Ladbroke Grove & Notting Hill

Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill Area Guide

This area guide offers a brief overview of the district, including its local shops, attractions, properties, schools, history and public transport links.

The main postcodes in Ladbroke Grove & Notting Hill are W11, W10

Notting Hill

Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is a cosmopolitan district known as the location for the annual Notting Hill Carnival, and for being home to the Portobello Road Market.

Notting Hill has a contemporary 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, now respectively Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer. However, the large houses have also provided multi-occupancy rentals for much of the 20th century. Caribbean immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the dubious practices followed by the landlord Peter Rachman, and became the target of white Teddy Boys in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

Geography

The hill from which Notting Hill takes its name is still clearly visible, with its summit in the middle of Ladbroke Grove, at the junction with Kensington Park Gardens.

Notting Hill has no official boundaries, so definitions of which areas fall under Notting Hill vary. The postcode "W11", centred on the Post Office in Westbourne Grove, near the junction with Denbigh Road, is the one most closely associated with Notting Hill, although the postcode immediately to the north, "W10", covers that part of North Kensington which would fall within a broader definition. The local historian Florence Gladstone, in her much reprinted work "Notting Hill in Bygone Days" defines Notting Hill as the whole of that part of Kensington which is north of the road known as Notting Hill Gate.

Notting Hill therefore forms the major part of North Kensington, and is considered an alternative name; though estate agents differentiate North Kensington as a distinct area including Notting Dale and the area east of Ladbroke Grove leading up to Harrow Road.  That part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea roughly encompassed by the electoral wards of Saint Charles, Golborne, Notting Barns, Colville, Norland, and Pembridge,] which is bounded on the north by Harrow Road and on the south by Notting Hill Gate and Holland Park Avenue, includes all areas known as Notting Hill, including Notting Barns, the centre of the Notting Hill race riot.  David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, is known as part of the "Notting Hill Set", though he states he lives in North Kensington.

There are four tube stations in the area: Westbourne Park, Ladbroke Grove, Latimer Road and Notting Hill Gate. Ladbroke Grove tube station was called Notting Hill when it opened in 1864. The name was changed in 1919 to avoid confusion with the new Notting Hill Gate station.

Notting Hill is part of the parliamentary constituency of Kensington, represented by Conservative Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

Areas of Notting Hill

Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles the W10 and W11 postal districts. Ladbroke Grove tube station is located on the road, at the point where it is crossed by the Westway. The adjacent bridge and nearby section of the Westway (London) was regenerated in 2007 in a partnership including Urban Eye, Transport for London and London Underground. It is also the nearest tube station to Portobello Road Market.

It is the main road on the route of the annual Notting Hill Carnival in August.

The street is named after James Weller Ladbroke, who developed the Ladbroke Estate in the mid nineteenth century, until then a largely rural area on the western edges of London.

Musical history

The psychedelic rock band Hawkwind formed here in 1969, and eventually they bonded and worked with fantasy author Michael Moorcock who then was a resident (and who also lamented the tendency of the band members to show up at odd hours in search of food, alcohol or drugs). The Deviants (formerly the Social Deviants) and Pink Fairies were musical groups out of the Ladbroke Grove UK underground movement, from which a number of bands would emerge, influenced by anarchistic singer/writer Mick Farren. Punk group The Clash also formed locally in 1976. The Roughler magazine emerged in the 1980s and 1990s to chronicle the antics of the more Bohemian residents, including the legendary Portobello Pantos.

Mentions in music and fiction

Ladbroke Grove features as the scene of Van Morrison's 1968 song "Slim Slow Slider" from Astral Weeks, and is mentioned in the 1970s pop hit "One Man Band" by Leo Sayer. The Pulp song "I Spy", from the album Different Class, features the line "your Ladbroke Grove looks turn me on". The Blur song "Fool's Day" also features Ladbroke Grove in its lyrics. Killing Joke have recently released an EP (In Excelsis) that features two mixes of a song called "Ghost Of Ladbroke Grove". The novels of author Michael Moorcock often contain references to Ladbrook Grove, the location being the headquarters of his fictional character Jerry Cornelius.

Crossrail

At a site just to the east of the Old Oak Common site, Kensington and Chelsea Council has been pushing for a station at North Kensington / Kensal off Ladbroke Grove & Canal Way, as a turn-back facility will have to be built in the area anyway. Siting it at Kensal Rise, rather than next to Paddington itself, would provide a new station to regenerate the area.  Amongst the general public there is a huge amount of support for the project and Mayor Boris Johnson stated that a station would be added if it did not increase Crossrail's overall cost; in response, Kensington and Chelsea Council agreed to underwrite the projected £33 million cost of a Crossrail station, which was received very well by the residents of the Borough. TfL is conducting a feasibility study on the station and the project is backed by National Grid, retailers Sainsbury's and Cath Kidston, and Jenny Jones (Green Party member of the London Assembly).

Notting Hill Gate

A turnpike gate was constructed at the foot of the hill on the main road from London to Uxbridge, now Oxford Street, Bayswater Road and Holland Park Avenue along this part of its route. The point at which the turnpike gate stood was known as Notting Hill Gate. The gate was there to stop people passing along the road without paying. The proceeds were applied towards the maintenance of this important road. The gate was removed in the 19th century.

Location

At Ossington Street/Kensington Palace Gardens, the Bayswater Road becomes Notting Hill Gate, continuing westward until it becomes Holland Park Avenue, just before it reaches Ladbroke Grove.

Notting Hill Gate is distinct from Notting Hill, although the two are often confused, with "Notting Hill" being used as an abbreviation of "Notting Hill Gate" and "Notting Hill Gate" suggesting to outsiders that it is the full description of Notting Hill. In fact, however, the street named Notting Hill Gate is well to the south of the hill (with its summit at the junction of Ladbroke Grove and Kensington Park Gardens) which gives its name to the area known (long before the establishment of the Notting Hill toll gate) as Notting Hill.

Character

Notting Hill Gate is home to a variety of stores, restaurants, cafés and estate agents as well as more specialist stores which include rare records and antiques, as well as two historic cinemas, the Coronet (originally opened as a theatre in 1898) and The Gate, as well as also several bars and clubs. It is the location of the legendary Record and Tape Exchange shops (now Music and Video) presided over by multi-millionaire eccentric Brian Abrams.

1950s redevelopment

Much of the street was redeveloped in the 1950s with two large tower blocks being erected on the north and south sides of the street. At this time Notting Hill Gate tube station was also redeveloped linking two stations on the Circle and District and Central lines which had previously been accessed on either side of the street with an entirely underground station enabling interchange between the deep level Central Line and the sub-surface Circle and District Lines. The new tube station also acts as a pedestrian subway under the widened Notting Hill Gate, the subway leading to the ticket office, a toilet (now closed) and a newsagent (now closed).

Not all of Notting Hill Gate's original features were lost when it was redeveloped however, one good example of this being the Notting Hill Coronet. Previously a theatre, it was converted into a cinema in 1923, and was saved from demolition by local activists in 1972 and 1989. In 2004, its long term future was secured by the Kensington Temple who acquired the site with the intention of continuing to provide independent cinema. The Coronet is one of two famous cinemas on Notting Hill Gate, the other being The Gate which opened in 1911 and still retains its Edwardian plasterwork, including a heavily coffered ceiling.

Transport links

Notting Hill Gate is the site of Notting Hill Gate tube station which is on the Central, District and Circle lines. It is also on the route of the 27, 28, 31, 52, 70, 94, 148, 328, 390, 452, N28, N31, N52 and N207 buses as well as the 24 hour Oxford Tube (coach) service. There are several bus stops along both sides of Notting Hill Gate. Although there are no taxi ranks on Notting Hill Gate itself it is easy to hail a black cab anywhere on the street.

Environs

To the south of Notting Hill Gate lies Kensington Church Street, with its restaurants and antique shops, Hillgate Village (a name given to the area immediately south of Notting Hill Gate with its multi-coloured houses) and Campden Hill Road. North from the tube station lies Pembridge Road, which leads to Westbourne Grove. This area is often packed with tourists heading to the nearby Portobello Road market, or to spot locations from the film Notting Hill.

The Notting Hill Gate Improvement Group aims to improve the environment of Notting Hill Gate and neighbouring streets, working in partnership with the Council of The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Land Securities and Delancey plc, which own many of the 1950s buildings. However the London Evening Standard reported on 17 May 2010 that Land Securities and Delancey have put their Notting Hill Gate estate up for sale, with an asking price of £130 million. The 4.4-acre (18,000 m2) freehold estate includes about two thirds of Notting Hill Gate and part of Kensington Church Street. Land Securities, which has owned it since the Fifties, in partnership with Delancey Estates since 2004, decided to sell after plans to brighten up the area foundered in 2005 in the face of local and council opposition.

In the media

• The Powis Terrace loft where the cast of The Real World: London resided.

• The Gate Bar, which is located in the basement of the Gate Cinema, was used as a location in the television comedy Absolutely Fabulous (season 4, "Paralox").

• The loft at 18 Powis Terrace was used as the cast residence for the American reality TV show, The Real World: London, which aired in 1995.  The ground floor of the building is leased to ScreenFace, a professional make-up supply company.

Portobello Road

Portobello Road runs almost the entire length of Notting Hill from north to south. It runs parallel to Ladbroke Grove. It contains Portobello Road Market, one of London's best known markets, containing an antique section and second-hand, fruit and veg and clothing stalls. The road was originally a lane leading to Portobello Farm in the north of Notting Hill.

Origins

Portobello Road was known prior to 1740 as Green's Lane - a winding country path leading from Kensington Gravel Pits, in what is now Notting Hill Gate, up to Kensal Green in the north.

Eighteenth Century

In 1740, Portobello Farm was built in the area near what is now Golborne Road. The farm got its name from a popular victory during the War of Jenkins' Ear, when Admiral Edward Vernon captured the Spanish-ruled town of Puerto Bello (now known as Portobelo in modern-day Panama). Vernon Yard, which runs off the Portobello Road, still honours the Admiral's name to this day. [The Portobello farming area covered the land which is now St. Charles Hospital.

Green's Lane became known as Porto Bello Lane; the title which it still held in 1841.

Nineteenth Century

Portobello Farm was sold to an order of nuns after the railways came in 1864. They built St Joseph's Convent for the Dominican Order - or the "Black Friars" as they were known in England.

Portobello Road is a construct of the Victorian era. Before about 1850, it was little more than a country lane connecting Portobello Farm with Kensal Green in the north and what is today Notting Hill in the south. Much of it consisted of hayfields, orchards and other open land. The road ultimately took form piecemeal in the second half of the nineteenth century, nestling between the large new residential developments of Paddington and Notting Hill. Its shops and markets thrived on serving the wealthy inhabitants of the elegant crescents and terraces that sprang up around it, and its working class residents found employment in the immediate vicinity as construction workers, domestic servants, coachmen, messengers, tradesmen and costermongers. After the Hammersmith and City Railway line was completed in 1864, and Ladbroke Grove station opened, the northern end of Portobello Road was also developed, and the last of the open fields disappeared under brick and concrete.

Twentieth Century

George Orwell lived in Portobello Road in the winter of 1927 after resigning as Assistant Superintendent of the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.  A blue plaque bearing his name commemorates his association with the area.

Portobello Road today

Portobello Road's distinctiveness does not just rely on its market. A range of communities inhabiting the street and the district contributes to a cosmopolitan and energetic atmosphere, as do the many restaurants and pubs. The architecture plays a part, too, as the road meanders and curves gracefully along most of its length, unlike the more formally planned layout of most of the nearby area. Mid- to late-Victorian terrace houses and shops predominate, squeezed tightly into the available space, adding intimacy and a pleasing scale to the streetscape. The Friends of Portobello campaign seeks to preserve the street's unique dynamic, as the potential arrival of big-brand chain stores threatens the locals. The Portobello Road is also home to the Grade II* Electric Cinema, one of Britain's oldest movie theatres.

Geography

The road descends from 84 feet (25.6 m) above sea level at the northern end, the highest point, to a lowest point of 65 feet (19.8 m), just south of the overpasses, after which the road rises and falls before reaching a high point of 78 feet (23.8 m) at the southern end. The average grade of ascent or descent between the northern end and the lowest point is about 1.77 percent.

Portobello Road Market

Portobello Road Market draws tourists. The main market day for antiques is Saturday. However, there are also fruit and vegetable stalls in the market, which trade throughout the week and are located further north than the antiques, near the Westway Flyover.

The market began as a fresh-food market in the 19th century; antiques dealers arrived in the late 1940s and 50s.

The market section of Portobello road runs in a direction generally between the north-northwest and the south-south-east. The northern terminus is at Golborne Road; the southern end is at Westbourne Grove, to the east. The market area is about 3,080 feet (0.58 miles or 940 metres) long.

About one third of the way from its north end, the market runs beneath adjacent bridges of the A40 road and the Hammersmith & City line of the London Underground.

Portobello Road & Market in the media

The market was featured in the 1971 musical film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks in a scene involving a song and dance in and around the market staged on sets build at Disney's Burbank studios.  The lyrics refer to the market and the people who live and work there.

The 1950 Ealing Studios Police thriller, The Blue Lamp, starring Dirk Bogarde and Jack Warner, as P. C. George Dixon, a character later revived in the long running TV drama, Dixon Of Dock Green, featured location filming in the Paddington / Notting Hill / Portobello area. It features good shots these locations in pre-Westway days, and includes a thrilling car chase along largely traffic-free roads, including Portobello Road.

In 1978, the rock band Dire Straits sang about the road in the song "Portobello Belle" on their second album Communiqué.

It is also referenced in the song "Blue Jeans" by alternative rock band Blur, from the 1993 album Modern Life Is Rubbish, in which the opening lyrics are "Air cushioned soles, I bought them on the Portobello Road on a Saturday."

The cult British character Paddington Bear, featured in the books written by Michael Bond, enjoys visiting Portobello Market on a daily basis. His friend Mr. Gruber owns an antique shop on the Portobello Road, with whom Paddington has his elevenses every day.

The street and its name also appeared regularly on the hit TV series Minder.

The board game Portobello Market is named after this market.

BBC One's daytime antiques-based gameshow Bargain Hunt regularly features contestants buying items at the market to later sell at auction.

It was the setting for the 1999 film Notting Hill, with much of the filming taking place on the street. The famed blue door, however, no longer exists, having been sold.

In 2006, the 20 minute documentary Portobello: Attack of the Clones won London awards and was screened a number of times at the infamous Electric Cinema. The film showed how Portobello Road is threatened by high-street stores changing the street's independent spirit. It featured a large number of local stallholders and influencers, and was made by local filmmakers Paul McCrudden and Alex Thomas for TAG Films.

It is the setting for Paulo Coelho's 2007 novel, The Witch of Portobello.

In 2008, Ruth Rendell published a novel set in the area entitled, Portobello.

The B-side of British Singer-Songwriter Cat Stevens' 1966 single "I Love My Dog" is titled "Portobello Road" and discusses a walk through the famous street and market. The track also appears on Cat Stevens' 1967 debut album Matthew and Son.

One of the most famous TV show, from 1977 to 1983, in Italian television broadcast RAI was named Portobello after Portobello Road. The program was suspended after the arrest of the anchorman Enzo Tortora for drug selling. Afterwards in 1987 Tortora was declared innocent and became a symbol, in Italian popular culture, of the victim of justice miscarriages. In 1987, Tortora come back in television with Portobello.

In Caetano Veloso's "Nine Out Of Ten" song from the 1972 album Transa, he sings "walk down Portobello Road to the sound of reggae". The Brazilian artist lived in London in the late 1960s and early 1970s because of his exile from Brazil.

In the Only Fools and Horses episode Cash and Curry, Conmen who con Del Boy and Rodney Trotter using a statue of Kubera bought it from Portobello Road. The idea for the episode is as the writer, the late John Sullivan visited the street and it gave him an idea for a new episode.

Westbourne Grove

Westbourne Grove is a retail road running across Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, a section of west London, England. It runs from Kensington Park Road in the west to Queensway in the east, crossing over Portobello Road. It contains a mixture of independent and chain retailers, and has been termed both "fashionable" and "up-and-coming".

The Notting Hill Carnival passes along the central part of Westbourne Grove.

Shopping

There are a number of popular shopping destinations located around Westbourne Grove, such as Ledbury Road, Holland Park Avenue, Portobello Market, and Clarendon Cross. The eastern end of the road, east of Chepstow Road, is currently undergoing a particularly rapid period of transformation, with expiring leases and rising rents forcing out older family businesses to be replaced by trendy restaurants and shops.

When the London magazine Time Out was featuring west London in its 9-16 August 1997 issue, it picked on Westbourne Grove as its representative:

"Seeking a key shopping road symbolic of western aspirations, we decided that preposterously fashionable Westbourne Grove, or "Westbourne Village", has it all. It was here that Madonna headed during breaks in filming "Evita" - to the funky boutiques, the avant-garde florists, the designer jewellery and futuristic furniture (at millennial prices). This is certainly up-and-coming - in terms of price tags that is."

Queensway and Westbourne Grove are identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.

History

The development of Westbourne Grove began in the 1840s and proceeded from the east (which lay in Bayswater) to the west, where it became the principal east-west artery into the Ladbroke Estate. The far western end of the street only became known as Westbourne Grove relatively recently in 1938, having previously been called Archer Street. In 1929, the novelist A.J. Cronin opened his own medical practice at 152 Westbourne Grove, which was put up for sale in 2007.

Westbourne Grove takes its name from Westbourne Green - a settlement that developed to the west of the bourne that later took the name River Westbourne.  This river currently runs underground at Ossington Street. The area is first recorded in 1222 as Westeburn. Westbourne Green is first recorded as Westborne Grene in 1548. Westbourne Green formed part of the parish of Paddington.

There was a small settlement to the north of what is now Westbourne Grove at Westbourne Green. It had five main houses. The largest of these was Westbourne Place or Westbourne House, which was rebuilt in 1745 by the architect Isaac Ware as an elegant Georgian mansion of three storeys with a frontage of nine windows divided into three parts. The central third was topped by a large pediment and contained the main door, which also had a pediment over it. The lower two storeys were formed into bays at each end, which contained three windows each. Amongst the well-known residents of this house were Sir William Yorke, baronet; the Venetian ambassador; the architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell (a great great nephew of the diarist Samuel Pepys); and the General Commander in Chief of the Army, Viscount Hill, who left in 1836 (and who gave his name to the modern road bridge north of Westbourne Grove called Lord Hill's Bridge). The house was demolished in 1836 to make way for the houses and gardens of what is now Westbourne Park Villas. Thomas Hardy lived in this area, mainly at no 16 Westbourne Park Villas, which was his home 1863-67.

Also north of what is now Westbourne Grove was Westbourne Farm which was the home, between 1815 - 1817, of the actress Sarah Siddons, who lived there with her daughter. The Farm was at the point where the Harrow Road, the Westway and the canal converge. Mrs Siddons was buried at St Mary's Church, the main church of Paddington, on Paddington Green, where her grave can still be seen.

Though now popular and expensive for home-buyers, much of the area become run-down in the 1950s when it was the centre of the activities of Peter Rachman, the notorious slum-landlord after whom the phrase "Rachmanism" was coined. He was known for his violent evictions of tenants with legally-fixed rents. He replaced them, in what became overcrowded multi-occupied housing, with people, mainly recent migrants from the West Indies, who, because of discrimination and council tenant restrictions, could not find accommodation. He operated from an office in Westbourne Grove. Part of the area, including streets between Ledbury Rd & Shrewsbury Road to the south of Westbourne Park Road, became derelict and was consequently compulsorily purchased and demolished.

Notting Hill Post Office, in Westbourne Grove, finally closed in a storm of controversy during early 2005. However, the Royal Mail retained its sorting office on the site.

North Kensington

North Kensington is an area of west London lying north of Notting Hill Gate and south of Harrow Road.

North Kensington is the key neighbourhood of Notting Hill. It is where most of the violence of the Notting Hill race riots of 1958 occurred, where the Notting Hill Carnival started and where most of the scenes in the film Notting Hill were shot.

Even the area’s main transport hub, Ladbroke Grove tube station, was originally called Notting Hill from its opening in 1864 until 1880, and Notting Hill & Ladbroke Grove between then and 1919, when it was renamed Ladbroke Grove (North Kensington). It acquired its current more simple name in 1938. The area was also once served by St. Quintin Park and Wormwood Scrubs railway station, until it closed in 1940.

Estate agents now call the super-rich area to the south Notting Hill; they are in fact referring to the neighbourhoods of Notting Hill Gate and Holland Park.

North Kensington was once an area well known for its slum housing, as documented in the photographs of Roger Mayne, but housing prices have now risen and the area is considered exclusive and upscale.

Waves of immigrants have arrived for at least a century including, but certainly not limited to, the Spanish, the Irish, the Jews, the West Indians, the Moroccans and many from the Horn of Africa and Eastern Europe. This constant renewal of the population makes the area one of the most cosmopolitan in the world.

Though Ladbroke Grove is the area’s main thoroughfare, its best known street is Portobello Road with its street market. Many locals say that Golborne Road, at the northern end of Portobello Road, is a good representation of what Portobello Road was like before companies like Starbucks and American Apparel colonised Portobello.

North Kensington also has the largest Moroccan population in England.

19th century development

The area remained rural until the westward expansion of London reached Bayswater in the early 19th century. The main landowner in Notting Hill was the Ladbroke family, and from the 1820s James Weller Ladbroke began to undertake the development of the Ladbroke Estate. Working with the architect and surveyor Thomas Allason, Ladbroke began to lay out streets and houses, with a view to turning the area into a fashionable suburb of the capital (although the development did not get seriously under way until the 1840s). Many of these streets bear the Ladbroke name, including Ladbroke Grove, the main north-south axis of the area, and Ladbroke Square, the largest private garden square in London.

The original idea was to call the district Kensington Park, and other roads (notably Kensington Park Road and Kensington Park Gardens) are reminders of this. The local telephone prefix 7727 (originally 727) is based on the old telephone exchange name of PARK.

Early to mid-20th century

The reputation of the district altered over the course of the 20th century. As middle class households ceased to employ servants, the large Notting Hill houses lost their market and were increasingly split into multiple occupation. During the Blitz a number of buildings were damaged or destroyed by the Luftwaffe, including All Saints' church, which was hit in 1940 and again in 1944. In the postwar period the name Notting Hill evoked a down-at-heel area of cheap lodgings, epitomised by the racketeering landlord Peter Rachman and the murders committed by John Christie in 10 Rillington Place, since demolished. The area to the north east, Golborne, was particularly known for being, in the words of Charles Booth, "one of the worst areas in London".  Southam Street had 2,400 people living in 140 nine-roomed houses in 1923, and the slum children from this street were documented in the 1950s photographs of Roger Mayne.

In late August and early September 1958, the Notting Hill race riots occurred. The series of disturbances are thought to have started on 20 August when a gang of white youths attacked a Swedish woman, Majbritt Morrison, who was married to a West Indian man. Later that night a mob of 300 to 400 white people, including many "Teddy Boys", were seen on Bramley Road attacking the houses of West Indian residents. The disturbances, racially-motivated rioting and attacks continued every night until they petered out by 5 September.

The dire housing conditions in Notting Hill led Bruce Kenrick to found the Notting Hill Housing Trust in 1963, helping to drive through new housing legislation in the 1960s and found the national housing organisation Shelter in 1966.  Nos 1-9 Colville Gardens, now known as Pinehurst Court, had become so run down by 1969 that its owner, Robert Gubay of Cledro Developments, described conditions in the buildings as "truly terrible".

The slums were cleared during redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s when the Westway Flyover and Trellick Tower were built. It is now home to a vibrant Mediterranean community, mainly Portuguese, Spanish and Moroccan.

Late 20th century gentrification

By the 1980s, single-occupation houses began to return to favour with families who could afford to occupy them, and parts of Notting Hill are today among London's most desirable areas.[  The parts of Notting Hill near Holland Park are characterised by well-maintained stucco-fronted pillar-porched houses, private gardens, communal gardens, access to the public parks at Holland Park and Kensington Gardens, and smart shops.