I’m always surprised every time I walk past the Spice Shop on Blenheim Crescent and it’s still open but long may that continue as it’s an awesome little shop.
I live just the other side of the Holland Park roundabout in Shepherds Bush, so I go there a lot.
It still has plenty of character as long as you avoid Notting Hill Gate, which is overrun with tourists.
Same can be said about loads of London to be fair.
London, along with many other big cities, is very homogenised now. It’s considerably duller than it was even 20 years ago.
The only thing that really disappoints is that the book shop still has the banner outside but is just a shit gift shop. Even with the way most cities are and the change you expect over the years…you’d think there’d be more money in having that spot be a mini tourist destination than a generic gift shop.
Not a London specific thing though, same can be said about lots of places in lots of cities. (The Friends building in New York having a generic restaurant and not a Central Perk-esque coffee shop in the bottom of it comes to mind too)
I stayed at the Portobello Gold when it was just a pub with a couple of rooms plus a flat with access to the roof they filmed on. A charming, scruffy experience.
Oh woe is me. Everything changes. The character of Notting Hill 25 years ago was entirely different to what it was 25 years before that time. The Carribbean and Bohemian communities in their time replaced working class communities, who in their turn replaced upper middle class families. Notting Hill today still has a character, it’s just a different character to the past.
We know we are getting old when we believe that our version of the past was the best version. In reality, we experience a fleeting snapshot of time, sharpened and heightened when we were young, in an ever-changing city.
Notting Hill of the film wasn’t even the Notting Hill of reality.
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I’m always surprised every time I walk past the Spice Shop on Blenheim Crescent and it’s still open but long may that continue as it’s an awesome little shop.
I live just the other side of the Holland Park roundabout in Shepherds Bush, so I go there a lot.
It still has plenty of character as long as you avoid Notting Hill Gate, which is overrun with tourists.
Same can be said about loads of London to be fair.
London, along with many other big cities, is very homogenised now. It’s considerably duller than it was even 20 years ago.
The only thing that really disappoints is that the book shop still has the banner outside but is just a shit gift shop. Even with the way most cities are and the change you expect over the years…you’d think there’d be more money in having that spot be a mini tourist destination than a generic gift shop.
Not a London specific thing though, same can be said about lots of places in lots of cities. (The Friends building in New York having a generic restaurant and not a Central Perk-esque coffee shop in the bottom of it comes to mind too)
I stayed at the Portobello Gold when it was just a pub with a couple of rooms plus a flat with access to the roof they filmed on. A charming, scruffy experience.
Oh woe is me. Everything changes. The character of Notting Hill 25 years ago was entirely different to what it was 25 years before that time. The Carribbean and Bohemian communities in their time replaced working class communities, who in their turn replaced upper middle class families. Notting Hill today still has a character, it’s just a different character to the past.
We know we are getting old when we believe that our version of the past was the best version. In reality, we experience a fleeting snapshot of time, sharpened and heightened when we were young, in an ever-changing city.
Notting Hill of the film wasn’t even the Notting Hill of reality.