ice cream shop at Portobello
There are shops selling difficult-to-tell used
clothes and shoes for five pounds apiece, a good bookstore that offers great
discounts, and an ice cream shop that we made good use of towards the end. A
Saturday afternoon well-spent.
