1950s. One of the poorest streets in London. Children playing on no sites in robbers and cops thriller “THE BLUE LAMP”. “PERFORMANCE” shows a clip. ALAN JOHNSON describes the area of his childhood.  ROGER MAYNE photos of the impoverished kids. A rotting slum offshore, horrible vivacity, according to COLIN MacINNES’s ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS.

This was a strong hold of the fascist UNION MOVEMENT. KC, from ANTIGUA, a carpenter, was taunted with cries of HEY! JIM CROW! , attacked him and left him to bleed to death, on 16 May 1959. “One less of the blacks. That’s the way I look at it. Too many of them. They drive cars too big, and have houses to big…” replied a young a few days later, on an interview with THE TIMES. 
No one was apprehended. Another youth, later, revealed that he has approached by a fascist group with £200 to kill a Black man.

OSWALD MOSLEY (former BUF) stood in the docto en 1959 election for the UNION  MOVEMENT, hoping to feed off local discontent.

Photos of OM plastered around, with the message HE IS COMING.  LUCKY OLD HIM was the quip with which they were defaced.

Awesome symbol  and visible landmark of the area, when it was b.   1973) was the tallest block of flats (322 ft, 31 storeys).Arch.ËRNO GOLDFINGER, undertaken for the GLC [as the one in POPLAR) a housing scheme to replace dilapidated Victorian housing. The tower and a secondary dwellings scheme (2 bedrooms flats to 5 bedrooms 3 storey houses)

Bush-hammered concrete exterior, a cantilevered gas-fired boiler house on top of lift and stairs tower.

Walkways linking  blocks every third floor.

Organised as an integral  living unit: laundry, nursery, old people’s club, doctors surgery… Communal facilities, a concentrated cities,  was the ideal of ËG, In order to eliminate indiv. domes.  arrangements. The best materials, attention to detail…Marble in entrance halls, high ceilings… balconies facing SW to catch the sun… All was planned to exceed the minimum demands of the housing regulations…

Stench of urine and beer. Lights smashed. One in three lifts working. Broken bottles and syringes. Graffiti, used condoms, a passed out vagrants.Sound of dripping water.  Vandals opening the fire hydrant high up the tower, flooding areas  and blowing fuses, and leaving the block with utilities for days. A rape. A suicide. Prostitution.Drug addicts. Squats.   Burglaries and muggins. An elderly person collapsing and dying after climbing 6 flights due to broken lifts…
An ugly building, that had to be demolished .

A rush to scape and get a new council dwelling. Inspiration for BALLART’S “HIGH RISE”. The architect vilified.

TT is still standing.  Enter: all is gleaming. Concierge. Flats changing hands for £150.000.  Renaissance. Tenants love it Foreig housing planning authorities visit.

The bizarre trans.  of the area from urban ghetto to Demi-chic hangout has been highly influenced by the TT

Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, is said to have been inspired by the architect Ernő Goldfinger when creating the villain in his 1959 novel GOLDFINGER. Fleming knew Goldfinger through a golfing friend who was related to Goldfinger's wife
There are theories that Fleming disliked Goldfinger's modernist architecture and political views, which may have contributed to the situation. Fleming reportedly loved the name "Goldfinger" and couldn't resist using it for one of his characters, just like he used the name "James Bond.

Goldfinger was reportedly displeased that Fleming used his name for the villain in the novel and threatened to sue Fleming. Fleming, in turn, reportedly proposed changing the character's name to "Goldprick" and adding an erratum slip to the book explaining the change

The dispute was ultimately settled out of court with Fleming's publisher, Jonathan Cape, agreeing to pay Goldfinger's legal costs, ensure the name Auric was used in conjunction with Goldfinger, and send him six copies of the nove

A local community success story, initiate£ b6 a local sculptor in 1976, on a piece of municipal wasteland. Green spaces and the first community SKATE BOWL, community-led activities a festivals… Afterwards, a massive refurbishment , with new pathways, with disabled access, better lightning,…

All this built by NAVVIES.

• • The term "navvy" comes from "navigator," used for those who built canals in Britain. 

     
  • Work:

    Irish navvies were involved in the manual labor of digging canals and building railways, involving hard, tiring work like blasting rocks, heaving barrows, and carting rubble. 

     

• Irish Immigrants:

  Many Irish navvies were Irish immigrants seeking work and escaping poverty. 

   

• Hardships:

  Navvies faced hazardous conditions and often lived in poor conditions, sometimes in rough huts alongside the projects they built. 

   

• Impact:

  The Irish navvies played a significant role in the development of Britain's infrastructure, including canals and railways, which were crucial for economic and industrial expansion. 

   

• Beyond Britain:

  The experience of Irish navvies led some to work on canals in North America. 

   

• Other Navvies:

  Navvies were not exclusively Irish, with people from other parts of the British Isles and even continental Europe also working as navvies. 

   

• Rivalries:

  Sometimes there were national rivalries between navvies from different regions, which could lead to conflicts. 

   

• Slang:

  Navvies developed their own slang and ways of communicating

  Copied from GOOGLE Generative AI 

   

Irish immigrants suffered prejudice: “Who are you for?:  The Pope or Garibaldi”?

To the N of Golborne Road

West Indians and Irish.

Houses bought and restored by  NH HOUSING TRUST. 

MARTIN  AMIS lived here

The most significant figure in RC in England, after NEWMAN. Converted in 1851, archbishop in 1865. Cardinal in 1875. Orthodox and doctrinary (Papal infallibility) and radical in social beliefs (rights of working men to form UNIONS) and campaigner for TEMPERANCE.

Owned by the TALBOT family in the 1850s

1864. The LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR, from   BRITTANY, bough a part of the farm and established the ST.JOHN’S HOME FOR THE ELDERLY, an alternative to the workhouse.

There was a large Catholic community in the area, and religious processions were common

I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet is a clothing boutique which achieved fame in 1960s "Swinging London" by promoting antique military uniforms as fashion items

You can divert or detour towards Ladbroke Grove

Back to Portobello Green

The Travel Bookshop opened in 1979 and, as the name would suggest, specialized in travel books. The bookshop was sold in 2011 to a bookstore chain and changed its name to The Notting Hill Bookshop expanding into broader range of subjects and titles. Later, when the bookstore chain went out of business it was taken over by brothers James and Howard Malin, remaining The Notting Hill Bookshop .

Acting as a community centre and gambling den for London's black population, visitors included Sarah Churchill, Colin MacInnes and Georgie Fame.In September 1958, there was fighting between white and black youth nearby and outside, leading to a police car ramming the door to effect entry.  Later that month, the police raided an outbuilding where illegal gambling was taking place

This pub at 179 Portobello Road was probably built by Pocock in the 1850s or very early 1860s (it was in existence at the time of the 1863 Ordnance Survey mapping exercise).

The Duke of Wellington pub was the Portobello flagship of the H. H. Finch bar chain (taken over by Young’s in 1991), which included several branches in Notting Hill. The name FINCH can still be seen incised in the roof parapet.

Kensington Park Rd.

Back to Portobello Rd. Antiques market!

On this site Susan Garth launched London's first antiques market making the Portobello Road an international institution. 

Mount Vernon, the home of the first American President, George Washington, was called after him because Washington’s brother served under Vernon). Vernon Mews served the shops on this terrace and undoubtedly took its name from the terrace.

In 1972, the newly founded Virgin Records, then a mail order record company, took over Nos. 2, 3 and 4 for office and warehouse accommodation, and they continued to occupy the building for almost 20 years. They also took over the old Nash premises at Nos. 5-7 Vernon Yard (still a single unit) when Nash left. Both sets of buildings have over the years been substantially remodelled and enlarged by extra storeys.